NCJ Number
240818
Editor(s)
Kenneth Prewitt,
Thomas A. Schwandt,
Miron L. Straf
Date Published
2012
Length
122 pages
Annotation
This report examines how scientific knowledge is used as evidence in making public policy and how this knowledge can be used more effectively.
Abstract
This report was developed by the Committee on the Use of Science Knowledge in Public Policy under the direction of the National Research Council to "to review the knowledge utilization and other relevant literature to assess what is known about how social science knowledge is used in policy making . . . [and] to develop a framework for further research that can improve the use of social science knowledge in policymaking." The results from the Committee's work are presented in five sections in this report. The first section, Introduction details information on the focus and audience for the report; the roles that social science, politics, and values play in policy making; and the use of policy making in a representative democracy. The second section, Why This Report Now, discusses the concept of "big" social science and the changing perceptions of its use. The third section, The Use of Research Knowledge: Current Scholarship, discusses the current landscape of research; decisionism and its critique; the two communities methaphor; and evidence-based policy and practice. The fourth section, Research on the Use of Science in Policy: Framework, presents details on a new research framework developed by the Committee that draws on recent developments in social science that may be better suited towards explaining the use of science in public policy. The fifth section, The Next Generation of Researchers and Practitioners, discusses the three groups of people who are central to advancing and applying the research framework outlined in section four. These three groups include 1) established scholars in the fields and specialties identified in section four; 2) Ph.D. candidates in those fields and specialties; and 3) administrators and faculty responsible for curricula in schools and programs identified in the report. References and appendixes