Political Science *

Below are links to databases and electronic resources that support the study of health care policy and related areas of research. For additional resources, GO HERE.

MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Databases that offer multidisciplinary coverage of health care policy literature from scholarly and non-scholarly sources.

• CQ Researcher -- in-depth, unbiased coverage of health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy. Reports are published weekly 44 times a year.
• Google Scholar -- the scholarly part of the Google empire. To set up Google Scholar with access to full-text journals and databases, go here.
• JSTOR -- a multidisciplinary archive of scholarly journal articles covering most major disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Useful for identifying historical research on a topic.
• Policy Commons -- platform for objective, fact-based research from the world’s leading policy experts, nonpartisan think tanks, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. The database provides advanced searching across millions of pages of books, articles, working papers, reports, policy briefs, data sets, tables, charts, media, case studies, and statistical publications, including archived reports from more than 200 defunct think tanks.
• ProQuest -- comprehensive, multidisciplinary database of newspaper, magazine, and scholarly journal articles updated daily. Content is more focused and manageable than Google Scholar.

SPECIALIZED RESEARCH RESOURCES

Key Databases

• Abstracts in Social Gerontology -- summarizes essential research concerning the social aspects of aging, including the psychology of aging, elder abuse, society and the elderly, politics of aging, medicalization of aging, elderly and their families, aging and the economy, workplace aging, and other key areas of relevance to the discipline. Coverage is from 1966 to the present.
• AgeLine -- provides access to aging-related content from the health sciences, psychology, sociology, social work, economics, and public policy. Sources include scholarly journals, books, book chapters, reports, dissertations, consumer guides, and educational videos from 1966-present.
• Healthcare Administration Database -- this database is a collection of reliable and relevant resources in the field of health administration, including journals and dissertations.
• PubMed -- primarily an open access database of research in medical and biomedical fields, the contents do include public policy literature related to the health care system and medical industry. Coverage is generally 1946 to the present.
• Family Health – this database includes journals and magazines covering a comprehensive range of health subjects, from sports injuries to women's health, from food and nutrition to midwifery, from eye care to dentistry.

Related Research Resources

• Behavioral and Mental Health Online -- provides a comprehensive, rich, and diverse collection of video and text. The collection includes clinical mental health demonstrations, actual therapy sessions, compelling documentaries on the human condition, psychotherapy transcripts, as well client narratives and reference works.  
• Child Development and Adolescent Studies -- provides citations to current and historical social and behavioral sciences literature related to growth and development of children through the age of 21, including book reviews, abstracts from hundreds of journals, technical reports, books, book chapters, and theses and dissertations.
• Consumer Health Database -- includes journals and magazines covering an enormous range of health subjects, from sports injuries to women's health, from food and nutrition to midwifery, from eye care to dentistry.
• Family Studies Abstracts -- this database includes bibliographic records covering essential areas related to family studies, including marriage, divorce, family therapy, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline. May be useful in identifying research on the relationships between criminal justice and family dynamics.
• HeinOnline Law Journal Library -- full text access to digitized content of more than 2,600 law and law-related periodicals that cover criminal justice, political science, technology, human rights, and more. Coverage for all journals is from first issue and volume through the current issue or volume for most titles.
• Native Health Database -- open access database of health-related articles, reports, surveys, and other resource documents pertaining to the health-related issues, programs, and initiatives of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Canadian First Nations.
• PsycINFO -- database with more than three million records devoted to peer-reviewed literature of journal articles, chapters, books, dissertations and reports in psychology, the behavioral sciences, and mental health.
• Social Work Abstracts -- contains more than 35,000 records, spanning 1977 to the present, from social work and other related journals on topics such as homelessness, AIDS, child and family welfare, aging, substance abuse, legislation, community organization, and more.
• Sociological Abstracts -- primary resource for accessing the latest research in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database draws information from an international selection of over 2,600 journals and other serials publications, plus conference papers, books, and doctoral dissertations.

ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

Databases that offer the opportunity to understand and contemplate the implications of policy decisions through the eyes of those who may be most impacted by those decisions.

• Chicano Database -- bibliographic index focuses on the Mexican-American and Chicano experience, and the broader Latino experience of Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans and Central American immigrants since 1992. Covers Chicano/a art, education, folklore, health. history, labor, language and literature, music, politics, public policy, religion, sociology, and women's studies.
• Ethnic NewsWatch -- includes current and archival coverage of newspapers, magazines and journals from ethnic and minority presses. Very important database for gaining a perspective and an understanding of civic engagement from underrepresented groups and minorities.
• GenderWatch -- a full-text database that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas. Publications include academic and scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, books, booklets and pamphlets, conference proceedings, and government, NGO and special reports.
• LGBT Life -- the premier resource to the world\'s literature regarding Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Transsexual issues with coverage that includes traditional academic, lifestyle, and regional publications, as well as non-periodical content such as non-fiction books, bibliographies and dissertations.

DATA AND STATISTICS

• Chronic Disease Indicators -- provides access to specific state indicator data that enables public health professionals and policymakers to retrieve uniformly defined state and selected metropolitan-level data for chronic diseases and risk factors that have a substantial impact on public health. These indicators are essential for surveillance, prioritization, and evaluation of public health interventions. 
• National Center for Health Statistics -- the nation’s principal health statistics agency providing public health data intended to guide actions and policies to document the health status of the population and of important subgroups, identify disparities in health status and use of health care services by race or ethnicity, socioeconomic status, region, and other population characteristics, monitor trends in health status and health care delivery, and provide information for making changes in public policies and programs.

Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.

FEDERAL

• Department of Health and Human Services
  • Administration for Community Living
  • Administration for Children and Families
  • Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
  • Health Resources and Services Administration
    • Bureau of Health Workforce
    • Bureau of Primary Health Care
    • Federal Office of Rural Health Policy
    • Healthcare Systems Bureau
    • HIV/AIDS Bureau
    • Maternal and Child Health Bureau
    • Office of Refugee Resettlement
    • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
  • Indian Health Service
  • Office of Minority Health
  • Office of the Surgeon General
• Department of Veteran Affairs
  • Veterans Health Administration
• Food and Drug Administration
• National Council on Disability

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

• Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation
• Covered California
• Department of Aging
• Department of Health Care Services
• Department of Rehabilitation
• Department of State Hospitals
• Department of Veterans Affairs
• Health and Human Services Agency
• Health Facilities Financing Authority
• Healthy Food Financing Initiative Council
• Institute for Regenerative Medicine
• Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission
• Office of Health Information Integrity
• Office of Health Planning and Development

LOS ANGELES COUNTY AND CITY

• Department of Health Services
• Department of Mental Health
• Department of Public Health

Below is a select list of national and state and local heath care advocacy organizations. To locate descriptions of additional organizations, special interest groups, and research centers, search the Gale Directory Library database.

NATIONAL ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS

• AARP -- operating at the intersection of collaboration, innovation, legal advocacy and grant making, AARP collaborates with industry, government, activists, and volunteers to serve vulnerable people fifty and older.
• AcademyHealth -- brings together health services researchers, policymakers, and health care practitioners and stakeholders to address the current and future needs of an evolving health system, inform health policy and practice, and translate evidence into action.
• American Public Health Association -- devoted to improving the health of the public and achieve equity in health status through science-based advocacy and programs and to support at the federal level for laws and regulations that will advance the public’s health.
• The Commonwealth Fund – private foundation promoting a health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society’s most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, and people of color. The Fund carries out this mandate by supporting independent research on health care issues and making grants to improve health care practice and policy.
• FamiliesUSA – combines policy expertise and partnerships with community, state, and national leaders to achieve high-quality, affordable health care and a patient-and community-centered health system through public policy analysis and collaborative advocacy to promote.
• Grantmakers In Health – a nonprofit, educational organization dedicated to helping foundations and corporate giving programs improve the health of all people. It is committed to evidence-informed practice and work to promote discussion, questioning, and lively debate within the field.
• Health and Medicine Division  - a division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the group aims to help those in government and the private sector make informed health decisions by providing evidence-based research findings. Many of the studies that HMD undertakes are requested by federal agencies and independent organizations or begin as specific mandates from Congress.
• Joint Commission – an independent, not-for-profit organization that accredits and certifies nearly 21,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States for the purpose of continuously improving health care for the public.
• Kaiser Family Foundation  -- a non-profit organization focusing on national health issues, as well as the U.S. role in global health policy. Kaiser provides national and state data on health care and information and analysis on health care coverage and access, health care disparities affecting under served groups, and public opinion and surveys about health care.
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation – provides a wide array of grant programs that support planning and demonstration projects, research and evaluations, and policy and statistical analysis intended to engage policymakers, business leaders, community groups and many other stakeholders with a common interest in improving America’s health care system and health equity related to children, communities, and health leadership.
• Society for Medical Decision Making – researchers, clinicians, educators, managers and policy makers from a variety of backgrounds and academic disciplines devoted to improving health outcomes through the advancement of proactive systematic approaches to clinical decision making and policy-formation in health care.

STATE AND LOCAL ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS

• California Association of Health Information Exchanges -- formed in 2013 as a non-profit organization, the association conducts, sponsors, and participates in projects and initiatives that promotes a regulatory environment in California that enables providers, consumers, and other stakeholders to exchange and appropriately access health information.
• California Association of Health Plans (CAHP) -- a statewide trade association lobbying group representing forty-four full-service health care plans that provide coverage to the state. CAHP works to advocates for the interests of health plans and their members on legislative and regulatory issues and promotes collaborative efforts among health plans, providers, purchasers, brokers, health care associations and other stakeholders to assert policy toward the provision of high quality, affordable and accessible health care.
• California Health Care Foundation -- a nonprofit, independent philanthropy organization dedicated to advancing meaningful, measurable improvements in the way the health care delivery system provides care to the people of California, particularly those with low incomes and those whose needs are not well served by the status quo. Foundation also supports the California Hotline news and information portal.
• California Hospital Association -- a nonprofit, member-driven organization representing more than 400 hospitals throughout California, advocating for better, more accessible health care for all Californians. The goal is to provide information, resources, and perspective to state and federal policy makers to ensure that hospitals and health systems are able to provide exceptional care to patients and comprehensive health services to communities.
• California LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network -- a program of Health Access, bringing together more than sixty non-profit providers, community centers, and researchers to advocate collectively for state level policies and resources that will advance LGBTQ health. Founded in 2007, the Network provides coordinated leadership about LGBTQ health policy in a manner that promotes health and well-being as part of the movement for LGBTQ equality.
• Health Care LA -- a not-for-profit network of federally qualified health centers and community health centers serving the under-served patient community in Los Angeles County. Together with  health centers and medical professionals, HCLA forms a safety net delivery system, providing quality care and health promotion and illness prevention services to those who need them most.

Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.