Topic Research Guide

The Resolution for the 2020-2021 season is: 

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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. 

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Research Tips

• 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. 

• Google Alerts: Create google alerts for key terms, bringing research to your inbox daily or weekly. 

• 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.

• 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.

• 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. 

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Institutions to investigate: 

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Full Service: 

• American Enterprise Institute (AEI)

• Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC)

• Brookings Institution

• Cato Institute

• Center for American Progress (CAP)

• Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

• Congressional Research Service (CRS)

• Economic Policy Institute (EPI)

• Heritage Foundation

• Hoover Institution

• Mises Institute

• New America Foundation

• Pew Research Center

• RAND Corporation

• Third Way

• Wilson Center

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Issue Focused:

• Atlantic Council:

  • Foreign Policy​

• Baker Institute for Public Policy​:

  • Security, Foreign Policy

• Belfer Center:

  • Security, Technology, Environment​

• Carnegie En​dowment for Peace:

  • Foreign Policy​

• Center for A New American Security​ (CNAS):

  • Security​

• Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)​:

  • Security, Foreign Policy, Trade, Technology, Environment

• Council on Foreign Relations​ (CFR):

  • Foreign Policy​

• Earth Institute:

  • Resources/Environment​

• Freedom House​:

  • Democracy, Human Rights​

• Heartland Institute​:

  • Domestic Policy​

• Human Rights Watch (HRW): 

• • Human Rights​​

• Kaiser Foundation:

  • ​Healthcare​

• Manhattan Institute:

  • Domestic Policy​

• Mercatus Center:

  • Economics​, Domestic Policy

• National Bureau of Economic Research​ (NBER):

• • Economics​

• Open Society Foundation

  • Social Policy​

• Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE):

  • Economics

• Stimson Center:

  • Security

• Urban Institute​​​​​​:

  • Social Policy​

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

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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