Research & Writing Resources
See also: GVSU Library Subject Resources for Public & Nonprofit Administration
Meta-Policy Sites
World Wide Web:
- Almanac of Policy Issues "Background information, archived documents, and links on major U.S. public policy issues."
- OnTheIssues.org "Every political leader on every issue."
- PolicyBot "The Internet's most extensive clearing-house for the work of free-market think tanks"
- Political Information "A search engine for politics, policy and political news."
- Public Agenda Online "A nonprofit opinion research and civic engagement organization helping Americans explore and understand critical issues since 1975."
GVSU library databases:
- Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center "A virtual library of resources designed to aid students in the study of today's hottest social issues."
- LexisNexis Congressional "Congressional publications, legislative histories, member biographies, committee assignments, voting records, and financial data; and the full text of key regulatory and statutory resources."
Nonprofit Sector Portals
World Wide Web:
Public Sector Portals
World Wide Web:
- Fed Stats "The gateway to statistics from over 100 U.S. Federal agencies"
- Fedworld "Making it easy to locate government information." Managed by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS).
- Google U.S. Government Search (Formerly Google Uncle Sam) "Offers a single location for searching across U.S. government information, and for keeping up to date on government news."
- GovEngine.com "The premier Federal, state, and local government site on the Internet." Operated by GovEngine, Inc., a Florida non-profit organization dedicated to promoting e-Government initiatives.
- GPO Access "Disseminating official information from all three branches of the Federal Government." A service of the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO).
- GovSpot "A non-partisan government information portal designed to simplify the search for the best and most relevant government information online." Operated by StartSpot Mediaworks, Inc.
- SciTechResources.gov "A catalog of government science and technology web sites." Managed by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS).
- SourceOECD "The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's online library of statistical databases, books and periodicals."
- State and Local Government on the Net "A directory of official state, county, and city government websites." Operated by HelloMetro, Inc.
- University of Michigan Library Documents Center "A central reference and referral point for government information, whether local, state, federal, foreign or international."
- USA.gov (formerly Firstgov) "Official information and services from the U.S. government." Administered by the U.S. General Services Administration.
- Yahoo "Government" category
GVSU library databases:
Scholarly Research Articles
See: SPNA Guide to peer-reviewed journals **
World Wide Web:
If you are on campus, your IP address should be recognized and allow full-text access to journal articles when GVSU has a subscription. (If you are off-campus, you should use the GVSU library databases with you login.) The journal publisher's databases will often have more recent articles than are available in full-text through the library's EBSCO and First Search databases.
GVSU library databases:
The following databases will access most relevant full-text articles available through the library databases. If you desire an article not available on-line, note the name of the journal and look it up in the library catalog. It may be in another database or available in hard copy.
- EBSCO Go to "Academic Search Premier," click the "choose databases" tab, check "Business Source Complete," and click "continue." (This will allow a simultaneous search of both EBSCO's relevant, full-text databases.)
- First Search Select both "Wilson Select Plus" and "ECO"
- ABI/INFORM Global
On-line Books
World Wide Web:
- Google Book Search "Search the full text of books and discover new ones."
- A9.com's OpenSearch "Search more at once." Note: Check "books by amazon" and enter multiple search terms. The results will allow you to browse the page (and surrounding pages) of books where those terms appear, if the book is in Amazon's "Search Inside" collection.
GVSU library databases:
- Net Library "offers approximately 8,000 electronic books in many subject areas in addition to more than 3,000 public domain e-books." Note: Off-campus access requires an individual account. A user may register for a free account from any computer on the GVSU campus.
- Oxford Scholarship Online "access more than 1300 books from Oxford University Press in the areas of Philosophy, Religion, Political Science, and Economics and Finance."
Resources for Writing
The following guides and links are provided to assist SPNA students taking public and nonprofit administration classes. These are general guides and instructions may differ from those given in particular classes. Students should always refer to class material for specific instructions and grading criteria.
The Paper Writer's Checklist **
Avoiding plagiarism: Mastering the art of scholarship** University of California, Davis
Student Guide to Avoiding Plagiarism Sandra Rhoten, California State University, Fullerton
Grand Valley Library "Citing Sources" page
APA Citation Style **
Preparing an Agency Profile **
Preparing an Agency Profile (systems outline) **
Preparing a review essay on several works on the same theme **
Preparing a Case Study **
 ** material is in PDF format. Note that you may need to install a free Adobe Acrobat Reader if you are viewing these materials at home or work. The Acrobat Reader is already installed on PCs in Grand Valley State computer labs.
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School of Public & Nonprofit Administration