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Social Welfare Policy & Practice in Child Welfare

Research Institutes and Think Tanks

"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:

Grey Literature

"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

White Papers

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. 

Evaluating Websites

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: