top of page

Research Guide

The investigative journalists' cheat sheet to the best places on the web and beyond to find the facts and documents you need.

Instagram

Media and Other Open Sources

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
Identify an individual’s Instagram profile and review the content available publicly.

Area of Investigation:

Social Media, Associated People

Intel Techniques Online Tools

Media and Other Open Sources

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
This site has tools for open-source research based on phone numbers, email addresses and other data. You can search it using any known usernames for a candidate, such as email addresses or handles for Twitter and Instagram. These may identify other websites where the candidate has used the same usernames. Michael Bazzell, an expert in open-source intelligence, cybersecurity and privacy, maintains Intel Techniques.

Area of Investigation:

Social Media

Kiwi Farms

Media and Other Open Sources

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
WARNING: This source contains illegal, explicit and offensive content. Kiwi Farms is a forum explicitly dedicated to the targeted harassment of certain communities and individuals. The site often explicitly targets online personalities based on gender, sexuality and race, and the campaigns against their targets can involve anything from online harassment to doxxing or “SWATing.” Multiple targets of harrassment on the site have committed suicide. Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine has previously deleted archives of the site due to the massive exposure of private information. Kiwi Farms forums can be searched for mentions of specific individuals or their connections.

Area of Investigation:

Social Media, Associated People

Law Enforcement Public Record Requests

State and Local Records

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
Public record requests to law enforcement agencies in the jurisdictions where an individual has lived can identify police reports naming the candidate that did not result in charges and are therefore not documented in county case indexes. Agencies can also provide otherwise unavailable details on incidents that did result in charges. The same is true of records on calls for service, or calls to 911 requesting service at the individual’s address. In any given jurisdiction, there will generally be a municipal or county police department – sometimes both. There will also generally be a county sheriff’s office, which is distinct from the county police. At the state-level, there is generally a state police force, often called a state highway patrol or state troopers.

Area of Investigation:

Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases

Link will vary depending on jurisdiction.

Legislator Misconduct Database

Media and Other Open Sources

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
This database describes itself as having compiled public information on congressional investigations, criminal convictions, censures by and expulsions from Congress, and more. It includes alleged and actual misconduct by legislators in Congress from 1789 until now. Use this to see any misconduct in an elected official’s past .

Area of Investigation:

Political History, Campaign Finance

Legistorm Lobbying Software

Proprietary Databases

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png

Legistorm lobbying software provides a comprehensive suite of tools for tracking federal and state legislative activities, including lobbying intelligence. It offers features such as state legislative tracking, lobbying software, grassroots advocacy tools and reporting capabilities.

Area of Investigation:

Political History, Lobbying

LexisNexis

Proprietary Databases

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
LexisNexis provides access to information available through public records and a broad collection of media, much of which would otherwise be behind a paywall. It also has an advantage over Google in that its search function returns any documents that match search terms, whereas Google’s algorithm may suppress unpopular results that are nevertheless valuable for research. If an individual has had a long career in politics or other closely watched industries, there may be a volume of coverage that makes it impossible to review every “hit” naming the candidate in LexisNexis. In these cases, you will need to design search threads to return more limited sets of documents. For example, a search for key controversial search terms might look something like: FIRST NAME /2 LAST NAME AND (CORRUPTION OR FRAUD OR CONTROVERSY OR MISCONDUCT). Like TLO, LexisNexis is a secondary source, and anything significant in a report must be verified independently. LexisNexis data should only be used to identify leads for further investigation but never as an authoritative source itself.

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Professional History, Political History, Associated People, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases

Library of Congress

Federal Records

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
This website maintains an official record of federal legislation and Congressional resolutions and can be researched for information on bills and resolutions sponsored by a Congressional member as well as roll call voting records for specific bills and resolutions.

Area of Investigation:

Political History

LinkedIn

Media and Other Open Sources

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
Before conducting research on LinkedIn, consider whether you should be browsing in Private Mode. To enable Private Mode, navigate to the Settings and Privacy page, select Visibility in the left-hand panel, and click on “Profile Viewing Options.” To identify people currently or formerly associated with a specific company or company location, use the Search feature’s Filters. If LinkedIn does not allow you to view the full profile of someone outside your network, try copying the visible text of the profile, pasting it into the Google search bar in quotes, and limiting your Google search to the LinkedIn domain by adding site:linkedin.com to your search string.

