Subject and Course Guides: Urban Public Policy Fellowship Library Research Workshop: Research Tools

Government Information, Policy Studies, Research Data

Data.Census.Gov
The Census Bureau is the leading source of quality data about the nation's people and economy.
American Community Survey
The American Community Survey (ACS) is an ongoing survey that provides data every year on age, sex, race, family and relationships, income and benefits, health insurance, education, veteran status, disabilities, where you work and how you get there, where you live and how much you pay for some essentials.
HUD User
Provides electronic data sets generated by PD&R sponsored data collection efforts, including the American Housing Survey, HUD median family income limits, as well as microdata from research.
Institute for Housing Studies at DePaul University
IHS’s mission is to provide reliable, impartial, and timely data and research to inform housing policy decisions and discussions about the state of housing in the Chicago region and nationally.
National Center for Education Statistics
NCES is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations.
National Center for Health Statistics
Provide statistical information that will guide actions and policies to improve the health of the American people.
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities
Scientific research to improve minority health and eliminate health disparities.
National Low Income Housing Coalition
Provides research on policy aimed at social justice in housing.
National Neighborhood Indicators Partnership
Provides indicators on topics such as births, deaths, crime, health status, educational performance, public assistance, and property conditions.
National Opinion Research Center (NORC) University of Chicago
Conducts high-quality social science research in the public interest.

Transportation Research Information Service (TRIS)
Includes data from TRB’s Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) Database and the OECD’s Joint Transport Research Centre’s International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) Database.
TRIS is produced by the National Research Council's Transportation Research Board (TRB). TRANWeb and TRIS are related and there is some overlap but many items in TRANWeb are not found in TRIS and vice versa.

USA Gov
As the U.S. government's official web portal, USA.gov makes it easy for the public to get U.S. government information and services on the web.
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data
The source for crime and justice data - at ICPSR (see first page for more about ICPSR).

Research Databases (ProQuest)

Public Affairs Information Service International (PAIS Index)
Political, social, and public policy issues, especially any topics that are or might become the subject of legislation.
This database is a bibliographic index with abstracts covering the full range of political, social, and public policy issues, especially any topics that are or might become the subject of legislation. Coverage includes documents published worldwide in any of six languages: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. The subject headings and abstracts are in English.
ERIC on ProQuest (1966 - current)
ERIC is the largest education database in the world. It is published by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI).
Sociological Abstracts
International literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
Sociological Abstracts abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
PsycINFO
Now called APA PsycINFO. Abstract and index of Psychology and the psychological aspects of related disciplines, such as medicine, nursing, sociology, business, education, etc.
PsycINFO contains bibliographic citations and abstracts from materials in the field of psychology and the psychological aspects of related disciplines, such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business, and law. Updated weekly.
Social Services Abstracts (1979 - current)
Provides current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development.
Social Services Abstracts provides bibliographic coverage of current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (1975 - current)
Provides abstracts and indexing of the international literature of political science and international relations, along with complementary fields, including international law and public administration/policy. Provides abstracts of journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations and working papers, and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,500+ serials publications.

Other Research Databases

Criminal Justice Abstracts
Coverage of criminal justice and substance abuse. From 1968 to present.
Subject coverage from 1968 to present includes:
* Adult Corrections
* Behavioral Science
* Courts and the Legal Process
* Crime, the Offender & the Victim
* Crime Prevention & Control Strategies
* Economic & Political Sciences
* Education
* Juvenile Justice & Delinquency
* Law
* Police
* Psychology
* Social Work
* Substance Abuse
Education Research Complete
Search Education Research Complete in EBSCOhost.
Health Source: Consumer Edition
consumer health information including reference books, reports and pamphlets, drug information and more.
This database is a rich collection of consumer health information including health reference books, reports and pamphlets, drug information and more.
PubMed
PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, provides access to MEDLINE citations back to the mid-1960's to present.
PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, provides access to over 12 million MEDLINE citations back to the mid-1960's and additional life science journals. Pub Med includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources.

