by Sarah Brown and Claire Dunlop
DORA, a public declaration launched in 2013 with now over 23,000 signatories worldwide, aims to radically revise the current methods of research assessment. It speaks of an urgent need to improve the ways in which research is currently evaluated by moving beyond the monopoly of the Impact Factor to a more diverse and inclusive set of measures.
At Policy & Politics, we recognise this need very well. So many in our community tell us how their professional lives are dominated by the Impact Factors of journals: from winning funding awards, to getting jobs and promotions. Indeed, many of our authors tell us that’s their main driver for publishing with us. We want to be part of the journey to change this, recognising the value of taking a broader view of how we’re evaluating research quality. But we can’t do it single-handedly. So we stand alongside those in our community in seeking to diversify the ways in which research is evaluated.
As a journal wholly owned by the University of Bristol, we are proud to stand and be counted as a signatory to DORA alongside so many of our authors, reviewers, editors and readers. We look forward to a future with an improved and more inclusive set of measures for assessing research quality and impact which positively influences the production and use of research. To this end, we are pleased to offer readers a broader range of article-level metrics, including usage statistics, Altmetric and Dimensions badges, since migrating Policy & Politics to its new platform, Bristol University Press Digital.
Of course, integral to the DORA declaration is the campaign for open scholarship. Central to its aims to improve research evaluation practices are the practicalities of who and what the research is for, who is involved and excluded, and where power lies within the scholarly publishing landscape. So, to combine these themes and to celebrate our collective endeavour, we’ve curated some of our most popular articles of 2023 so far, based on altmetric scores, for you to read and enjoy.
In our first article, authors Annette Boaz and Kathryn Oliver, ask how well the UK Government’s Areas of Research Interest actually work to articulate their research priorities. Read their full article to find out the answers!
Although research has a lot to say about the value of evidence in policymaking and the wide range of methods for public engagement, our next article, by Clementine Hill O’Connor, Katherine Smith and Ellen Stewart, aims to integrate these two areas to explore how to balance the use of evidence with public preferences in policymaking. Read their findings at: Integrating evidence and public engagement in policy work: an empirical examination of three UK policy organisations.
Next up, authors Paul M. Wagner, Petr Ocelik, Antti Gronow, Tuomas Yla-Anttila and Florence Metz challenge the insider outsider approach to advocacy by exploring how collaboration networks and belief similarities shape strategy choices.
Changing tack, but still on the broader theme of the role of evidence in policymaking, authors Bishoy Zaki and Ellen Wayenberg explore the question: How does policy learning take place across a multilevel governance architecture during crises? which looks at how different levels of government do policy learning during crises. Interestingly, their results show how and why heterogenous learning processes occur leading to diverging lessons and decisions.
Our final article showcases new research by Simone Busetti and Maria Stella Righettini on policy learning from crises in their case study of lessons learned from the Italian food stamp programme.
We hope you enjoy reading this collection. Look out for many more to come over the next few months!
Featured articles:
How well do the UK government’s ‘areas of research interest’ work as boundary objects to facilitate the use of research in policymaking?
Annette Boaz and Kathryn Oliver
Integrating evidence and public engagement in policy work: an empirical examination of three UK policy organisations.
Clementine Hill O’Connor, Katherine Smith and Ellen Stewart
Challenging the insider outsider approach to advocacy: how collaboration networks and belief similarities shape strategy choices~
Paul M. Wagner, Petr Ocelik, Antti Gronow, Tuomas Yla-Anttila and Florence Metz
How does policy learning take place across a multilevel governance architecture during crises?
Bishoy Zaki and Ellen Wayenberg
Policy learning from crises: lessons learned from the Italian food stamp programme
Simone Busetti and Maria Stella Righettini
Policy & Politics Journal Blog 