Topic Research Guide
The Resolution for the 2020-2021 season is:
Resolved: The United States federal government should enact substantial criminal justice reform in the United States in one or more of the following: forensic science, policing, sentencing.
Research Tips
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Newsletters: Sign up for the Brookings Briefing, Politico or RealClear's topic reports, updates from major publications like the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, The Atlantic, etc. and other newsletters and news aggregates. These are great ways to keep up to date on what is going on in this year's topic area.
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Google Alerts: Create google alerts for key terms, bringing research to your inbox daily or weekly.
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Wikipedia: Wikipedia can be useful IF you go to the links at the bottom of the page to find articles--use their citations as your own.
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Google Scholar: If you are looking for more in-depth research, especially for solvency mechanisms, case ideas and kritiks, Use googlescholar.com to find scholarly resources from journals, official publications, etc.
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Sharing: Create a google doc where you can “dump” links you think might be useful later under relevant topics. Share the doc with your team and sort what you need and don't need.
Institutions:
Think Tanks are the single best place to look for research. These scholars research current affairs for a living, and often debate among each other about different policy options. These are highly qualifier, practice oriented thinkers.
Institutions to investigate:
Full Service:
Issue Focused:
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Foreign Policy
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Baker Institute for Public Policy:
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Security, Foreign Policy
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Security, Technology, Environment
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Carnegie Endowment for Peace:
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Foreign Policy
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Center for A New American Security (CNAS):
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Security
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Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS):
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Security, Foreign Policy, Trade, Technology, Environment
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Council on Foreign Relations (CFR):
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Foreign Policy
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Resources/Environment
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Democracy, Human Rights
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- Domestic Policy
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Human Rights
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Healthcare
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Domestic Policy
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Economics, Domestic Policy
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Economics
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Social Policy
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Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE):
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Economics
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Security
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Urban Institute:
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Social Policy
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Journalistic Sources
These sources are either highly regarded newspapers and other journalistic enterprises, or leading issue publications that write to inform. All conform to basics of journalistic integrity and offer reasoned, fact based opinion pieces.
Most offer newsletters or alerts, and are worth following on Twitter
538 - Statistician Nate Silver writing about politics/polling, current events, and sports
Al Jazeera (English) - Middle Eastern News Source, good place to get a non-US perspective on global events.
Associated Press - Bare bones reporting, just the facts, a source many other organizations draw from
The Atlantic - Longer form journalism and opinion pieces
BBC - British news source, outside U.S. political divide
Bloomberg News - centrist news source, extensive coverage of economics/markets
Business Insider - Business News
Chicago Tribune - Large regional paper in the mid-west, covers national issues
The Diplomat - Magazine covering foreign policy
The Economist - Global reporting, longer form journalism and opinion
Forbes - Business journalism
Gallup - Data oriented journalism and research, pollsters
The Hill - Political journalism
Los Angeles Times - Largest west coast newspaper, covers national issues
National Review - Conservative leaning journalism and opinion
Newsweek - Basic news source, very accessible
New York Times - National newspaper, strong political and investigative reporting
Politico - slightly left leaning political reporting.
Real Clear Politics - Gathers news, opinion, and polling from around the web, and has lots of issue specific pages
Roll Call - Original source of political journalism
Rolling Stone - Strong long form journalism about current events (and music)
Slate - News and opinion about politics, technology and current events
Time - Accessible news source on current events
Washington Post - National Newspaper, strong political/policy reporting
Wired - Technology News
VOX - Data oriented journalism, lots of ex debaters on staff