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Public Policy Subject Guide: Policy Sources

Public Policy
Policy Sources
Govts, Think Tanks, NGOs & IGOs
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Find policy papers

PolicyArchive, CIAO, and PAIS are good starting points in the search for policy papers. Check out the other sources below, or the tabs for Think Tanks and NGOs/IGOs, for additional resources.

PolicyArchive (Center for Governmental Studies) PolicyArchive is a digital archive of public policy research that includes summaries and full texts, videos, reports, briefs, and multimedia material from think tank, university, government, and foundation-funded policy research. Search by topic, author, funding agency, and more.
Institute for Social and Policy Studies (Yale University) "The Institution for Social and Policy Studies advances interdisciplinary research in the social sciences that aims to shape public policy and inform democratic deliberation." ( About ISPS )
Annenberg Public Policy Center "The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania has been the premier communication policy center in the country since its founding in 1993. By conducting and releasing research, staging conferences and hosting policy discussions, its scholars have addressed the role of communication in politics, adolescent behavior, child development, health care, civics and mental health, among other important arenas. The Center’s researchers have drafted materials that helped policy-makers, journalists, scholars, constituent groups and the general public better understand the role that media play in their lives and the life of the nation." ( About the Center )
Center for Strategic and International Studies CSIS is a bipartisan, non-profit organization focused on "defense and security; regional stability; and transnational challenges ranging from energy and climate to global development and economic integration."
RAND Corporation Select the "Research" tab to find research briefs and other policy-oriented publications.
IssueLab (The Foundation Center) "Access to thousands of case studies, evaluations, white papers, and issue briefs addressing some of the world's most pressing social problems."
Google Tech Policy Center The Google Tech Policy blog contains relevant policy related materials based on technology

Strategies for effective Googling

Many fantastic public policy resources--in particular, policy briefs from think tanks, NGOs, and research institutes--can be found online. Here are a few tips for more efficient, effective Google searches:

Include the phrase "policy brief" in your search. (Keep the quotation marks around "policy brief" to find this exact phrase.)

Use a site: search. This will limit your search to a broad domain (e.g., .org sites, .edu sites, .gov sites) or to a specific website (e.g., http://www.urban.org).

If you're not sure which think tank, NGO, or agency might have issued policy papers on your topic, try a search engine that's powered by Google but limited to a select group of sites.

Think Tank Search (Harvard Kennedy School): A directory of U.S. and international think tanks, as well as a custom Google search of more than 250 think tank websites.
Intergovernmental Organization Search Engine : Searches across hundreds of IGO websites.
Non-governmental Organization Search Engine : Searches across over a thousand NGO websites.
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Databases: Public Policy: Public Policy Databases

Public Policy Databases
All Databases by Subject Area

Core Resources

PAIS Index This link opens in a new window Covers journal articles, books, conference proceedings, and other literature on the full range of political, social, and public policy issues. Also included is information about websites, publications and organizations.
Policy File Index This link opens in a new window Policy File Index includes full-text report, paper, document and other sources on U.S. public policy research including over 75 public policy topics (both foreign and domestic) from over 350 public policy think tanks, nongovernmental organizations, research institutes, university centers, advocacy groups, and other entities.

Additional Resources

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window This academic multi-disciplinary database provides than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. In addition, it offers indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals and a total of more than 13,200 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. Coverage spans virtually every area of academic study and offers information dating as far back as 1887.
Congressional Research Reports This link opens in a new window Provides access to research reports on a wide variety of public policy issues prepared by the Congressional Research Service for members of Congress. more... less... Open access version available here: https://crsreports.congress.gov/
CQ Federal This link opens in a new window Formerly called CQ.com on Congress, this database provides extensive coverage of the activities of both Houses of Congress, including Committees. Includes daily articles and reports analyzing Congressional activity, as well as member profiles, the text of bills, schedules and agendas, committee reports and testimony, and more. Simultaneous users: 10 + IP access
CQ Historic Documents This link opens in a new window Presently contains 32 annual volumes of primary sources, each volume with approximately 100 documents covering the most significant events of the year. Documents range from presidential speeches, international agreements, and Supreme Court decisions, to U.S. governmental reports, scientific findings, and cultural discussions.
CQ Press Library This link opens in a new window Provides information on historical and current issues in American politics and government, including: Political Handbook of the World; Washington Information Directory; Guides to Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, the Presidency, U.S. Elections and Political Campaigns; Historic Documents (1972-2017); Vital Statistics on American Politics; and Supreme Court Yearbook.
CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window CQ Researcher Online features original, comprehensive reporting and balanced analysis on issues of major political importance. CQ Researcher is a particularly good source of bibliographies on current topics.
CQ Vital Statistics on American Politics This link opens in a new window Covers a wide range of topics in American politics, such as elections, Congress, the presidency, the judiciary, the media, campaign finances, policy, and a variety of issues related to state and local government. Includes rankings of public officials' reputations, content analyses of media coverage, and public opinion data about policy issues. Sources of material include reference volumes, government publications, political science journals, monographs, and press releases.
CQ Voting and Elections This link opens in a new window CQ Voting and Elections Collection integrates data, analyses, concise explanations, and historical material to provide research material on the American voter, major and minor political parties, campaigns and elections, and historical and modern races for Congress, the presidency, and governorships.
Factiva This link opens in a new window Source for global news, and business, financial, and company information, providing access to thousands of newspapers and other publications. Stock quotes are also available. Simultaneous users: 6
FBIS: Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports (1941-1996) This link opens in a new window The Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) was a United States government operation which translated the text of daily broadcasts, government statements, and select news stories from non-English sources. Succeeded by World News Connection after 1996; scope of coverage may be significantly different. To access, select from the complete list of Newsbank collections.
Gallup Analytics This link opens in a new window Gallup Analytics houses more than a decade of international public opinion data from more than 160 countries and areas and nearly a century of U.S. national data.
Global Think Tanks (Policy Commons) This link opens in a new window Global Think Tanks is a growing digital repository providing access to more than 3 million reports, working papers, policy briefs, and data sources drawn from over 21,000 IGOs, NGOs, internationally-based think tanks and research organizations, along with document histories of 450 defunct organizations. Content is harvested (and indexed) on trending research topics across a wide range of disciplines and includes hard-to-find local and regional collections and at-risk content.
govinfo This link opens in a new window govinfo (formerly FdSys) GPO's official system of record for online Government information. Replaces GPO Access.
Health Policy Reference Center This link opens in a new window Health Policy Reference Center (HPRC) offers articles from hundreds of full-text publications, including industry-leading academic journals, monographs, magazines, trade publications and other valuable resources. In addition, it provides hundreds of thousands of records with subject headings from an extensive thesaurus.
Homeland Security Digital Library (HSDL) This link opens in a new window The Homeland Digital Security Library compiles documents relevant to homeland security policy and related national strategy. Information in the HDSL comes from federal, state and local agencies, research institutions, universities, and think tanks. Includes documents created since 2002, plus some earlier documents relevant to current initiatives. Sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Grants & Training and the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense & Security.
ICPSR: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research This link opens in a new window This resource includes both publicly available and non-publicly available datasets on public policy and social science research. Users must create an account and log in to access data.
International Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new window Current indexing and abstracting of the world's leading journals in political science. Simultaneous users: 8
LexisNexis Academic: please use Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window This database has been replaced by Nexis Uni.
Military & Government Collection This link opens in a new window Providing current news pertaining to all branches of the military, this database covers about 400 titles, with the full text of nearly 300 journals and periodicals and 245 pamphlets. Includes CountryWatch's Country Review.
National Journal Central This link opens in a new window A collection of resources on US politics and policy, including The National Journal, The Hotline, The National Journal Daily (formerly CongressDaily), The Almanac of American Politics, Daybook and more.
NBER Working Papers This link opens in a new window Provides full text of all working papers from the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private research organization dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the economy works.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window Formerly LexisNexis Academic. Access to major newspapers from around the world, as well as: industry and market news; company financial information; general medical topics; accounting, auditing, and tax information; legal news, law reviews, and case law; and the U.S. and state codes. Please use Google Chrome or IE browsers with this database.
Political Science Database This link opens in a new window Full text access to over 450 political science and international relations journals as well as dissertations, country reports, and policy papers.
ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new window (Formerly LexisNexis Congressional.) A comprehensive source of Congressional information including bills, hearings, testimonies, and legislative histories.
ProQuest Research Library Plus This link opens in a new window Covers a wide range of subject matter in both popular and scholarly periodicals. Also includes Proquest's Computing, Education, Religion, Science, Social Science and Telecommunication Journal modules.
Qualitative Data Repository This link opens in a new window The Qualitative Data Repository (QDR) is a dedicated archive for storing and sharing digital data (and accompanying documentation) generated or collected through qualitative and multi-method research in the social sciences and related disciplines.
Roper Center Public Opinion Archives (with iPOLL) This link opens in a new window Provided by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University, Roper iPoll is the largest collection of public opinion poll data with results from 1935 to the present. Roper iPoll contains nearly 800,000 questions and over 23,000 datasets from both U.S. and international polling firms. Surveys cover any number of topics including, social issues, politics, pop culture, international affairs, science, the environment, and much more. When available, results charts, demographic crosstabs and full datasets are provided for immediate download.
SAGE Research Methods Core This link opens in a new window Comprehensive online resource providing material to guide users through every step of the research process, including datasets, cases, books, articles and videos. For more information, see Sage Research Methods Libguide
voxgov This link opens in a new window Provides access to real-time documents, publications, press releases, and social media posts from all branches, offices, agencies, and elected officials of the U.S. Federal Government. Extensive search and filtering options; most content is from 2000-present.
World News Connection (1995-2013) This link opens in a new window Offers translated and English language news and information compiled from non-United States media sources. Coverage includes political, environmental, scientific, technical, and socioeconomic issues and events. Coverage: 1995-2013. Continued "Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Reports," published in print from approx. 1944-1996.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new window Provides citations to the international periodical literature in political science and its complementary fields.

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Correction 22 April 2024

Revealed: the ten research papers that policy documents cite most

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When David Autor co-wrote a paper on how computerization affects job skill demands more than 20 years ago, a journal took 18 months to consider it — only to reject it after review. He went on to submit it to The Quarterly Journal of Economics , which eventually published the work 1 in November 2003.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00660-1

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Correction 22 April 2024 : The original version of this story credited Sage, rather than Overton, as the source of the policy papers’ citation data. Sage’s location has also been updated.

Autor, D. H., Levy, F. & Murnane, R. J. Q. J. Econ. 118 , 1279–1333 (2003).

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Digital governance: government strategies that impact public services

Review Article
Published: 15 November 2022
Volume 2 , pages 427–452, ( 2022 )

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Francis M. Idzi 1 &
Ricardo Corrêa Gomes ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4164-5986 2

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The purpose of this study is to carry out a systematic literature review with meta-analysis, seeking to understand, from the perspective of public governance, how the Digital Era of Governance is impacting governments, which social contracts should be considered in a digital governance model, and which are the main barriers of digital government to the public policies design. The research uses the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol to record the evidence found. The contribution of this study to the observation of Digital Era Governance for government strategies points out that the most evident component of reintegration in governments are government portals that promote detachment from the central government and reduction of the burden on the State, the most apparent holism component are the digital services of social benefits, and the most evident digitization component were government portals with full availability of State services and improved search. Evidence is shown that government as a platform is the social contract model most available to society. It is also pointed out that the lack of knowledge and experience in technology was the most significant barrier to designing public policies focused on digital government.

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A Framework to Capture the Factors that Influence the Adoption of Digital Platforms in E-Government

E-government Research in Africa: A Systematic Review

Developing an Analytical Framework for Analyzing and Comparing National E-Government Strategies

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Idzi, F.M., Gomes, R.C. Digital governance: government strategies that impact public services. GPPG 2 , 427–452 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43508-022-00055-w

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Proquest Government Periodicals Index (Harvard Login) Government Periodicals Index covers the publications of federal departments and agencies responsible for fundamental societal concerns: business, agriculture, national security, the environment and natural resources, health and safety, food and nutrition, transportation, and more. more... less... ProQuest Government Periodicals Index provides indexing and links to full text articles from over 300 periodicals published by agencies and departments of the United States Federal government. The index provides detailed access by subject and author. ####Updated quarterly (March, June, Sept, and December), Government Periodicals Universe covers the publications of scores of federal departments and agencies responsible for fundamental societal concerns: business, agriculture, national security, the environment and natural resources, health and safety, food and nutrition, transportation, and more. With each update, the service adds approximately 2,500 articles that reflect the enormous diversity of federal interests.
Policy Commons Database for public policy, with more than 3 million reports, working papers, policy briefs, data sources, and media drawn from a directory of more than 21,000 IGOs, NGOs, think tanks, and research centers.

Public Policy Journals

Harvard Law & Policy Review
Stanford Law & Policy Review
Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy
Hein Online Law Journal Library: Advanced Search In the subject field, select Public Law and Policy to narrow your search to relevant journals. Note by selecting Public Law and Policy, you will be able to view a long list of policy-focused law journals.
JSTOR Public Policy & Administration Collection of full-text journals relating to public policy. Coverage varies by title. more... less... JSTOR (www.jstor.org) is a not-for-profit organization with a dual mission to create and maintain a trusted archive of important scholarly journals, and to provide access to these journals as widely as possible. Content in JSTOR spans many disciplines, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. For complete lists of titles and collections, please refer to http://www.jstor.org/about/collection.list.html.
Search HOLLIS for U.S. law & public policy journals

Law and Legislation

THOMAS A resource created by the Library of Congress, THOMAS provides access to a wide range of legislative materials including public laws, pending bills, committee reports and hearings. It also provides access to the full text of legislation from 1989 (101st Congress) to the present. This is a good resource for compiling legislative history materials.
House and Senate Hearings, Congressional Record Permanent Digital Collection, and Digital US Bills and Resolutions A major source of information about the members of Congress and their legislative activities and a primary resource for accessing the many publications of the U.S. Congress from 1789 to present
LexisNexis State Capital Extensive access to state legislation, administrative law, and commentary more... less... LexisNexis State Capital provides access to the legislation and administrative law of all 50 states. Consult this resource to retrieve: the full text of bills, current state statutory codes and constitutions, adopted regulations as available in current state administrative codes or as initially published in state registers and proposed regulations as also located in recent state registers. Tracking reports of the status of current bills and proposed regulations are provided as well. Coverage of current legislative issues and developments by state newspapers of record and other publications is also offered by State Capital. In addition, current state legislative directory information and the Martindale-Hubbell Law Digest are included in this resource.
Federal Legislative History (HLSL Research Guide) For more detailed links for finding legislative history, please consult our Federal Legislative History Research Guide

Congressional Research Reports

The Congressional Research Service provides background research for members of Congress. CRS Reports are not automatically made public, so there is no single source for finding CRS Reports. Try these resources to locate CRS Reports on your issue.

Every CRS Report Open access to selected public research reports produced by the Congressional Research Service
Harvard Kennedy School: Research Guide to Congressional Research Service Reports

Government Research Reports and Analysis

Proquest Government Periodicals Index (Harvard Login) more... less... ProQuest Government Periodicals Index provides indexing and links to full text articles from over 300 periodicals published by agencies and departments of the United States Federal government. The index provides detailed access by subject and author. ####Updated quarterly (March, June, Sept, and December), Government Periodicals Universe covers the publications of scores of federal departments and agencies responsible for fundamental societal concerns: business, agriculture, national security, the environment and natural resources, health and safety, food and nutrition, transportation, and more. With each update, the service adds approximately 2,500 articles that reflect the enormous diversity of federal interests.
National Journal Group's Policy Central (Harvard Login) more... less... National Journal’s Policy Central is a collection of resources on U.S. politics and policy, including the National Journal with archives dating back to 1977; the Hotline, a daily briefing on U.S. politics; CongressDaily, a twice daily update on activity in the U.S. Congress; Technology Daily; Poll Track; Markup Reports; Ad Spotlight; and the Almanac of American Politics.
CQ Press Electronic Library (Harvard Login) A comprehensive reference resource for research in U.S. politics, elections, government, and public policy. Includes CQ Weekly, the Washington Information Directory, Congressional, Federal, Judicial Staff Directories, CQ Researcher, the Congress Collection, Voting and Elections Collection, and more. more... less... A comprehensive reference resource for research in U.S. politics, elections, government, and public policy. Includes CQ Weekly, the Washington Information Directory, Congressional, Federal, Judicial Staff Directories, CQ Researcher, the Congress Collection, Voting and Elections Collection, and more.
U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) The GAO is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress. GAO investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars. Non-classified GAO reports are available online or via the GAO's iPhone app.

Working Papers

If you're looking for works in progress or articles that have been accepted, but not yet published, here are some places to search.

SSRN: Social Science Research Network SSRN contains both full text and abstracts of forthcoming and scholarly working papers--as well as published articles--in a full range of social science disciplines: law, economics, management, negotiation, politics, etc.
BePress BePress is another academic repository that contains both published and working papers.
World Bank Policy Research Working Papers A collection of policy research working papers, policy research reports, and world development reports in the World Bank's Archives.
Harvard Kennedy School Faculty Working Paper Series Index to HKS working papers on research in a number of areas related to public policy.

Grey Literature

"Grey Literature" refers to documents produced by entities that are not primarily publishers. It can include reports, memos, working papers and internal documents. These research guides give some good sources and tips for locating these types of materials.

Grey Literature Research Guide (University of Michigan)
Grey Literature Research Guide (NYU)

Looking for a report written by a think tank, non-profit, or other NGO? The links below include tools that can help you search across think tank sites, find organizations by topic, and more.

If you know which organization you're looking for, you can of course go directly to an organization's website. If you have trouble finding something you think should exist on a specific site, remember it's easy to create a custom search engine with Google. For example, if you are looking for the recent Rand report Planning for an Aging Nation, you would type the following into the search box:

"Planning for an Aging Nation" site:rand.org

This will limit your search to just Rand's website. You can limit your search further to just results in PDF by running the following search:

"Planning for an Aging Nation" site:rand.org filetype:pdf

UNC Think Tank Google Search This custom Google search engine allows you to search across 300 of the most important US and international think tanks.
HKS Think Tanks Directory The Kennedy School Library's directory of think tanks covers US and International organizations.
Think Tank Rankings (International Relations Program, University of Pennsylvania) Global directory of top think tanks by region, subject, and special achievement, i.e. most innovative proposals, best new think tank.
NIRA - National Institute for Research Advancement (Japan, 2005) Directory A worldwide directory of think tanks that provides descriptions of the organizations' work, operating budgets, and officers.
Master Government List of Federally Funded R&D Centers (National Science Foundation)

News Sources

Nexis Uni (Harvard Key) Nexis Uni contains major newspapers and magazines with coverage for about the last 30 years.
Proquest Historical Newspapers If you're looking for older news stories, Proquest may have it. Its coverage includes the New York Times, Washington Post, and WSJ, as well as several other major regional US and African American newspapers dating from the 19th-late 20th centuries.
Widener Collection of Newspapers on Microfilm If you're in the Boston area, remember that Widener Library has a large collection of newspapers on microfilm including regional and local titles.
Factiva Factiva is a database of over 8,000 business and news publications, most in full text. Sources are in 22 languages, date back as far as 1969, and include trade journals, newswires (Dow Jones, Reuters, and others), media programs, and company and stock reports more... less... Factiva is a database of over 8,000 business and news publications, most in full text. Sources are in 22 languages, date back as far as 1969, and include trade journals, newswires (Dow Jones, Reuters, and others), media programs, and company and stock reports. Find information on over 22,000 public and private companies including description, history, current stock quote, financial data, competitors, and the latest news on business activities. Search publications by title, industry, geographic locations, type, and language.
National Journal Group's Policy Central (Harvard Login) National Journal’s Policy Central is a collection of resources on U.S. politics and policy, including the National Journal with archives dating back to 1977; the Hotline, a daily briefing on U.S. politics; CongressDaily, a twice daily update on activity in the U.S. Congress; Technology Daily; Poll Track; Markup Reports; Ad Spotlight; and the Almanac of American Politics. more... less... National Journal’s Policy Central is a collection of resources on U.S. politics and policy, including the National Journal with archives dating back to 1977; the Hotline, a daily briefing on U.S. politics; CongressDaily, a twice daily update on activity in the U.S. Congress; Technology Daily; Poll Track; Markup Reports; Ad Spotlight; and the Almanac of American Politics.

Current Awareness

If you're following an issue, there are a number of ways to keep up on developments. Lexis and Westlaw both have alerting services that will send you an email when there are new results for a search you've run. Some general academic databases listed in this guide also have alerting services.