Data Repository Databases

SimplyAnalytics
A web-based mapping, analytics, and data visualization application with 100,000+ data variables, including demographic data from the US Census dating back to 1980, the American Community Survey (ACS), consumer spending data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX), and D&B's Points-of-Interest business directory providing access to over 5 million US business profiles. Additionally, users have access to the MRI-SimmonsLOCAL consumer behavior dataset, which includes data on over 8,000 brands, 450 categories and detailed lifestyle data, the PRIZM Premier marketing segmentation system, and the Community Lifestages dataset. The CDC PLACES health data delivered by SimplyAnalytics provides 27 diverse health measures, including Health Outcomes, Prevention, Health Risk Behaviors, and Health Status. Data is largely available down to the block group level, and custom locations can be created.

To save your searches, you need to sign up for an account using your UIC email address.

Access restricted to 5 concurrent users.
ICPSR : Inter-University Consortium for Political & Social Research
Archives of social science data for research and instruction.
The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), established in 1962, maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction, and offers training in quantitative methods to facilitate effective data use.
Social Explorer
Social Explorer provides access to current and historical census data and demographic information. Create maps and reports to better illustrate, analyze and understand demography and social change.

Note: Social Explorer has developed a new libguide. To see the new libguide, you can go this link here
Key content in Social Explorer includes: over 40 billion data elements, 200,000 variables; 18,000 interactive maps; the entire US Census from 1790 to the present as it is available; annual updates from the American Community Survey; InfoGroup data on religious congregations; Religious Congregations and Membership Study; and Carbon Emissions Data. Users can create custom maps, download data, and export, save, and print maps and reports.
PolicyMap
PolicyMap is an data and mapping tool for accessing data about communities across the U.S. to make better-informed decisions without any prior experience.

Statistics and Data about the Chicago Metropolitan Area

CMAP (Chicago Metro Area Planning)
CMAP can provide GIS and geodatabase information from the Chicagoland area.
Public Health Institute of Metropolitan Chicago
Nonprofit organization that works in collaboration with public health agencies and non-governmental organizations to enhance the health of communities in the greater Chicago Metropolitan area by building effective public health capacity.
City of Chicago Open Data Portal
The City of Chicago's open data portal lets you find city data, lets you find facts about your neighborhood, lets you create maps and graphs about the city, and lets you freely download the data for your own analysis.

Digital Access to City Documents

City Council Minutes and Agendas
1981-present
City of Chicago Office of Budget and Management
OBM prepares and implements the City of Chicago’s annual budget and has budgets from 2011-present.
City of Chicago Municipal Code
The Municipal Code is a published compilation of City laws and their revisions organized according to subject matter (arranged by title, chapter and section). The Municipal Code is updated periodically as new ordinances are adopted by the City Council.
City of Chicago CAFR - Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports
CAFR - Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports from the office of the comptroller.
City of Chicago Webpage
Information is available sorted by department, including annual reports listed in Supporting Information for each department, as available.
Chicago Open Data Portal
Data from the city of Chicago
Chicago Freedom of Information Act Central Page
The Illinois Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) makes government more transparent to the citizens of Illinois by guaranteeing access to government records in the form in which they are maintained.

Search Tips

Enter phrases in quotes to specify specific concepts: "higher education," "urban sprawl"

Truncation/Wildcards: use the asterisk to search for alternate word endings: latin* searches for latin, latino, latina

Use filters provided by databases: after searching, you can usually refine your results to scholarly/peer-reviewed articles, narrow by date, and more

Combine search terms with Boolean operators:

latino AND "higher education" AND access
(latino OR hispanic) AND ("higher education" OR college) and (access OR programs)

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Urban Public Policy Fellowship Library Research Workshop: Research Tools

Government Information, Policy Studies, Research Data

Research Databases (ProQuest)

Other Research Databases

Data Repository Databases

Statistics and Data about the Chicago Metropolitan Area

Digital Access to City Documents

Search Tips

Richard J. Daley Library

Library of the Health Sciences, Chicago

Library of the Health Sciences, Peoria

Crawford Library of the Health Sciences, Rockford

UIC Law Library