Promoting the use of research in policy, practice and among the public: a scoping review of recent reviews

BackgroundConsideration of research in public policy formation and implementation is widely considered important for effective decisions. Previous research has noted a growing body of reviews of a diverse range of strategies designed to promote evidence use in public policy and practice. This review aims to identify recent reviews and develop a taxonomy of the various strategies available to evidence advocates.MethodsThis review followed the JBI guidance for scoping reviews. Studies were sought via database searches, handsearching, forward citation tracing and searching organisational websites. Descriptive analysis was used to characterise the nature of the body of reviews. The review drew on best-fit framework synthesis to develop a taxonomy of intervention domains and strategies.Results11,047 potentially eligible records were identified via searches. After screening by a single reviewer, 74 studies were included in the review. The vast majority of reviews were conducted in the health sector (n = 65). While many focused on practitioners (n = 60), a significant proportion included policymakers (n = 27) and the public (n = 12). Reviews included studies of 34 distinct intervention strategies across six domains – access to research, capability improvement, influencing, interaction, prioritisation and systems improvement. Reviews most commonly included studies of interventions in the capability (n = 59), access (n = 31) and interaction (n = 31) domains.ConclusionsThere is a large body of reviews those promoting the use of evidence can draw on to better understand the strategies at their disposal. Actors outside the health sector, however, may find the evidence base less useful – and there remain a number of common strategies for which reviews have yet to be published.