Policy dissemination research

Policy dissemination research is focused on understanding and addressing these barriers and can be defined as: the study of the targeted distribution of scientific evidence to policymakers to understand how to promote the adoption and sustainment of evidence-based policies. Policy dissemination research studies can be classified as audience research studies–which are formative assessments of policymakers’ knowledge, attitudes, and uses of research evidence and policy contexts–and intervention studies, which test the effectiveness of different policymaker-focused dissemination strategies. Outcomes of policy dissemination research studies include self-report policymaker research utilization, self-report policymaker support for evidence-based policies, and observed policymaker research utilization. There is also a need to grow the field of policy implementation research and integrate theories, frameworks, and methods across the fields of public administration research, political science, and implementation science. Among the topics covered in this book, policy dissemination research is among the least developed.