Mary Fernandes, Renee Cloutier, Travis Loughran, Melanie Arenson

If you’re here after our last post on “Involving Stakeholders in Every Step of Your Research”, welcome back! In our last post, we discussed what a stakeholder is, why we should involve
them in our research work, and how we can efficiently do so. However, we shouldn’t stop there! One next step to increasing the impact that your research has on policy is to effectively convey your completed work to these invested stakeholders. This can be hard to do, so below are a few tips that might make this easier.

First, write with stakeholders in mind.
In order to write a paper that will affect public policy, first ask yourself the questions, “who will read this?”, and, “who will be affected by this?” (Purdue University, OWL). Frame your scientific paper with this audience in mind, whether it be policy makers, insurance companies, businesses, local citizens, patients, or providers. Remembering your unique audience will allow you to communicate your work at the level of your reader. With the policy implications of your work in mind, you might also carefully consider the right journal to submit to. For example, you could choose to submit your work to a journal that is less niche than you might normally submit to and more general or policy focused.

Always lead with the “why”, not the “what”.
Then, ask yourself why your work should matter to your stakeholders. Discuss these reasons succinctly and clearly to grab your stakeholders’ attention before describing what it is you did. By failing to address the “why”, you might lose your stakeholders from the very beginning. But how do you ensure that your reasons for your study line up with those of your stakeholders? How do you identify what your “why” is?

Figuring that out will require you to really understand your stakeholders’ concerns. Hopefully, you were able to use the above strategies to include stakeholders while planning your research, but if you did not, it’s not too late to do so. Speak to them with a goal of truly understanding their principal concerns. Ask them questions about what they would like to see solutions to. Discuss your project with them and inquire about their feedback and unique insights into the usefulness of your work. Once you have a clear idea of what policy problems your project can tackle, lead with it. Keep in mind that a policy problem is not always the same as a scientific problem.

Present your “what” coherently.
Once you have identified the critical problem, you are now ready to present your “what”.  To do so, you must frame the impact of your findings with solutions to the stakeholders’ problems in mind. Make your research methods, findings, and implications easily digestible to an educated but non-scientific audience. Practice the art of “hand-holding” in your writing. In other words, the less work that your reader has to do, the better. To the best extent possible, be an objective reporter of your work. Given the large amount of time and effort that you have likely put into your work, it is understandable that this can be hard to do, but make every attempt to minimize your biases, particularly when interpreting your findings. It is essential that you discuss the limitations of your study clearly. Finally, craft your paper in a logical and unified way. Now that your stakeholders are engaged in the project, they should be able to easily take-away the key points, while being aware of the study’s limitations, in order to advocate for the work objectively.

Taking it further
Despite all of your hard work in writing a scientific paper for your target audience, policy makers and other stakeholders often do not possess the time to read scientific papers, so you might choose to take it a step further. Policy makers need readily available research that is accessible, credible, and interpretable. So, take the information in your well-written article, and translate it into tangible and practical recommendations for a contextual problem. Craft relevant solutions to policy problems. Ensure that the solutions are realistic, feasible, and cost effective. Utilize your writing and speaking ability to convey these empirical solutions in a relatable and understandable way. Know the policy content and policy history of the problem that you have identified in order to effectively engage with the stakeholders and remain a credible and trustworthy source. Utilize social media tools to disseminate your work (but, if doing so, remember to not only communicate your work so that it can be understood, but to communicate it so that it cannot be misunderstood). Additionally, the policy process is fast, and papers or recommendations must be timely. Network with policy makers, ask them how you can support them, and build trust in order to ensure future collaboration and long-lasting respectful relationships.

When all else fails, remember these general tips:
1)    Write and speak simply and clearly. Avoid scientific jargon. Practice speaking with non- science minded friends or family members. Ask them for their feedback.
2)    Summarize your work concisely. Use the elevator or coffee rule. If you can’t speak about your work in the time that it takes to ride an elevator 10 stories or drink your morning coffee, you’re speaking for too long.
3)    Be genuinely interested in your stakeholders’ concerns, and try to relate your work to their concerns, rather than giving them yet another thing to think about.

References:
Brownson, R. C., Royer, C., Ewing, R., & McBride, T. D. (2006). Researchers and policymakers: travelers in parallel universes. American journal of preventive medicine, 30(2), 164-172.
Grande, D., Gollust, S. E., Pany, M., Seymour, J., Goss, A., Kilaru, A., & Meisel, Z. (2014). Translating research for health policy: researchers’ perceptions and use of social media. Health Affairs, 33(7), 1278-1285.
Purdue Online Writing Lab (2018) Considering Your Stakeholders. Purdue University.