Lexis alerts Set up a Lexis alert to be notified when new results are available for a search. You can set alerts in most database types and for new Shepard's results.
Justia's BlawgSearch Find legal blogs in your research areas to follow, or search across the legal blogosphere. Either way you can subscribe to results with your favorite RSS reader.
Google News Search news sites with Google and subscribe to the results.
ABA Blawg Directory Browse by region to find local law blogs

U.S. Government Agencies

Federal Agency Directory (Louisiana State University Library Online directory created as partnership between LSU and the Federal Library Depository Project
Leadership Connect (Harvard Login) Leadership Directories, also known as Yellow Books, contain current contact information for the leaders of major U.S. government, business, professional and nonprofit organizations. more... less... Leadership Directories researches contact and biographical data for hundreds of thousands of thought leaders in America - with emails, phone numbers, addresses, and background information. It provides web-based directories with in-depth organization profiles and verified contact information from companies, government agencies, Congressional offices, law firms, news media outlets, healthcare organizations, and nonprofits.
State and Local Government on the Web Links by state and subject.

International Agencies

List on IGOs (Northwestern University) Comprehensive guide to Intergovernmental Organizations compiled by librarians at Northwestern Univerisity
Duke Searchable NGO Database This is a selected searchable database of NGOs.
International Organizations (United States Institute for Peace) Alphabetical list of international organizations.
Yearbook of International Organizations Online Searchable database of approximately 63,000 international organizations. more... less... The Yearbook of International Organizations Online is a searchable database of approximately 63,000 international organizations. The information for each organization includes name, address, biographical information for company officers, history and aims, personnel and finances. All types of organizations are included such as formal structures, informal networks, professional bodies and recreational clubs.
Worldwide NGO Directory

Think Tanks

Interest groups and associations.

CQ Guide to Interest Groups and Lobbying in the U.S. Overview and analysis of interest groups and lobbying in American politics from the 18th century to the present.
OpenSecrets Open Secrets tracks money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy, and includes federal campaign contributions, lobbying data and analysis available
Political Advocacy Groups: A Directory of United States Lobbyists Online directory of lobbying groups organized by subject.
data.census.gov The U.S. Census Bureau’s online tool for accessing population, economic, geographic and housing information.
Court Statistics Project The CSP collects and analyzes data relating to the work and caseloads of US courts.
Statistical Abstract of the United States An authoritative and comprehensive summary of historical statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. Use the Abstract as a convenient volume for statistical reference, and as a guide to sources of more information both in print and on the Web. Sources of data include the Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, and many other Federal agencies and private organizations, covering the years 1889-2011. Historical supplements include statistics from the colonial era through 1970.
ICPSR The ICPSR, Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction. All ICPSR datasets at Harvard University are maintained by the IQSS Dataverse Network. (Harvard University ID and PIN required).
The Supreme Court Database A the definitive source for researchers, students, journalists, and citizens interested in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Database contains over two hundred pieces of information about each case decided by the Court between the 1953 and 2008 terms. Examples include the identity of the court whose decision the Supreme Court reviewed, the parties to the suit, the legal provisions considered in the case, and the votes of the Justices.
Proquest Statistical Insight (Harvard Login) indexes and abstracts of the statistical content of selected publications of U.S. federal and state agencies, non-governmental associations, commercial publishers, universities, and international, research and business organizations. more... less... Proquest Statistical Insight is a bibliographic database that indexes and abstracts the statistical content of selected United States government publications, state government publications, business and association publications, and intergovernmental publications. The abstracts may also contain a link to the full text of the table and/or a link to the agency's web site where the full text of the publication may be viewed and downloaded.
Statistics Sources This resource indexes statistical resources alphabetically, topically and geographically, including international sources. It is available in print in the reference room at HA1 .S7.
WDI Online (World Development Indicators) WDI (World Development Indicators) Online contains statistical data from the World Bank for almost 600 development indicators and time series data from 1960 for over 200 countries and 18 country groups. Data includes social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators. more... less... WDI (World Development Indicators) Online contains statistical data from the World Bank for almost 600 development indicators and time series data from 1960 for over 200 countries and 18 country groups. Data includes social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators. Results can be scaled, indexed against a particular year, viewed by percentage change, and charted. Data can be exported in Excel.

Public Opinion

American National Election Studies ANES contains downloadable data sets for U.S. elections and public opinion from 1948 to the present.
Gallup Analytics (Harvard Login) The Gallup Brain is a searchable record of more than 70 years of public opinion and includes answers to hundreds of thousands of questions, and responses from millions of people interviewed by The Gallup Poll since 1935. more... less... Fully searchable records of Daily U.S. Data - economic, well-being, and political data collected daily since 2008 of 1,000+ interviews; World Poll Data - economic, social, and well-being data collected annually since 2005 in 160+ countries, 1.5 million+ interviews worldwide; and Gallup Brain - historical Gallup trends on thousands of topics from the U.S. and world dating back to the 1930s.
General Social Survey The GSS contains a standard 'core' of demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal questions, plus topics of special interest. Many of the core questions have remained unchanged since 1972 to facilitate time-trend studies as well as replication of earlier findings. The GSS takes the pulse of America, and is a unique and valuable resource. It has tracked the opinions of Americans over the last four decades.
The Roper Center Public Opinion Archives The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research is a leading archive of social science data, specializing in data from surveys of public opinion. The data held range from the 1930s, when survey research was in its infancy, to the present. Most of the data are from the United States, but over 50 nations are represented.
Pew Research Center for People and the Press The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press is an independent, non-partisan public opinion research organization that studies attitudes toward politics, the press and public policy issues.

Additional Data & Public Opinion Sources

Databases for Statistical Research (Harvard Law School Library
Harvard Library Data Research Guides
Public Opinion Data Sources (Harvard Library)

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Open access
Published: 01 October 2018

Research in government and academia: the case of health policy

Sherry Glied ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9432-1662 1 ,
Raphael Wittenberg 2 , 3 &
Avi Israeli 4

Israel Journal of Health Policy Research volume 7 , Article number: 35 ( 2018 ) Cite this article

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A Commentary to this article was published on 03 October 2018

A Commentary to this article was published on 02 October 2018

Making effective health policy requires expert knowledge of an ever-changing technological, epidemiological, social, and economic context. One important vehicle for integrating expert research into the policy process is through linkages and exchanges between researchers and government officials [ 1 ]. Many governments respond to this need for expert knowledge by using advisory boards that include academics. Many also integrate academic health policy researchers more fully into policymaking by making them short-term or long-term employees. Each of us (Sherry Glied, Raphael Wittenberg and Avi Israeli) has spent some time as an academic and as a regular member of a governmental policy-making body, in the US, England, and Israel, respectively. In this paper, we reflect on the lessons learned from our dual perspectives.

