The Last 20 Years of Empirical Research on Government Utilization of Academic Social Science Research: A State-of-the-Art Literature Review

Abstract

We organize and critique the last 20 years of empirical research on policy utilization of academic social science, offering eight recommendations for future research: (1) improvement in utilization measures; (2) greater alignment on constructs of interest; (3) greater address of different national contexts; 4) study of mechanisms connecting academic research to policymakers; (5) incorporation of knowledge on information search; (6) attention to differences between utilization of policy, social, and physical science in different sectors; (7) evaluative inquiry on the effects of research utilization; and (8) investigation of the value of research in addressing different classes of societal problems.

Why do some academic articles receive more citations from policy communities?

“…Furthermore, policy citation-the number of times that a scholarly article is cited by policy documents-is more direct and quantifiable than impact (Reale et al, 2018;Reed et al, 2021;Weiss, 1979). Nelson et al (2023) conducted an exhaustive review of the myriad factors influencing the utilization of academic scholarship in public policy. Through their comprehensive analysis of 60 articles, nearly 40 determinants were distilled that elucidate the use of academic social science research in public policy.…”