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Cognizance and Consultation of Randomized Controlled Trials among Ministerial Policy Analysts
Author(s) -
Bédard PierreOlivier,
Ouimet Mathieu
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-1338.2012.00581.x
Subject(s) - randomized controlled trial , political science , randomized experiment , psychology , public relations , public administration , medicine , surgery , pathology
Consultation of scientific evidence by policy actors has been the foci of attention of knowledge utilization scholars for decades. The present study questioned the extent to which randomized controlled trials ( RCT s)—generally seen as the gold standard of scientific research—are known and consulted by policy analysts in ministerial settings. Using cross‐sectional data collected in 17 ministries in Q uébec ( C anada), our study showed that fairly high levels of policy analysts report never having heard of RCT s, thus possibly hindering effective communication of scientific results to relevant policy makers. Statistical analyses reveal the importance of cognitive factors in explaining both phenomena.