Beyond the Journal: Exploring Global Policy in Real-Time with Policy Commons

What do municipal climate adaptation plans, international health strategies, and non-profit policy briefs have in common? Despite being essential for research, they are notoriously difficult to track down. They live in the world of “grey literature,” published outside of traditional academic journals and often buried deep within organizational websites.

To bridge this gap, Duke University Libraries has added Policy Commons to our database collection. This isn’t just another database of static papers; it’s a living archive of how global decisions are actually made. Here are the modules we are subscribed to:

Policy Commons

North American State, Provincial, and Territorial Governments

Global Think Tanks

World Governments

World Cities and Local Governments

Applied Science Commons

Applied Environmental Science

Why leave the comfort of Google Scholar?

While journal articles offer deep theory, policy reports offer immediacy. These are the documents being read by analysts, lawmakers, and practitioners right now. Instead of spending hours combing through a hundred different organizational websites, Policy Commons brings millions of reports, working papers and policy briefs and proposals from NGOs, IGOS, think tanks, and governments into a single, searchable interface.

How it fits your work at Duke

Whether you’re in the lab, the field, or the classroom, here is how this tool changes the game for our core research communities:

Nicholas School of the Environment: Move beyond environmental theory to see the actual regulatory frameworks and mitigation plans being deployed by governments—from municipal to state to federal—and NGOs globally. It’s a vital tool for seeing how policy plays out across different political climates.

Sanford School of Public Policy: This is your “how-to” manual for the real world. Use it to find comparative policy reports for your next memo or to see the exact briefs major think tanks are using to influence current legislation.

Duke Global Health Institute: Much of the world’s most impactful health data lives in program evaluations and implementation studies from the WHO and local NGOs. Policy Commons surfaces these “on-the-ground” insights that rarely make it into a peer-reviewed journal.

Tips for your first search

If you’re using Policy Commons for the first time, keep an eye out for these features:

Organization Profiles: Found a think tank you trust? You can follow their specific output directly.

An example of an organizational record—the Arctic Council—in Policy Commons.

Regional Filtering: Quickly pivot your research from a North Carolina context to a global perspective.

A search for coastal flood mitigation documents scoped to North Carolina.

The “Grey” Advantage: Access materials that are often more current than the three-year lag time of traditional academic publishing.

An example search for sustainability AND “generative artificial intelligence” scoped to publications 2025–2026.

Ready to dive in?

You can find Policy Commons right now via the Duke Libraries A–Z Database List or use the direct links below:

Policy Commons (all modules)
Applied Science Commons: Environmental Science

Need a hand? If you aren’t sure how to integrate these reports into your literature review or syllabus, reach out. Your subject librarians for Environment, Climate & Sustainability, Public Policy, and Global Health are ready to help you navigate this new terrain.