Research and Course Guides: POLS 104: Government and Politics: Opinion, Fact-checkers and Watchdogs

Public opinion sources from the free web

PollingReport.com
Independent and nonpartisan source of public opinion data
Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research is one of the world's leading archives of social science data, specializing in data from surveys of public opinion.
Gallup Polls
"Gallup delivers analytics and advice to help leaders and organizations solve their most pressing problems."
Harris Polls
"The Harris Poll weekly column is one of the longest running, most respected proprietary surveys conducted by Harris Interactive measuring public opinion and is highly regarded throughout the world."
Real Clear Politics
Updated every morning and throughout the day, RCP culls and publishes the best commentary, news, polling data, and links to important resources from all points of the political compass and covering all the important issues of the day.
Pew Center
"Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world."

Issues & Controversies This link opens in a new window
Issues & Controversies explore more than 800 timely, in-depth, and objective articles on topics such as politics, government, business, education, and popular culture. It is updated weekly and provides links to a 13-year backfile. Also included are links to news coverage, pros and cons statements, timelines, statistics, etc.
Points of View Reference Source This link opens in a new window
A full-text database providing essays that present multiple sides of a current issue. The database provides 250 topics, each with an overview, point,counterpoint,and a Critical Thinking Guide. It contains materials from all viewpoints, including main essays, leading political magazines from both sides of the aisle, newspapers, radio & TV news transcripts, primary source documents and reference books.

Common Cause
The original non-partisan citizen's lobby, doing research and advocacy in ethics, campaign financing, voting and more.
FactCheck.org
From the Annenberg Public Policy Center, a non-partisan, non-profit "consumer advocate" for voters. NOTE new feature "SciCheck"which "focuses exclusively on false and misleading scientific claims.'
PolitiFact
Check on the truthiness of political assertions. Home of the "Truth-O-Meter"
Snopes
Well known fact checking and myth busting site
The Sunlight Foundation
The Sunlight Foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for open government globally and uses technology to make government more accountable to all.