Evidence-Based Policymaking: Envisioning a New Era of Theory, Research, and Practice

The traditional story of how we do social policy in the United States reveals a disconnect between the research community, that is producing hundreds of studies relevant to public policy, and the policy community, that is making hundreds of decisions that would benefit from research evidence. Evidenced-Based Policymaking: Envisioning a New Era of Theory, Research, and Practice tells an even stronger, more substantiated story of all it will take to connect researchers and policymakers. This book offers a fresh look into what policymakers and the policy process are like, as told by policymakers themselves and the researchers who study and work with them.

New to the 2nd Edition:

• The perspective of policymakers based on a remarkable new study of 225 state legislators with an extraordinarily high response rate in a hard-to-access population.

• A new theory on why policymakers use research that has the potential to inform the study and practice of evidence-based policymaking.

• A new chapter that features pioneering researchers who have been effective in engaging diverse policymakers for different purposes using disparate methods.

• A new chapter that lays out a rationale for transforming the education of the next generation of researchers.

This update with cutting-edge research on evidence-based policy is a benefit to readers who find it hard to keep abreast of a field that spans the disciplines of business, economics, education, family sciences, health services, political science, psychology, public administration, sociology, and so forth.

For those who study evidence-based policy, the book provides the basics of producing policy relevant research by introducing researchers to policymakers and the policy process. Strategies are provided for identifying research questions that are relevant to the societal problems that confront and confound policymakers. Researchers will have at their fingertips a breath-taking overview of classic and cutting-edge studies on the multi-disciplinary field of evidence-based policy.

For instructors, the book is written in a language and style that students find engaging. A topic that many students find mundane becomes germane when they read stories of what policymakers are like, and when they learn of researcher's tribulations and triumphs as they work to build evidence-based policy. To point students to the most important ideas, the key concepts are highlighted in text boxes.

For those who desire to engage policymakers, a new chapter summarizes the breakthroughs of several researchers who have been successful at driving policy change. The book provides 12 innovative best practices drawn from the science and practice of engaging policymakers, including insights from some of the best and brightest researchers and science communicators. The book also takes on the daunting task of evaluating the effectiveness of efforts to engage policymakers around research. A theory of change identifies seven key elements that are fundamental to increasing policymaker's use of research along with evaluation protocols and preliminary evidence on each element.