Common Mismatches between Research and Policy

Bammer, Gabriele, Disciplining Interdisciplinarity (ANU E-Press, 2013) outlines several common mismatches between research and policy:

• Researchers focus on making one change while holding other variables constant, while policy-makers must often focus on several variables at the same time [Note: the mapping approaches urged earlier should alleviate this mismatch; see Mapping Interdisciplinary Connections]

• Researchers calculate average effects when policy-makers worry about distribution of effects

• Researchers may ignore outliers but these may loom large in policy discourse

• Researchers may take the long view but policy-makers need to show early benefits

• Researchers may not speak the language of policy-makers

• Researchers may not focus on the issues policy-makers stress [The transdisciplinary approach of involving stakeholders should alleviate this.]

• Researchers may see their results manipulated for partisan benefit