"Think tanks are organizations that have significant autonomy from governmental interests and that synthesize, create, or disseminate information, ideas, or advice to the public, policymakers, other organizations, and the press." Anderson, G. L. & Herr, K.G. (Eds) (2007). Think Tanks. In Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice. (Vol. 3, pp. 1369-1372). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Reference. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX2660300784&v=2.1&u=cuny_hunter&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=8fe52bd9e9ed36c8a34852b550916eab
Tools to help find think tanks:
A short list of think tanks:
New York specific think tanks:
Other types of organizations' websites where you may find useful and reliable information include:
Academic Centers
Professional Organizations
Advocacy Organizations- Keep in mind whether information is being presented in a biased way. If facts and statistics are cited, you can look up the original source to check.
Government Agencies
As the saying goes, "you cannot judge a book by its cover". Likewise, one must look closely and with a critical eye at webpages in order to evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, currency, authority and bias. Here are some tools to help you create strategies for effectively evaluating websites:
White Papers are a type of authoritative reporting that typically cover governmental, social, or consumer issues. White papers are prepared by governmental agencies, professional organizations, public policy and research organizations, and commercial enterprises. By definition, they are based upon an exhaustive research process and frequently address new, controversial or developing trends, programs or products.
"That which is produced on all levels of government, academics, business and industry in print and electronic formats, but which is not controlled by commercial publishers." - The Fourth International Conference on Grey Literature, October 1999