There is growing international interest in improving the ability of policymakers to make use of health policy research [ 2 , 3 , 4 ] Prior research has examined the effectiveness of varying strategies for knowledge transfer and exchange. These strategies range from dissemination approaches, such as producing succinct summaries of research findings accessible to policy-makers; to training efforts, such as conducting workshops involving researchers and decision-makers; to the use of outside consultants. A considerable literature has examined the structures, processes, and purposes under which research findings are used—or not used-- by policymakers. Across many contexts, countries, and time periods, this literature consistently identifies collaborative relationships as critical to the process [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Policy intermediaries, with strong ties to both research and policymaking, are important actors in these collaborative relationships [ 11 , 12 ]. A comprehensive review concluded that “having personal contacts and building trust through quality relationships over time” are key factors in successful knowledge transfer [ 13 ]. Most efforts at building such relationships have involved bringing policymakers into the academy. But an alternative approach is to embed academics in policymaking institutions. This article describes how that approach has worked in practice in three contexts.

Role of health policy academics in government

Although the government structures and health systems of the US, UK, and Israel are quite different, all three make some use of health policy academics in government. In all three countries, academics serve on ad hoc taskforces, standing committees, and other consultative bodies. To varying extents, in all three countries, some senior members of the permanent civil service, particularly in the scientific and statistical agencies, come from academia and, in some cases (often in Israel), may maintain their academic roles while serving in government. For example, the last four Chief Statisticians in Israel have been academics, and two recent Chief Analysts at the Department of Health and Social Care for England (DHSC) had previously been academics. For reasons that we discuss below, this flow is usually one way – from academia into government – though there are occasional exceptions. Academics who move into the permanent civil service often acquire a professional identity as government officials and rarely return to academia.

In all three countries, academics are often invited to act, on a short-term, temporary basis, as advisers or members of specialist government committees. In England, parliamentary Committees, such as the House of Commons Health Committee, also appoint academics as advisors on specific enquiries. In the US, scientific advisory boards that make critical policy decisions, such as the United States Preventive Services Taskforce, are often staffed largely by academics. In Israel, academics often form part of the committees that update the medical basket. In these situations, the inclusion of academics is a tactic that may serve to remove a decision that depends on evidence from the partisan political process [ 14 ]. Academics serving on taskforces rarely migrate into government – they retain their professional identities as academics.

Finally, in all three countries, there are situations where policy researchers hold full-time (though often temporary) positions within the bureaucracy and retain a connection to academia, for example, by taking leave from a position to which they intend to return. The specific parameters of these situations vary among countries.

In England, academics may be seconded for a limited period to government departments. Some academics, often clinician experts, work for the Government, with contracts for a specified time period, before returning to academia. This pattern is most common among specialists such as analysts, research managers and clinicians at senior and mid-level. Conversely civil servants may be seconded to university research units. Wittenberg was for many years seconded part-time from the Department of Health and Social Care to the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) before he became a member of LSE and University of Oxford staff; and a few of his LSE colleagues have been seconded for periods to the Department of Health and Social Care or other government departments. In some circumstances, academics in England simultaneously serve in government and maintain their positions in academia.

In the United States, academics typically hold temporary full-time positions in government. Many universities limit the length of time that an academic may spend on leave in such a position (a practice known as the Kissinger rule) [ 15 ]. While some academics in government may continue to teach as adjunct or part-time faculty, it is unusual for someone to hold both a full-time academic position and a position within government (other than as a part-time member of an advisory board or review committee) at the same time.

In Israel, health policy academics frequently serve as members of government-appointed committees, or as advisors to senior government officials. It is rare to see a person who has a full-time position in academia move to a full position in the Ministry of Health, either permanently or temporarily. However, in Israel it is possible for professionals to combine academic and civil service pursuits without having to sacrifice one for the other. The most common arrangement is for a senior medical professional to hold a long-term, full-time position in government along with a part-time connection with a university. Physical proximity and the tight knit networks linking professionals in the two settings encourage such arrangements. In some cases, the part-time connections with a university involve an opportunity to move up the academic ladder (including up to full professorial rank), based on research and publications and other academic achievements. The academic affiliation, worn with a sense of prestige, reflects the interest and involvement of government officials in academic work, and the value they assign to it.

Avi Israeli has served full-time as Director General of the Ministry of Health (2003–2009), currently serves part-time as Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Health, and has served as Chair of the Public Committee to Update the Basket of Health Services in a voluntary capacity. He served in all three of these governmental roles while also serving as Head of the Department of Health Policy and Management of the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health. The intensity of his academic involvement varied according to the intensity of his governmental role.

In the US, health policy academics are typically recruited into the executive branch of government to work full-time for a few years (often coinciding with a Presidential term), with the expectation that after term of service they will return to academia. Academics fill a significant share of the politically-appointed positions in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as did Glied, who took a leave from a tenured position on the faculty of Columbia University to serve as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation from 2010 to 2012.

In this one foot in each camp situation, researchers maintain professional identities as both government officials and academics. This can be complicated. Health policy questions often turn on issues of values with respect to both ends (what is the appropriate distribution of resources?) and ends (how should considerations of collective responsibility and individual liberty be reconciled?). Academics in government inevitably bring their own values to a table crowded with the values of their fellow policymakers. As discussed below, this poses a challenge of balancing academic freedom and commitment to evidence with policy relevance and the political context -- not always a straightforward matter.

Roles of government in health policy research and analysis

Governments in all three countries play substantial roles in health services and policy research. Governments often conduct major surveys and data collection efforts. Government research funding agencies, including the National Institute for Health Research in the UK, the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in the US, and the National Institute for Health Policy Research and Center for Disease Control in Israel, fund both investigator-initiated research and research in response to specific programs or calls. Where the government is directly involved in the delivery of health care services, it may also fund a program of health services research aimed at improving the quality of delivery in government-operated facilities. For example, in the US, the Veterans’ Administration funds a very extensive intramural and external program of health services research, though this is not generally focused on broad federal health policy ( https://www.research.va.gov/services/hsrd.cfm ). Academics may serve on review panels for such research. Academics who have migrated to the permanent civil service may play important roles in developing specific programs or calls.

In the US, Congress has often shied away from using this type of research funding to support policy-oriented research. The AHRQ is an eloquent symbol of that reluctance – it had originally been called the Agency for Health Care Policy Research, but was renamed in 1999 to take the word Policy out of its title [ 16 , 17 ]. The Department of Health and Social Care for England, by contrast, has a Policy Research Program (PRP) which commissions high quality research based evidence, some of it at a number of PRP research units that undertake substantial long-term programs of research agreed with DHSC. In these cases, governments sponsor academic research, which is undertaken by academics within universities. The resulting reports and publications are usually circulated publicly and may be quoted in Government Green and White Papers. In Israel, the Ministry of Health and the National Institute for Health Policy Research, a mechanism created by the National Health Insurance Law to fund evaluation of the health system, make grants specifically to support policy development.

