InfoGuides: POGO 646: Policy & Program Evaluation: Find Program Evaluations

Step 1: Check the Agency Website

Step 1: Check the Agency Website- especially useful for federal level programs

Go to the website for the agency that runs the program of interest. Locate any evaluations published there.

Example 1: Locate the "Data and Research" section on the US Department of Agriculture website for evaluations
Example 2: Visit the "No Child Left Behind" page on the US Department of Education website

Tips:

Look for a link to publications, research, performance, or reports
If you don't see a link to a page of reports, try a Google search limited to the agency website
- example: SNAP reports site:.usda.gov

Search for Policy:

Use these databases to locate general and specific policy related to your program.

ABI/INFORM Collection
Great for the economic or management aspects of most policy areas.
Academic Search Complete
Good all-round multidisciplinary search. Option to limit to peer reviewed articles.
Criminal Justice Abstracts
Provides comprehensive coverage of the major journals in criminology and related disciplines, extensive coverage of books, and unparalleled access to reports from government and nongovernmental agencies.
ERIC
Articles & policy documents on education.
Policy Commons
Database for public policy, with millions of reports, working papers, policy briefs, data sources, and media drawn from a directory of more than 20,000 IGOs, NGOs, think tanks, and research centers on disciplines including agriculture, energy, pharmaceuticals, diversity, crime, librarianship, etc. Community tools allow users to upload, share, and discuss their discoveries.
FindPolicy.org
Search across leading think tanks in a policy area. Search engines within FindPolicy include: Climate, Economy, Development, Foreign Policy, and general Public Policy. There are also country-level and regional searches.
Political Science Complete
Search citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international journal literature in political science and related fields, including international relations, law, and public administration/policy. Also provides access to full-text reference works, and conference papers, including those of the International Political Science Association.

Step 3: Explore bibliographies for older evaluations

Check the bibliographies & footnotes of the evaluations you find for additional program evaluations, then find those via library.gmu.edu