Basics / Intermediate/Advanced / MuckRock Site Guides / Exemptions / Agency-Specific Advice / Topic-Specific Tips / Presidential Records / Student Resources / State Maps / Ongoing Series

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Basics

Never filed a public records request? Not sure what a “FOIA” is or if you know how to pronounce it? Start here.

What’s considered a public record?

Fee categories

First time FOIA request flowchart

Five tips for beginners

Leaks and FOIA FAQ

Intermediate/Advanced

Appealing fee categories and waivers

Dealing with excessive redactions

FOIA inspiration from #IRE2017

Five lessons from “FOIA Strategies and Tactics”

How to get a faster FOIA response

Reminder that Congress is (increasingly) exempt from FOIA

Tips for better FOIA appeals

Searching for specific sections of records

Sunshine Week 2019 public records reporting round-up

What to do about “Still Interested” letters

What to do when an agency claims not to have records you know it has

What the 2016 FOIA reforms mean for requesters

Using FOIA for emails

Guide to using FOIA for access to law enforcement records

Guide to FOIA and environmental records

MuckRock Site Guides

How to explore MuckRock’s public archive of FOIA requests and releases

How to use MuckRock to look at your state’s public records law

Looking for daily #FOIA inspiration? Check out our new site, Muck.Rocks

We want you to build a project with MuckRock

Why can’t I upload my existing FOIA requests to MuckRock?

Assignments

MuckRock Assignments: Your newest tool for audience feedback

Tap your readers, followers, and fans to help crowdsource your FOIA finds

What we’ve learned helping crowdsource over 10,000 pages of government records

Crowdfunding

Give the gift of government accountability year-round with MuckRock Crowdfunds

Learn how to crowdfund your request on MuckRock from the pros

DocumentCloud

Getting the most out of DocumentCloud

Exemptions

For what reasons could an agency withhold or redact your records?

Federal FOIA exemptions overview

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• b(2)

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• b(8)

• b(9)

The Glomar “neither confirm nor deny” exemption

Agency-Specific Advice

CIA

The ultimate guide to searching CIA’s declassified archives

Using exemption codes to find documents hidden in CREST

Department of Defense

Tracking down Department of Defense contracts

FBI

A FOIA beginner’s guide to requesting a FBI file

The #AppleVSFBI FOIA Primer

Five ways to use FOIA to explore the FBI’s 110 year history

Getting your own FBI file

How to read an FBI file: A beginner’s guide

Telling the FBI where to search

What is an FBI background check?

NSA

A beginner’s guide to FOIA-ing the NSA

Topic Specific Tips

Autopsy reports

Environmental reports

The JFK assassination records

Immigration records

Mueller Report

A guide to the FOIA exemptions in the newly-released version of the Mueller Report

What will the Special Counsel’s Office release?

#NODAPL / pipeline records

Protest records

Private prison records

SF-86-gate

Presidential Records

Presidential records primer

Trump Administration records

White House’s FOIA exemption

White House visitor logs

Student Resources

College journalist’s FOIA guide

College sports records guide

FOIA 4 Kidz lesson plan

High school journalist’s FOIA guide

State Maps

MuckRock request data shows big difference in backlogs between states

Response deadline map

State by State records guide

Ongoing Series

#FOIAFriday Round-up

FOIA Slack Chats

Requester’s Voice interviews

State of State Public Records Laws

Sunshine Spotlight: Massachusetts

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Image via the National Archives Flickr