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PPOL 5770 - Public Policy Postgraduate Development : Search Tools

This guide was developed for students in PPOL Postgraduate courses

PowerSearch

PowerSearch

   

 

  • HKUST's main  all-purpose search tool, gives you access to lots of paid for content
  • Books, Book chapters, news articles, magazine articles, scholarly articles, etc.
  • Allows you to search the Library Catalog + multiple databases at the same time

Data and Statistics

Statistical Databases - HKUST Library Subscribed or cataloged & + Open Data

China

Provincial statistics from are classed under HA4637  (e- versions available from 1989-)

Major City Statistics of China are classed under HA4638 (e- versions available from 1989-)

Or, you can also do a 统计年鉴

Hong Kong

Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department

ICPSR - Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research

  • Maintained at the University of Michigan, HKUST is a member institution.
  • Many files of "raw" social science data.
  • Choose "Find & Analyze Data"
  • Sign-up to use it, so you can access off campus as well as on-campus
  • Resources for students - including why & how to cite data

After you sign-in to ICPSR, you can search and download data for later manipulation.

Asia & Beyond Statistics

Asian Barometer  -  Public opinion data in Asia (uses Global Barometer survey as a model). Four waves of the AsiaBarometer have been conducted. Focus is on daily lives of ordinary people.

Asia Data Archive - from UC Irvine's Jack W. Peltason Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD)  - includes many useful links

 

 

Journal Article Databases

Go to Databses -> Humanities and Social Sciences  to see other available databases.

Policy Briefs / Policy Reports

OECD  Working Papers and Policy Reports
Overton  - policy documents, parliamentary transcripts, government guidance, &  think tank research from 180+ countries
 
Student Authored Policy Briefs  / Rebecca J Kreitzer , a professor at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
 
Think Tanks: Many policy briefs and reports come from "Think Tanks". 
 

Newspaper Databases

 

 

Tools to speed up full-text access

LibKey

provides instant links to full-text content for articles subscribed by the library or open access alternatives, no matter when you are on- or off-campus.

  1. Add LibKey extension to your browser (support Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc.) 

Choose Browser & Install

  1. Select "Hong Kong University of Science and Technology" - it's DONE!

Try searching for an article on Google Scholar, a database, or a journal's page. Click the Download button to get the PDF or link to another available version.

 

Example 1: A journal article's page

 

Example 2: A Wikipedia page

A short video to learn how LibKey works.

Unpaywall

is a similar tool to help you skip the paywall and get permissible full-text content. 

Install Unpaywall extension to your browser  (support Chrome, Firefox) 

Try searching for an article on Google Scholar, a database, or a journal's page. When you see the Green tab beside an article, click on it to read full-text.

Link your Google Scholar with the Library

helps you quickly get the full-text article especially when you are off campus. 

This can be done by activating the "Library Links" in your Google Scholar so that your search results would include links to help you route through the Library subscriptions.

  1. Go to Google Scholar, then click "Settings"
  2. In the "Library Links" section, key in "Hong Kong University of Science and Technology"
  3. Check the "The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology - Find@HKUST"
  4. Click "Save" at the bottom

After the preference is set, you will see "Find@HKUST Library" on your result list. Clicking on this link will prompt you to log in with your ITSC account after which you can access the subscribed content.

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