Policy Writing Guidance & Resources

 Last updated: June 10, 2025

This section aims to provide a living database of guidance, processes, and documents on policy writing at J-PAL North America. "Policy Writing" encompasses policy insights, policy publications, evaluation summaries, and evidence-to-policy ("E2P") stories. 

Policy publications are J-PAL’s formal, designed writing products to highlight affiliate research on important topics and disseminate evidence. The objective of J-PAL policy publications—and all policy writing products—is to communicate the results of J-PAL affiliates’ research in a clear, jargon-free, compelling, and accurate way.

Please contact Laina Sonterblum for any policy writing inquiries and to get started on your own products!.

General resources and references

• Asana for all pubs/synthesis products (including eval summaries)

• To decide which written product is right for your goals, reference Written Products Decision-Making Flowchart_Final or contact Laina!

• For an up-to-date look at ongoing and completed publications, see 2024 North America Pubs Inventory

• To log your time QCing and Copyediting, and to track eligibility for authoring and editing different publications, please visit the Author/Editor/QC/Copyeditor Master Tracker

Evidence-to-Policy examples and case studies

Throughout your work you may come across examples of instances in which a J-PAL North America study (e.g., a study we funded, supported through matchmaking or technical assistance, etc.) influenced a shift in a policy or program. Some ways staff tend to come across these examples include (but are not limited to):

• Funded project reports (particularly final narrative reports)

• Evaluation summaries (when we ask PIs about policy influence)

• News alerts and media mention tracking

• Conversations with researchers and partners

If and when you come across one such instance, please take a few minutes to complete this form! 

The form is used to maintain a repository of policy influence examples. Some of these examples may meet Global's threshold for an Evidence-to-Policy (E2P) case study. In such instances, the North America policy writing team will contact you with any potential follow ups! 

Questions? Please contact Laina!

Publication types and resources

The Global Knowledge Base has a very comprehensive guide on all policy writing products.

See here (or below) for an overview of each product type.