Image map of a result
Use the following map to identify the different elements in a policy document result.

- Title of the policy document
- Policy source and date of publication
- Type of policy document
- Abstract of the policy document (this will not appear if no abstract is available)
- Top topics which describe the policy document
- Tag document for later or download the full-text of the policy document PDF
- Reference of the publication cited in the policy document
- Context of the citation within the policy document and page number where citation was found
- ‘Show more’ will open the full record for the policy document
Coloured bars in policy document results
A blue, yellow or red bar on the left side of a citation in a policy document result, corresponds to the type of citation found.
The blue bar indicates the citation is from a scholarly output like a journal article.

The yellow bar indicates a mention of a person and their affiliation in the policy document. A mention is where a name and author affiliation is picked up in a policy document but is not a citation for scholarly research. Some examples of the kind of “mentions” Overton picks up include when someone provides expert advice on a panel or participates in a committee hearing.

A red bar indicates the citation is from a policy document.

Sometimes, a double red and blue will appear in a search result. This occurs when a policy document might also be classed as a scholarly article. This happens when a policy document has been given a DOI.

“Stacks” of policy documents in the image thumbnail
Each policy document result includes a thumbnail image of the policy document. Sometimes the image thumbnail shows a “stack” of policy documents. This indicates that the policy document record includes multiple PDFs.
This occurs when a policy document is made up of multiple PDFs. Any citations found throughout the various PDFs of a single policy document will be linked to the relevant PDF.

Identifying citations from key sources in results
Key sources is a customisable, user-curated list of policy sources. See our “Key Sources” help page to learn more. When an organization has been cited in a policy document that comes from one of their “Key Sources,” a grey box will appear to the right of the policy document result.
