IBUS 820 (BIRCH) - Spring 2020: Policy Reports

Policy sources are created by or on behalf of governmental bodies as well has other organizations such as nonprofits, foundations, think-tanks, institutions and businesses. It is especially helpful to consider how a business venture can be impacted by policies.  Rather than relying on a secondary or tertiary source to explain the policy or discussion about policies decision making, you can go to the source of the policy.  The policy making body is the authority on their policies while other organizations are the authority on their positions. In this way you are reading the primary source material. This category of sources can be in various genres. For example:

• laws
• regulations
• standards
• working papers
• policy briefs
• documents
• reports 

This section of the guide provides tools and strategies for discovery and access to these reports and documents.

Note:  these resources are starting points and should not be the only resources used for your research, analysis and synthesis. 

International Governmental Organizations (IGOs) tend to transparent about official policies and well as their formal decision making process. These organizations provide open access to these documents and publications. In addition to having the typical organizational website, the follow IGO provide pen access library search platforms to discover and access their books, working papers, journals, research reports, data, and more.

Note: while in theory you could discover this content via an internet search, it is very unlikely that it will rank high in your results unless you are frequently seeking and reading this type of resource online.