Below are some general databases for researching a variety of topics within the areas of science, technology and engineering public policy. There are also links to sources for finding data, statistics and official publications.
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to Web of Science. Select 'All Databases' option from the drop down menu next to Search to cross-search all of UCL's subscribed Web of Science products. Includes WoS Core Collection, Biosis, MEDLINE etc. When individual user is registered: All Databases can be selected in 'Settings' menu to set as default.
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to Scopus. Multi-disciplinary database containing references to journal articles, conference proceedings, trade publications, book series and web resources. Please use IE 8 or higher, Google Chrome or Firefox browsers.
Searchable science and engineering data taken from leading databooks and databases. Please note that content with a padlock icon next to it is unavailable to UCL.
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to Ovid. This database can be accessed by no more than 4 users at a time. Index of literature in the fields of physical and human geography, geology, oceanography, geomechanics, mineralogy, ecology and development studies.
ASSIA covers the literature of health, social services, psychology, sociology, economics, politics, race relations and education. The database abstracts and indexes over 500 journals and periodicals from 19 countries, including the UK and US
ProQuest Central is the largest multidisciplinary database with over 11,000 titles, with over 8,000 titles in full-text. Over 160 subjects areas are covered including business and economics, health and medical, news and world affairs, technology, social sciences and more. Accessibility statement for ProQuest Central.
Providing access to millions of articles from over 17,000 scholarly journals and other authoritative sources, including videos from BBC Worldwide Learning to thousands of podcasts and transcripts from CNN.
You need to create an account in order to download data. ICPSR acquires, preserves, enhances, and distributes original social science research data for research and instruction.
The ICRG Researcher's Dataset - Table 3B provides annual averages of the 12 components of ICRG's Political Risk Ratings (Table 3B), as published in the International Country Risk Guide since 1984. Average ratings are provided for all countries covered by ICRG from 1984 through the last full calendar year.
Political Data Yearbook captures election results, national referenda, changes in government, and institutional reforms for a range of countries, within and beyond the EU in an interactive database
Statista is an online portal for statistics consolidating statistical data on over 80,000 topics from more than 22,500 sources and covering over 170 different industries. UCL users do not have access to the Company database or the Global Consumer Survey.
The UK Data Service is a comprehensive resource funded by the ESRC to support researchers, teachers and policymakers who depend on high-quality social and economic data. Registration is required if you wish to download, order or analyse data online, where this is possible. Use your UCL username and password.
Key databases for legal sources, reports and official publications
Full text of all papers issued by the House of Commons from 1715-present (with supplementary material back to 1688), House of Lords and Public Petitions to Parliament. These are the working documents of government for all areas of social, political, economic, and foreign policy. Fully searchable digitized images of original documents. Accessibility statement for UK Parliamentary Papers (ProQuest).
Links to Westlaw International and Westlaw US have now been added to the 'Browse by Topic' menu. Users need to register with their name and UCL email address on initial login. Information will be processed by Westlaw in accordance with their privacy policy. Primary/secondary law and current awareness service for UK legal, regulatory and academic markets.
Access to more than 24 million pages of curated, high quality policy reports, briefs, analyses, working papers, and datasets from thousands of policy organisations including IGOs, NGOs and think tanks. Please view this short video introducing the platform and features.
On access users can follow the link and Browse the site or create an account and Login to to save searches, set email alerts, tags and bookmarks and set up key sources lists. Overton is the world’s largest collection of policy documents, parliamentary transcripts, government guidance and think tank research
Includes resource lists mainly in the social sciences, alongside support material and FAQs, but also pointers to finding data more generally. Also, there’s further information and guidance about analysing, visualising, referencing and managing data, as well as text and data mining.