Cutting through the noise during a pandemic by enhancing relevance and increasing policymakers’ research access
Abstract background: It is widely recognized that policymakers use research deemed relevant, yet little is understood about ways to enhance perceived relevance of research evidence. Observing policymakers’ access of research online provides a pragmatic way to investigate predictors of relevance.
Aims and Objectives: This study investigates a range of relevance indicators including committee assignments, public statements, issue prevalence, or the policymaker’s name or district. Methods: In a series of four rapid-cycle randomized control trials (RCTs), the present work systematically explores science communication strategies by studying indicators of perceived relevance. State legislators, state staffers, and federal staffers were emailed fact sheets on issues of COVID (Trial 1, N = 3403), exploitation (Trial 2, N = 6846), police violence (Trial 3, N = 3488), and domestic violence (Trial 4, N = 3888). Findings: Across these trials, personalizing the subject line to the legislator’s name or district and targeting recipients based on committee assignment consistently improved engagement. Mentions of subject matter in public statements was inconsistently associated, and state-level prevalence of the issue was largely not associated with email engagement behavior.
Discussion and Conclusions: Together, these results indicate a benefit of targeting legislators based on committee assignments and of personalizing the subject line with legislator information. This work further operationalizes practical indicators of personal relevance and demonstrates a novel method of how to test science communication strategies among policymakers. Building enduring capacity for testing science communication will improve tactics to cut through the noise during times of political crisis.
This is a post-peer-review, pre-copy edited version of an article published in Evidence & Policy. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Scott, Taylor, Jessica Pugel, Mary Fernandes, Katherine Cruz, Elizabeth C. Long, Cagla Giray, Rachel Storace, and D. Max Crowley. "Cutting through the noise during crisis by enhancing the relevance of research to policymakers", Evidence & Policy., is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1332/174426421X16535828173307
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| Work Title | Cutting through the noise during a pandemic by enhancing relevance and increasing policymakers’ research access |
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| License | In Copyright (Rights Reserved) |
| Work Type | Article |
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| Publication Date | June 27, 2022 |
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| Deposited | August 18, 2022 |
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