The Policy Citation Index (PCI) includes data from over 500 policy sources from around the world, including government agencies, think tanks, advocacy groups, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and intergovernmental organizations (IGO). In addition to the basic meta data for each policy document, we index the cited references of policy documents in order to create a link between published scholarly research and policy documents and allowing researchers to demonstrate the societal impact of their research beyond academia.
PCI includes reports, policy/issue briefs and working papers. We define policy documents as documents that are prepared by policymakers or for policymakers, i.e., to influence policy decisions. These documents haven’t undergone peer review, and they are distinct from journal articles, conference papers, preprints, books, theses and data.
While think tanks, NGOs, government agencies and intergovernmental organizations are not considered academic institutions, they employ domain experts that either formulate policy or provide forecasts, analysis, research and evidence-backed perspectives that inform policymaking. Policy documents in the database might detail an actual implemented policy, provide an overview of an issue or outline a persuasive argument for implementing a policy in the future.
Key Features
The Policy Citation Index can be searched directly or via All Database Search. Each Policy Citation Index record contains standard bibliographic metadata including the document titles, authors, source, date, abstract, and, when available, a direct link to the policy publication.
The Policy Citation index is searchable by
- Topic (Title/Abstract)
- Title
- Author
- Year
- Policy Source
- Abstract
- Accession number
Cited References
When available, each policy document will include a list of its cited references. Cited reference that unify to source records from collection on the Web of Science platform will be directly linked.