Trial reportImplementation science : IS2023
SciComm Optimizer for Policy Engagement: a randomized controlled trial of the SCOPE model on state legislators' research use in public discourse.
Trial report in Implementation science : IS, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Contexts for Scaling Up Evidence-Based Preventive Interventions: Examining Factors That Influence the Likelihood of the Use of Research Language in Substance Use Legislation.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2026Article
- A Mixed-Methods Study of Policymakers' Adoption of AI to Support Use of Research Evidence: Implications for Artificial Intelligence in Prevention Policy.Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2026Article
- Use of research evidence in U.S. state child abuse and neglect policies: 2019-2024.Child abuse & neglect · 2026Article
- Evidence for Public Policies to Prevent Suicide Death in the United States.Annual review of public health · 2025Review
- Email outreach attracts the US policymakers' attention to climate change but common advocacy techniques do not improve engagement.Communications earth & environment · 2025Article
- Shifting the paradigm of research-to-policy impact: Infrastructure for improving researcher engagement and collective action.Development and psychopathology · 2024Article
- The power of lived experience in optimizing US policymakers' engagement with substance use research: A series of rapid-cycle randomized controlled trials.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2024Article
- Bridging Public Health Research and State-Level Policy: The Texas Research-to-Policy Collaboration Project.Preventing chronic disease · 2024Article
- Operational and organizational variation in determinants of policy implementation success: the case of policies that earmark taxes for behavioral health services.Implementation science : IS · 2024Article
- Use of research evidence in U.S. federal policymaking: A reflexive report on intra-stage mixed methods.Evaluation and program planning · 2024Article
- Insight for knowledge brokers: factors predicting relationships with federal staffers.Evidence & policy : a journal of research, debate and practice · 2024Article
- Using policy codesign to achieve multi-sector alignment in adolescent behavioral health: a study protocol.Implementation science communications · 2024Article
- Four very basic ways to think about policy in implementation science.Implementation science communications · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWhile prior work has revealed conditions that foster policymakers' use of research evidence, few studies have rigorously investigated the effectiveness of theory-based practices. Specifically, policymakers are most apt to use research evidence when it is timely, relevant, brief, and messaged appropriately, as well as when it facilitates interactive engagement. This study sought to experimentally evaluate an enhanced research dissemination intervention, known as the SciComm Optimizer for Policy Engagement (SCOPE), implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic among US state legislators.
methodsState legislators assigned to health committees and their staff were randomized to receive the SCOPE intervention. This involved providing academic researchers with a pathway for translating and disseminating research relevant to current legislative priorities via fact sheets emailed directly to officials. The intervention occurred April 2020-March 2021. Research language was measured in state legislators' social media posts.
resultsLegislators randomized to receive the intervention, relative to the control group, produced 24% more social media posts containing research language related to COVID-19. Secondary analyses revealed that these findings were driven by two different types of research language. Intervention officials produced 67% more COVID-related social media posts referencing technical language (e.g., statistical methods), as well as 28% more posts that referenced research-based concepts. However, they produced 31% fewer posts that referenced creating or disseminating new knowledge.
conclusionsThis study suggests that strategic, targeted science communication efforts may have the potential to change state legislators' public discourse and use of evidence. Strategic science communication efforts are particularly needed in light of the role government officials have played in communicating about the pandemic to the general public.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.