ArticleHealth research policy and systems2017
Development and validation of SEER (Seeking, Engaging with and Evaluating Research): a measure of policymakers' capacity to engage with and use research.
Article in Health research policy and systems, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Individual and institutional capacity-building for evidence-informed health policy-making in Iran: a mix of local and global evidence.Health research policy and systems · 2022Pooled it
- Frameworks for embedding a research culture in allied health practice: a rapid review.Health research policy and systems · 2018Pooled it
- Cultivating researcher-policymaker partnerships: A randomized controlled trial of a model for training public psychologists.The American psychologist · 2021Trial
- Increasing the capacity of policy agencies to use research findings: a stepped-wedge trial.Health research policy and systems · 2019Trial
- A rapid tool for understanding how knowledge users engage with research findings in research-for-development contexts.Health research policy and systems · 2026Article
- The use of research evidence in blood collection policy and practice: a qualitative study with frontline staff, middle managers and senior managers.Health research policy and systems · 2025Article
- Baseline assessments of research capacity, capability and culture in UK local authorities: reflections from evaluators embedded in Health Determinants Research Collaborations.Health research policy and systems · 2025Article
- Development and testing of the capacity of organisations for system practices scale.Health promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals · 2025Article
- Approaches and tools to measure individual-level research experience, activities, and outcomes: A narrative review.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2025Review
- The development, validity, and reliability of the Researcher Investment Tool.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2025Article
- Using the Researcher Investment Tool to inform a clinical and translational research initiative.Journal of clinical and translational science · 2025Article
- Outcomes of an integrated knowledge translation approach in five African countries: a mixed-methods comparative case study.Health research policy and systems · 2024Article
- Building bridges: evaluating policymakers' research capacities, engagement, and utilization in health policymaking within the Kuwaiti context: a cross-sectional study.Health research policy and systems · 2024Article
- Article
- Inter-agency collaboration is associated with increased frequency of research use in children's mental health policy making.Health services research · 2022Article
- Conceptual framework for systemic capacity strengthening for health policy and systems research.BMJ global health · 2022Review
- Stakeholder engagement to inform evidence-based treatment implementation for children's mental health: a scoping review.Implementation science communications · 2022Article
- A comprehensive monitoring and evaluation framework for evidence to policy networks.Evaluation and program planning · 2022Article
- Use of research evidence varied in efforts to expand specific pharmacist autonomous prescriptive authority: an evaluation and recommendations to increase research utilization.Health research policy and systems · 2022Article
- A new measure to understand the role of science in US Congress: lessons learned from the Legislative Use of Research Survey (LURS).Evidence & policy : a journal of research, debate and practice · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCapacity building strategies are widely used to increase the use of research in policy development. However, a lack of well-validated measures for policy contexts has hampered efforts to identify priorities for capacity building and to evaluate the impact of strategies. We aimed to address this gap by developing SEER (Seeking, Engaging with and Evaluating Research), a self-report measure of individual policymakers' capacity to engage with and use research.
methodsWe used the SPIRIT Action Framework to identify pertinent domains and guide development of items for measuring each domain. Scales covered (1) individual capacity to use research (confidence in using research, value placed on research, individual perceptions of the value their organisation places on research, supporting tools and systems), (2) actions taken to engage with research and researchers, and (3) use of research to inform policy (extent and type of research use). A sample of policymakers engaged in health policy development provided data to examine scale reliability (internal consistency, test-retest) and validity (relation to measures of similar concepts, relation to a measure of intention to use research, internal structure of the individual capacity scales).
resultsResponse rates were 55% (150/272 people, 12 agencies) for the validity and internal consistency analyses, and 54% (57/105 people, 9 agencies) for test-retest reliability. The individual capacity scales demonstrated adequate internal consistency reliability (alpha coefficients > 0.7, all four scales) and test-retest reliability (intra-class correlation coefficients > 0.7 for three scales and 0.59 for fourth scale). Scores on individual capacity scales converged as predicted with measures of similar concepts (moderate correlations of > 0.4), and confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence that the scales measured related but distinct concepts. Items in each of these four scales related as predicted to concepts in the measurement model derived from the SPIRIT Action Framework. Evidence about the reliability and validity of the research engagement actions and research use scales was equivocal.
conclusionsInitial testing of SEER suggests that the four individual capacity scales may be used in policy settings to examine current capacity and identify areas for capacity building. The relation between capacity, research engagement actions and research use requires further investigation.
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