Below are links to databases and electronic resources that support the study of welfare policy and related areas of research.
MULTIDISCIPLINARY
Databases that offer multidisciplinary coverage of welfare 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.
- 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 Database
- 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 Services Abstracts -- provides coverage of current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development, evaluation research, policy planning and forecasting, support groups/networks, and welfare services.
- Social Work Abstracts -- summarizes articles in more than 450 English language journals in all areas of social work, including theory and practice, areas of service, social issues, social problems, child and family welfare, legislation, and community organization. Coverage is from 1966 to the present. Facilitates access to research that investigates the relationships between criminal justice and issues of child welfare and community development.
Related Research Resources
- 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.
- 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.
- Public Administration Abstracts -- provides information on public administration-related publications worldwide covering such areas as administration and economy, administration and politics, administration and society, administrative structures and organization, public and social services, public service personnel, and theory and method.
- 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
- CMS Program Statistics – includes detailed summary statistics on Medicare populations, utilization, and expenditures, as well as counts for Medicare-certified institutional and non-institutional providers. Statistics are organized into sections which can be downloaded and viewed separately. Additionally, the Current Medicare Enrollment Dashboard has been developed as an interactive online tool presenting monthly enrollment figures and yearly trends at several geographical areas, including national, state/territory, and county. CMS Statistics Reference Booklets provide summary information from 2003 to 2016 about enrollment and expenditures within the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
- Green Book – since 1981, the Committee on Ways and Means has published the Green Book, which presents background material and statistical data on the major entitlement programs and other activities within the Committee's jurisdiction. Its central feature is a selection of Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports made available for this purpose by the Committee. Each chapter includes an introduction and overview, selected CRS reports, a set of tables and figures, a legislative history, and links to additional resources. The Green Book website features the current edition and also includes an archive of previous versions, going back to 1996.
- HHS Poverty Guidelines -- there are two different versions of the federal poverty measure. Poverty thresholds are updated each year by the Census Bureau. Poverty guidelines are the other version of the federal poverty measure and are issued each year in the Federal Register by the Department of Health and Human Services. The poverty guidelines are used as an eligibility criterion by Medicaid and a number of other Federal programs.
- Census Bureau Poverty Data -- gateway to poverty data collected by the Bureau of the Census from several major household surveys and programs. Information includes working papers, reports, facts about how poverty is measured by the Bureau, poverty measurement studies, and microdata files that can be used to create customized tabulations.
- Social Security Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics -- is responsible for conducting policy relevant research and evaluation, conducting in-depth analyses of Social Security solvency proposals, sponsoring special-purpose survey data collections and studies to improve data for research and statistics related to social security issues, and developing links between administrative record data and survey data for use in Social Security research and policy analysis.
Descriptions of resources are adapted or quoted from vendor websites.