White Papers or Position Papers: Where and How to Locate Online

The best place to look for white papers or position papers is online at government, research institute, professional organization, and nonprofit websites, or by using a Google search.

Most white papers and position papers are not formally published in academic journals, but made available through government and organization websites.

Examples of only a few of the government, research institute, and non-profit websites that produce white papers:

• Brookings Institution
• Center for American Progress: Reports
• Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)
• Human Rights Watch
• United Nations
• U.S Department of Health & Human Services

You can search websites of organizations that produce white papers or position papers, or you can use Google or another search engine to find white papers or position papers.

Websites

Think about which organizations might be producing information on your topic. Most white papers and position papers are made available directly through government, research institute, think tank, professional organization, and nonprofit websites.

• You can search many government or organization websites using “white paper” or "position paper" in the search.
• You can also look at the Reports sections of these websites.

Google Search

You can use a search engine like Google to find white papers and position papers.

• Putting the paper type in quotes will look for exactly those words in that order.
• Limiting to government or organization websites will help focus your search to organizations producing white papers.

Here is an example search for white papers on poverty found at US government websites:

1. Go to Google.
2. Enter the following in the search box:
   
   poverty "white paper" site:gov
   
   Use site:gov to limit the search to only US government websites.

Here is an example search for position papers on human trafficking at organization websites:

1. Go to Google.
2. Enter the following in the search box:
   
   human trafficking "position paper" site:org
   
   Use site:org to limit the search to only organization websites (like nonprofits, research institutes, or think tanks).

Tips:

• Enter your broad topic, the type of paper, and then the type of site you want to search to do a Google search.
• Click on Tools once you do your Google search to limit by date.
• If you are looking for government info for countries other than the US, you would need to search that domain. For example, to search for government information from Canada, you would use site:gov.ca.