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Public Administration Research Guide

Use this guide to find UNO library resources and other helpful research tools.

Sample Search Terms for Public Administration Topics

  • Administrative law
  • Benchmarking
  • Boards of directors
  • Budget – government policy
  • Bureaucracy
  • Bureaucratization
  • Change
  • Cities & towns
  • Citizen participation
  • Citizens
  • City councils
  • Communication in public administration
  • Community involvement
  • Community services
  • Contracting out
  • Contracts
  • Cost control
  • Cost shifting
  • Council-manager
  • County government
  • Customer services
  • Decision making
  • Deliberative democracy
  • Direct democracy
  • Ethics
  • Expenditures, public
  • Federal aid to nonprofit organizations
  • Financial crises – government policy
  • Financial performance
  • Government accountability
  • Government paperwork
  • Government policy
  • Governors (Machinery)
  • Health care reform
  • Health services accessibility
  • Interlocal agreements
  • Interorganizational relations
  • Iowa
  • Local finance
  • Local government
  • Local officials & employees
  • Mayor-council
  • Mayors
  • Metropolitan government
  • Municipal government
  • Municipal officials & employees
  • Municipal services – United States
  • Nebraska
  • New public management
  • Nonprofit organizations
  • Organizational accountability
  • Organizational development
  • Organizational governance
  • Organizational governance
  • Performance evaluation
  • Performance management
  • Performance standards
  • Private sector
  • Privatization
  • Public administration
  • Public administration – citizen participation
  • Public goods
  • Public interest
  • Public officers
  • Public safety
  • Public sector
  • Public services commissions
  • Public sphere
  • Public-private sector cooperation
  • Rational choice theory
  • Reform
  • Regulatory failure
  • Service quality
  • State governments
  • Transaction cost theory
  • Waste in government spending

Sample Research Methods Search Terms

  • Analysis
  • Assessment
  • Case Management
  • Case Studies
  • Causality
  • Classification
  • Clinical Case Studies
  • Clinical Trial
  • Correlation
  • Data
  • Data Quality
  • Demographic Characteristics
  • Dependent Variable
  • Empirical Study
  • Ethnography
  • Evaluation
  • Experiment
  • Experimental Replication
  • Experimental Study
  • Factors
  • Followup Study
  • Generalization
  • Hypothesis Testing
  • Independent Variable
  • Instrument
  • Interviews
  • Literature Review
  • Longitudinal Study
  • Mathematical Model
  • Measures
  • Meta-Analysis
  • Methodology
  • Methodology (Data Collection)
  • Non-Clinical Case Study
  • Problem Solving
  • Procedures
  • Program Evaluation
  • Qualitative
  • Quantitative
  • Questionnaires
  • Random Sample
  • Replication
  • Research
  • Research Design
  • Research Methodology
  • Retrospective Study
  • Review
  • Review of the Literature
  • Risk Assessment
  • Sample Size
  • Scale
  • Sociological Research
  • Statistics
  • Strategies
  • Studies
  • Study
  • Surveys
  • Systematic Review
  • Test Construction
  • Test Validity
  • Theories
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Variables