In addition to promoting academic research, governments also undertake, in house and via contract, non-academic analyses that inform policy or practice in health and social care, and address very specific policy issues. These analyses rarely involve sustained detailed investigation of a specific research question or hypothesis and rarely involve systematic reviews, interviews or other primary data collection, extensive secondary analyses of existing data, or preparation of articles for academic journals. The Department of Health and Social Care in England conducts in-house a wide range of statistical, economic, operational research and other forms of analyses and modelling (as does the Department for Work and Pensions) [ 18 ]. These frequently draw on academic research, as well as official data, surveys and other sources of evidence, including research commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care. In the US, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) and other policy units conduct similar in-house analyses and commission studies through detailed contracts that specify both the question and the nature of the work product. In the US, almost all of this research is conducted by contract research firms (examples include the RAND Corporation, Mathematica Policy Research, MDRC, and RTI). In Israel, the Ministry of Health commissions outside studies. on specific topics and also utilizes independent research organizations such as Myers Joint Brookdale Institute and the Gertner Institute for Health Services Research.

Such government-commissioned research can pose political risks for the commissioning agencies. The research studies sometimes provide results that are not clear cut, are counter-intuitive, do not support the preferred policies of decision makers who posed the questions, or raise new issues, despite being aimed at very specific problems. Academics in government may be particularly useful in seizing opportunities that the results of such commissioned research studies offer, whether by defining follow-up research questions, encouraging redirection of existing policy, or translating research findings into specific policy actions. For example, in 2013, ASPE commissioned research to assess whether the requirements of the 2018 Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act were being met [ 19 ]. The report generally found that substantial gains had been made in the areas of quantitative treatment limits that were the focus of the study. This surprised advocates, who reported instances where parity requirements were not met. The presence of an academic mental health policy expert, Richard Frank, enabled ASPE to commission a new research study focused on the discrepancy [ 20 ]. The later study helped shape the Department’s subsequent enforcement activities.

Structure of research in government and in academia

Successful academic health policy researchers have specialized expertise and work hard – traits that are prized in both academia and government. But while these high level characteristics translate easily, many aspects of the institutional structure of policy research in government and academia are quite different (and these, in turn, differ across countries). Both the kinds of research that are demanded and the ways that work is conducted vary across these two contexts.

The overarching goal of research in academia is to better understand the world. The most prized work provides a new perspective or insight into existing phenomena. Novel, creative work will identify a previously unrecognized problem, propose a new set of methodological tools, or offer a distinctive theoretical structure that ties together ideas or events that had been seen as unrelated [ 21 , 22 , 23 ]. This kind of work spawns a flood of follow-on research, normal science, filling in the details of a model. The corresponding metric of success in academia is articles in high quality academic journals and citation counts – measures of how many other researchers found that this work gave them a new and useful way of engaging with problems.

The merit of scholarly work depends critically on its creativity, novelty, and insight. Rigor and accuracy do also matter, but are not sufficient. Most of the onus for ensuring the accuracy of papers lies with the researcher. The external peer review system, in its design, can provide only a top-level review of the researcher’s approach, such as the design of the study, and pose a few questions. Reviewers rarely examine underlying data and often have inadequate time or training to assess the validity of findings [ 24 ]. While researchers regularly call for replications and re-analyses, publications and promotions go to those who break new ground. The conventions of the academy also define what a high quality paper should cover. The data, methods, and results sections of a paper must adhere to certain discipline-specific standards, but authors have nearly free reign in choosing their questions and in discussing the implications of their results.

The growth of research funding for the social sciences, and of the field of public policy as an academic pursuit, have narrowed the gap between the goals of researchers in the academy (at least in this field) and those in government somewhat. Government funders of social science research expect investigators to address questions of policy significance and to make an effort to translate their findings into actionable suggestions (this is particularly true in England). Schools of public policy likewise encourage their faculty to study issues that policymakers will find relevant. Nonetheless, this gap remains an enduring concern, as evidenced by a steady flow of books, articles, and conferences and renewed attention to “knowledge transfer” between academia and policymakers [ 1 ].

While academic policy researchers do conduct research that may be useful to policymakers, the principal goal of research in government remains quite different from that of the academy-- to give policymakers information that will help them to solve a specific, pre-defined policy problem in real time. In contrast to the broad range of questions an academic might choose, most of the time a researcher in government is given a specific assignment to complete within a specific, often challenging, deadline. While a research team in academia generally conducts research itself, sometimes in collaboration with other research teams, in government most research (except rapid turnaround requests) is not conducted in-house but commissioned under contracts with external researchers . For example, at the Department of Health and Human Services, ASPE was asked to assist the Secretary in developing the benefit package that would be the standard for coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The agency conducted analyses in-house (comparing benefits offered in various markets, for example [ 25 ]) and used commissioned research (assessing actuarial values of various benefit designs) that would help answer that very concrete, policy relevant question [ 26 ].

For most questions, the permanent civil service staff is more likely to understand how much effort a question deserves, what the realistic bounds of the policy debate are likely to be, and how formally it needs to be answered. On more than a few occasions, the “old hands” in government make clear to time-limited academic appointees that internal bureaucratic politics, data limitations, or the likely uncertainty of any answer argue against devoting a lot of time or budget to what seemed to be an interesting and important policy question. But the academic’s training and socialization to seek creative solutions to new and difficult questions can be valuable when a novel policy problem is far from the questions that “old hands” have dealt with in the past.

The questions that flow to academics in government are usually very tough, out-of-the-box challenges that can best be answered by bringing together the worlds of institutional knowledge within government and of creative research in academia. Collaborations between governments and academics, often with academic researchers in government serving in a bridging role, can take the form of extended programs of policy-oriented research.

Such programs have generated useful results that altered the shape of policy. For example, the analysis prepared for Ministers in successive UK governments and expert enquiries on reforming the system for financing long-term care involved close collaboration between researchers at the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the London School of Economics and analysts in the social care analytical unit at the DH [ 27 , 28 ]. (Wittenberg was for many years a member of both). The development and implementation of the Prospective Payment System (DRGs) in the US involved a decades-long collaboration between the Office of Research and Development in the Health Care Financing Administration and academics at several Universities [ 29 , 30 , 31 ]. In Israel, a group of Israeli academics began to study the issue of evaluating, measuring and reporting on the quality of community based health care. With time, these researchers established connections with health plans, in which they discussed the literature on quality measurement, compared different measures used in the different plans, and committed themselves to deploy agreed measures to improve quality of care, while committing not to reveal measures of quality in the different health plans. In 2004, Israeli, as The Director General of the Ministry of Health, an academic serving in government, and aware of this research, offered to place the program under the aegis of the MOH, along with full funding through the National Institute for Health Policy, leading to this academic-initiated activity transforming into the National Program for Quality Measurement in Community Care. It combines research and comparisons with other countries, a framework for health plans and providers to continually improve quality of care, and reporting of quality measures to the public.

As these examples suggest, while the primary intention of government-commissioned research is to address specific policy issues, not to generate academic publications of generalizable value, sometimes the two are quite compatible. In the field of health policy research, the most notable example of such a happy symbiosis is the RAND Health Insurance Experiment. In 1971, the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, which was then considering options for universal health insurance, funded the RAND Corporation (a US contract research firm) to was commissioned to produce estimates of the effects of alternative health insurance packages on service utilization. The results of the study remain of direct policy significance; the study also generated hundreds of peer-reviewed journal articles which have spurred further academic research [ 32 , 33 ].

