Identifying Trustworthy Experts: How Do Policymakers Find and Assess Public Health Researchers Worth Consulting or Collaborating With?

Abstract

This paper reports data from semi-structured interviews on how 26 Australian civil servants, ministers and ministerial advisors find and evaluate researchers with whom they wish to consult or collaborate. Policymakers valued researchers who had credibility across the three attributes seen as contributing to trustworthiness: competence (an exemplary academic reputation complemented by pragmatism, understanding of government processes, and effective collaboration and communication skills); integrity (independence, “authenticity”, and faithful reporting of research); and benevolence (commitment to the policy reform agenda). The emphases given to these assessment criteria appeared to be shaped in part by policymakers' roles and the type and phase of policy development in which they were engaged. Policymakers are encouraged to reassess their methods for engaging researchers and to maximise information flow and support in these relationships. Researchers who wish to influence policy are advised to develop relationships across the policy community, but also to engage in other complementary strategies for promoting research-informed policy, including the strategic use of mass media.

Identifying public health policymakers’ sources of information: comparing survey and network analyses

“…21 Haynes et al describe the criteria policymakers use to judge the trustworthiness of personal academic contacts, 5 and studies acknowledge the importance of trust and credibility in knowledge exchange. 3,10 This interpersonal aspect of knowledge transfer is often acknowledged as important 6,14 but rarely exploited by interventions aiming to increase research uptake.…”

“…5 Acknowledging the importance of interpersonal connections, interventions such as knowledge brokerage have been developed. 6,7 Knowledge brokerage interventions often describe research-based individuals producing evidence summaries or co-producing research questions and outputs in conjunction with policymakers; i.e.…”

“…10 Research suggests that some of these sources are likely to be individuals. 10 However, current approaches to exploring this question focus more on comparing narratives and perspectives of researchers and policymakers, 5,[11][12][13] rather data about interpersonal relationships. [14][15][16] Social network analysis allows interpersonal relations to be captured and analysed quantitatively, providing a means of describing the social structure underlying interactions between policymakers.…”

Change!: Combining Analytic Approaches with Street Wisdom

“…For one political adviser, it was the only means of identifying experts: 'I have absolutely no idea how I would go about identifying someone if there wasn't an obvious expert prominent in the media' (Haynes et al 2012). …”

Evaluation of the quality of science, technology and innovation advice available to lawmakers in Nigeria

“…In this light, using research outcomes from STI to inform policy in all areas that affect the natural, physical and social systems should be the norm (Holmes and Clark, 2008). Unfortunately, the manifestation of evidence in policy processes is constrained by a number of socio-political and structural factors that result in it not being used to the extent that it should be used (Brownson et al, 2006;Ritter, 2011;Haynes et al, 2012). Much more important are the sources and dissemination of scientific evidence to policy makers in such a way that policy decisions are based on scientific evidence.…”