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Professional History, Social Media, Associated People

Local Newspapers

Media and Other Open Sources

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
Newspaper archives preserve digital records of newspapers published going back decades or even centuries and may include information about an individual, their family and their professional connections that search engines might not index.

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Professional History, Political History, Educational History, Associated People

Local and State Inmate Locator Databases

State and Local Records

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
Counties and states vary widely in the public availability of inmate and arrest records. Whereas the Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locator includes both current inmates and released inmates, many state and local databases include only currently incarcerated inmates. Find the available resources in the jurisdictions where the candidate has lived, and search for any arrest or inmate records. Generally, a county or city jail is operated by the county sheriff or local authority, and a state prison system is operated by the state department of corrections or equivalent authority.

Area of Investigation:

Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases

Link will vary depending on jurisdiction.

Los Angeles City Lobbying Disclosure

State and Local Records

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png

Some cities have lobbying disclosure databases - Los Angeles is one of those cities. Follow this link to search for lobbying disclosure in Los Angeles. 

Area of Investigation:

Political History, Lobbying

Marriage Indexes

State and Local Records

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
Depending on the jurisdiction, there may be a publicly available index of marriage licenses, either at the county or the municipal level. See for example the Miami-Dade County marriage license search (maintained by the county) or the New York City marriage index (accessed by researchers through FOI requests). Older marriage license indexes may only be available through on-site research.

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family

Will vary depending on jurisdiction.

Mastodon

Media and Other Open Sources

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
Mastodon is a software tool (a kind of server) used by communities to launch their own ‘decentralized’ social media communities on the ‘fediverse,’ or federated universe of social media servers. These are based on an open standard called ActivityPub, which allows use of a single social presence to participate in multiple social media servers. Mastodon.Social is one of those websites, but there are thousands of active servers with different content focuses across the internet using Mastodon. In searching for an individual across Mastodon servers, you effectively search for them across thousands of social media platforms at the same time.

Area of Investigation:

Social Media, Associated People

MeWe

Media and Other Open Sources

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
MeWe is a decentralized social media platform with a focus on the blockchain. The app may be useful for identifying fringe connections to an individual and finding online discussion of them among groups not able to openly post on mainstream social media.

Area of Investigation:

Social Media, Associated People

Medical Licensing Boards

State and Local Records

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
State medical licensing boards generally provide information to the public on the qualifications and licensing of medical professionals. A call to the state regulator or public-record request may be necessary to obtain full copies of license applications and related documents, which may include criminal cases or civil judgments filed against the licensee. You can use these records to check an individual’s license status, educational background, and employment history, verify the accuracy of information an individual submitted on a licensing application, identify an individual’s professional associates and search for disciplinary actions against an individual.

Area of Investigation:

Professional History, Associated People

Link will vary depending on jurisdiction.

Medium

Media and Other Open Sources

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
Medium is a social publishing platform for articles, newsletters and other written work. You can search the platform for writings on, about or by individuals and other individuals and organizations connected to them.

Area of Investigation:

Social Media, Associated People

Military Records

Federal Records

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
The National Personnel Records Center of the National Archives provides public access to certain military records that can be used to verify an individual’s claimed military service. You can request these records as explained on the NRC website.

Area of Investigation:

Professional History

Mugshots.com

Media and Other Open Sources

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
mugshots.com provides mugshots, details on the booking of suspects into jail and other content about crimes and arrests. You can narrow search results by state and county.

Area of Investigation:

Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases

NEXUS Mountain Network

Media and Other Open Sources

Sunlight Magnifying Glass Line.png
NEXUS Mountain Network is a Christian social network. Searching for members requires an account.

Area of Investigation:

Social Media, Associated People

Is our Research Guide missing a resource?

Share your suggestions with us here.

bottom of page