Overton is the world’s largest searchable and curated policy database. Its mission is to help users find, understand, and measure their influence on government policy.
It tracks a wide range of policy documents such as white papers, working papers, government guidance, think tank policy briefs and national clinical guidelines, and indexes and organises these materials to support analysis via key terms / topic / themes.
It also maps connections between these documents and scholarly research and news content to see where ideas, papers, reports and staff are being cited or mentioned.
Use powerful filters to see policy from specific countries or from government sources only, or filter by any think tank, publisher, journal or institution.
For example you can use Overton to ...
See all of the policy citing research from an institution.
Discover how researchers are engaging with policy, through publications and in person.
Organise policy by Sustainable Development Goal, topic, year and more.
This database enables researchers to track the impact of their own work on policy as well as investigate the dynamics of global policy making.
The content in this database is not discoverable via the University's Library Search service.
Access / Registration
This platform enables searching of over 12 million policy documents, including their links to each other, to academic papers and to relevant people and topics. You will need to register an account. Complete the registration form to activate your account. Once activated, you can login and access your Overton dashboard.
User guidance
Watch this short introductory video to learn more about Overton.
Use the online Getting started guide to help get you up and running with the service.
More detailed online support is available via the Overton Knowledge Base where you can browse or search online for guidance.
You can also use the Support area to join an online chat or submit an online form to request further information from the Overton team.
Sign up to Overton’s monthly newsletter, which contains new features and other useful information for users.
If you need further help to use Overton, just get in touch with your liaison librarian.
University of Exeter LibGuide is licensed under CC BY 4.0