While the academic perspective may be useful in identifying a path to an answer for a challenging question, the academic’s usual approach is unlikely to be helpful in government. In contrast to the academy’s preference for novelty, research in government is most useful when it is straightforward; uses well-accepted, conventional methods; and can be replicated easily. Meta-analyses and reviews of existing literature are preferred over original research. In government, rigor and accuracy trump imagination and cleverness every time. In contrast to the academic model under which a small number (2–4) of voluntary peer reviewers assess the validity and interest of a completed work and pose a few questions, a major piece of governmental policy research, one that will be released publicly, may go through extensive internal review. Junior researchers within government may check the math; outside peer reviewers may be enlisted – and paid – to ensure that methods have been used appropriately; and legal staff, political staff, even public relations staff will review the product from their various perspectives. The framing of the question and the discussion section will garner at least as much scrutiny as the methods. The difference in processes means that at least according to formal requirements, a policy research report released by a government is often more likely to contain results that are accurate, verifiable, nuanced and replicable than a paper published in the most esteemed peer-reviewed journal (see https://aspe.hhs.gov/report/hhs-guidelines-ensuring-and-maximizing-quality-objectivity-utility-and-integrity-information-disseminated-public ). Research on the quality of government-commissioned research in England finds that it is likely to be more accurate than other commissioned research, though it may not be published in a timely fashion [ 34 , 35 ]. It is also likely to be less broadly interesting, provocative, and creative than academic research. It can be tremendously valuable if it is used by policymakers in shaping policy – or in rejecting a contemplated policy direction -- even if it is never ever cited again.

These differences in the nature of publication help explain why excellent policy analysts in the permanent civil service rarely migrate back into academia. Their commitment to doing the kind of research needed by government, and to publishing through the government process, often means giving up the chance to pursue their own research interests and to publish extensively in academic journals. Even the most well-established and effective policy researcher in government is very unlikely to have a resume of novel academic publications that would satisfy a university hiring committee. Moreover, if the researcher has become identified with specific policy directions (whether or not based on his or her research), and those policy directions are contested, return to academia may be more unlikely. While efforts are underway to facilitate movement back into academia, for example by encouraging tenure review committees to consider a broader range of publications (see, for example, http://wtgrantfoundation.org/grants/institutional-challenge-grant ; http://www.cahs-acss.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/ROI_FullReport.pdf ), this difference in the nature and number of work products and tasks explains why it is so often challenging to move from full-time government service into academia.

Consuming policy research in government

The interplay between research and policy is strongly molded by politics [ 36 , 37 ]. Within this political context, policymakers make use of research evidence in many ways, from informing a policy decision to justifying or legitimating one to compensating for the lack of policy action [ 14 , 38 ]. This multiplicity of uses makes the connections between research and policymaking are often indirect and obscure [ 6 , 14 , 39 ]. This is particularly true in health policy, where policymakers must often balance considerations of efficiency with their own and their constituents’ values about the appropriate distribution of resources. A growing consensus, however, suggests that research, broadly defined, affects policymaking across many dimensions. Whether the use of research evidence actually improves the quality of government services, and whether it enhances democratic decisionmaking, remain contested questions [ 37 , 40 , 41 ].

Academics in government are useful because they can conduct research – but they are also useful in other ways. Full-time policy researchers in government do not routinely read academic research. There are several reasons for this lack of attention. First, the timescale of academic research is often not appropriate to government [ 1 ]. Most academic research is focused on understanding the world as it is now – but most policy researchers in government need answers to specific questions to inform decisions about particular future policy choices. Academic research happens at its own pace (unless commissioned by government agencies), but governments make decisions when they must or can, often on a very short time horizon. Second, academic research products are not necessarily organized to be useful to policymakers. A journal issue, with its assortment of articles, may contain nothing of interest to a policymaker whose needs are very specific. Even a single article likely contains considerable spurious information (from the policymaker’s perspective) but lacks some specific detail (how would this intervention affect a particular population?). Academics in government can connect the findings of academic researchers and the needs of policymakers: this can be a crucial part of their role, in view of their expertise in both research and in policy analysis.

Academic researchers make this connection in a variety of ways. Their knowledge of the academic research literature allows them to identify opportunities to insert existing research into policy discussions. This insider knowledge allows them, where appropriate, to provide research evidence to political champions willing to support evidence-based policies, or to help politicians develop evidence-based agendas in support of policy goals. Academic researchers can also strengthen the value of government commissioned research, by situating it in the context of the broader literature. The success of academic researchers in achieving these ends will depend on their legitimacy within the research community and their institutional positions within the policymaking body [ 42 ] Academics are also more likely to be successful if they understand the constraints and demands of both the scientific and policymaking communities [ 43 ].

In playing these roles, academic researchers in government come to appreciate that research results are only one of many factors that influence policy design. In government, the academic finds that no research result stands on its own – as it would in the context of academic peer review. Instead, research enters the process through a complex network of politicians, decision makers, policy agendas, media coverage and pressures from interest groups (sometimes citing academic research) and the general public. Effective academics in government can put their creativity and knowledge to use here as well. They can help put research in context, compare conflicting findings, connect research to ongoing agendas, link research to powerful allies, and provide rationales for policy support. While research may not always carry the day, academics in government are well placed to inject research findings into debates where they have not found a place before. At the same time, the enlistment of researchers to support certain positions preferred by policy makers must be taken into account: creation of mechanisms, such as symposia of government based scientists, can balance competing positions supported by research.

Conclusions

The interplay between academia and government, which exists in all three countries, has strengthened the quality of health policy. It has also improved the quality of academic research in this area. Health policy is ultimately bound by institutional, political, and financial constraints and health policy research is both most valuable and also most interesting when it recognizes and responds to those constraints. This need not mean that academics must give up their freedom to choose topics and pursue creative ideas. On the contrary – the ability to go beyond the specific problem at hand is where the academic setting is most valuable. But academic research is itself more robust, and more useful, when it recognizes the institutional constraints of legislation and implementation.

Academic research will translate more directly into policy when it makes sense within a specific policy context. It will also have more impact if it is readily brought to the attention of policymakers. Academics can help make that happen by collaborating in the production of Briefs and Research Summaries, often by working with think tanks (particularly those that are less ideological) and similar bridging organizations. These products are far more likely to be read, and so have a greater chance of entering the policy process, than academic papers. Even more important, academics can bring their research to policy attention by seeking out opportunities to talk to and collaborate with policymakers. That requires time, and is sometimes a distraction from the task of publishing peer-reviewed journal articles, but such collaborations offer not only policy impact, but often promising areas of research, access to useful data, and wise advice from experts in the field. Finally, academics can profit from spending time in government, where they can both learn about this alternative culture and build lasting relationships that will help translate their future research into policy [ 44 , 45 ].

