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PA 501 - Public Organization Theory

Find background information

Look up key terms or get background information (theory or context) on your topic:

Find scholarly peer-reviewed articles

Here are a few tips for searching any scholarly database:

  • Don't forget to put and in between your search terms, and use quotation marks when you want to search for two words together.
  • If the article seems too narrow, or too technical, read the abstract, introduction, or conclusion to get a good contextual overview of the topic.
  • Another place to search is directly in the scholarly journals themselves.
  • Look up the journal title in Ulrichs if you are uncertain whether it is scholarly or not.

Think tanks, policy papers, and gray literature

Find policy research and other information from non-profit or governmental organizations:

 

News and trade publications

  • Nexis Uni contains U.S. and international newspapers as well as business and legal research.
  • UA students have free access to the New York Times online. To sign up, follow the steps outlined here.
  • Access Harvard Business Review here.

Legislation tracking, committee reports, hearings

ProQuest Congressional allows you to search Congressional hearing transcripts, House and Senate Committee reports, Congressional record (daily record of proceedings in Congress).

Use the "Search by Number" feature to find the legislative history of a bill or law (you must know the bill/law/statute number).

Track bill history at the state level using Bill Status Inquiry search from the Arizona State Legislature.

Find statistics

Find statistics on your topic:

Cite sources

In this course, you will use APA Style for assignments that require citations and references. We have the APA style guide in print in the library. You can also refer to Penn State's APA citation guide.

Review available citation management tools and select one that will work for you.

Get help

Get in-depth research help from a librarian or a quick answer here.