Overton is the world’s largest searchable policy database, which tracks everything from white papers to think tank policy briefs to national clinical guidelines, and automatically finds the references to your scholarly research, academics and other outputs. It looks for the names of any researchers on expert panels, who are quoted in policy documents, who give evidence to committee hearings and more. Importantly it can also find the links between policy documents – often research is picked up by intermediaries like think tanks and agencies – giving you unparalleled insight into the dynamics of policymaking. Overton is used by researchers to study the dynamics of real world policymaking and also to track the impact of their own work on policy.

You can use Overton to:

  • discover policy documents from around the world and manage them in one place
  • understand the routes from research into policy using data
  • monitor the quality of government policymaking and the influence of think tanks and NGOs
  • see which organisations are producing policy documents on a given subject

How to access Overton

Set up an account.

Training and support

Overton Essex Walkthrough Recording (Passcode: LZsb4?kb)

Access Overton’s Knowledge Base to find out more about Overton and its data and visit the Getting Started section on the Overton webpage for guidance on how to start using Overton.

You can also contact support@overton.io or use the live chat window with any questions.

Sign up to Overton’s monthly newsletter, which contains new features and other useful information for users.

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REO Research Systems