Making research meaningful to policymakers is increasingly key to professional success. In the UK, the Research Excellence Framework, the official system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions, takes account of the impact of research as well as its scientific quality. Government-initiated and researcher-initiated health policy research both need to have policy relevance and impact as well as high scientific quality. While the US has no parallel mechanism, research funders, including both public funders and private foundations, increasingly insist that researchers document the impact of their research on policy and well-being. In Israel, research funders often emphasize the importance of policy relevance and dedicated journals, such as the IJHPR, help to raise the academic profile of policy related research.

Playing a role in the policy process is not only professionally valuable, it is also immensely personally rewarding (As each of us can attest). Academics often become health policy researchers because they care deeply about their nations’ health systems, and it is very satisfying to make meaningful contributions to their success. As scholars, service in government offers an unparalleled opportunity to discover a new set of problems and audiences. As individuals, working in government allows scholars to encounter a new set of colleagues and friends, with different perspectives and interests. Weaving research, often based on access to unparalled sources of data stored by government (and not readily available to university based academics), into policy discussions and thus experiencing its actual impact on policy outcomes for the country’s population is hugely satisfying to the academic functioning in government.

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Acknowledgements

We thank David Chinitz and Bruce Rosen for useful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

About the authors

Sherry Glied is Dean of the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University. From 2010 to 2012, she served as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the US Department of Health and Human Services. In 1992–1993, she served as a senior economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.

Raphael Wittenberg is an Associate Professorial Research Fellow at the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Deputy Director of the Centre for Health Service Economics and Organisation (CHSEO) at the University of Oxford. He was for many years a Senior Economist at the Department of Health and Social Care (the health ministry for England). His specialist interest is the financing of long-term care.

Avi Israeli is the Dr. Julien Rozan Professor of Family Medicine and Health Care at the Hebrew University - Hadassah Faculty of Medicine; Director of the Department of Health Policy, Health Care Management and Health Economics, Hebrew University – Hadassah Braun School of Public Health & Community Medicine; Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Health; and co-editor of IJHPR.

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SG framed the piece and all authors contributed equally to describing processes and examples from their own countries. The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the organizations in which the authors work or worked. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Glied, S., Wittenberg, R. & Israeli, A. Research in government and academia: the case of health policy. Isr J Health Policy Res 7 , 35 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13584-018-0230-3

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In this paper, we outline these issues and present a conceptual framework for better understanding, measuring, and encouraging public policy research impact in academic settings. 2 THE PURPOSE OF PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH AND THE ACADEMIC CONTEXT. The production, use, and evaluation of policy knowledge is far from straightforward.
Government & Politics: Articles, Research, & Case Studies on Government
New research on government and politics from Harvard Business School faculty on issues including political influence on business, laws and refulations, taxation, elections and national security. ... And yet few executives and entrepreneurs have waded into the policy dialogue, says James Heskett. Open for comment; 0 Comments. 20 Sep 2022;
Revealed: the ten research papers that policy documents cite most
The top ten most cited papers in policy documents are dominated by economics research; the number one most referenced study has around 1,300 citations. When economics studies are excluded, a 1997 ...
Digital governance: government strategies that impact public services
government strategies that impact public services
OECD Public Governance Policy Papers
OECD Public Governance Policy Papers. These Papers provide insights from OECD work on public governance, which looks at how governments design and implement strategic, evidence-based and innovative policies to respond to diverse and challenges and deliver on government's commitments to citizens. English, French.
Public Policy Dissertations by Topic
Public Policy Dissertations by Topic - Schar School
Library Guides: Public Policy: Policy Reports
Working Papers. An academic repository containing both published and working papers in various disciplines including law, political science, international affairs, and international law. A collection of policy research working papers, policy research reports, and world development reports in the World Bank's Archives.
Trending Policy Topics: Institute for Policy Research
Policy Briefs Explore research-based overviews on vital policy topics. Working Papers Search IPR working papers for research insights. Grad RA Working Papers Read working papers by current and recent IPR graduate research assistants. Books Browse books and edited volumes by IPR faculty. Journal Articles Read the latest published articles by IPR ...
The Need for Localized, Socio-economic Policy Measures for Controlling
The costly economic repercussions alone, however, are inadequate evidence to critique the national lockdown policy, as the lockdown was considered a necessity by health experts. A pertinent research question relates to the debate of whether a localized lockdown could have partially averted the adverse economic outcomes of a national lockdown.
Research Guides: Law and Public Policy: Getting Started
Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) is designed to be "a comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs." CIAO provides access to a broad range of scholarly materials published from 1991 onwards, including "working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs [non-governmental organizations], foundation-funded research projects ...
Research in government and academia: the case of health policy
Research in government and academia: the case of health ...
PDF Tips for Writing Policy Papers
market. In the world of policy, white papers guide decision makers with expert opinions, recommendations, and analytical research. Policy papers may also take the form of a briefing paper, which typically provides a decision maker with an overview of an issue or problem, targeted analysis, and, often, actionable recommendations. Briefing books ...
White House requires immediate public access to all U.S.-funded ...
A decadeslong battle over how best to provide public access to the fruits of research funded by the U.S. government has taken a major turn. President Joe Biden's administration announced yesterday that, by the end of 2025, federal agencies must make papers that describe taxpayer-funded work freely available to the public as soon as the final peer-reviewed manuscript is published.
Policy Topics
Bruce Schneier's "A Hacker's Mind". August 30, 2024. Hacking is more than just a term for rogue programmers breaking into computer systems. Bruce Schneier thinks hacking goes well beyond the digital realm. His latest book explores the ways that society is manipulated by those seeking and exploiting loopholes. Human Rights.
Economic Policy Working and Research Papers
Office of Economic Policy working and research papers offer the Office's staff an opportunity to present original research. They are intended to generate discussion and critical comment while informing and improving the quality of the analysis conducted by the Office. Papers are works in progress and subject to revision. Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not ...
Current Public Policy Papers
Current Public Policy Papers | ACP Online
(PDF) EFFECTIVENESS OF GOVERNMENT SCHEMES: A CRITICAL ...
EFFECTIVENESS OF GOVERNMENT SCHEMES: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF MOST WIDELY USED SCHEMES. April 2022. Jiangsu Daxue Xuebao (Ziran Kexue Ban) / Journal of Jiangsu University (Natural Science Edition) 18 ...
InfoGuides: Policy and Government: Begin your research
Database for public policy, with millions of reports, working papers, policy briefs, data sources, and media drawn from a directory of more than 20,000 IGOs, NGOs, think tanks, and research centers on disciplines including agriculture, energy, pharmaceuticals, diversity, crime, librarianship, etc. Community tools allow users to upload, share ...
Exploring the Influence of Government Policy on Entrepreneurship
The paper prioritised entrepreneurship as vital for any national economy to thrive, establishing a basis for more studies on entrepreneurial practices and policies, to aid scholars, academics, and ...
Mental Health, Substance Use, and Child Maltreatment
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals.

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