Evidence & Policy is the first peer-reviewed journal dedicated to comprehensive and critical assessment of the relationship between researchers and the evidence they produce and the concerns of policy makers and practitioners. Read more about Evidence & Policy.
Impact Factor (2023): 1.8 Frequency: February, May, August and November
Gender and Justice is open for submissions!
Gender and Justice is open for submissions!
Aims and scope
Journal metrics
Abstracting and indexing
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Average lead times
Carol Weiss Prize
Testimonials
Contact us
Evidence & Policy is the first peer-reviewed journal dedicated to comprehensive and critical assessment of the relationship between researchers and the evidence they produce and the concerns of policy makers and practitioners.
International in scope and interdisciplinary in focus, it addresses the needs of those who develop public policies, provide public services, or provide the research base for evaluation and development across a wide range of social and public policy issues (e.g. criminal justice, employment and welfare, education, environmental protection, finance, health, housing, international development, social care and transport), and those who are working to connect the two (such as knowledge brokers).
As well as more traditional research articles, the journal includes review and method articles, contemporary debate pieces and articles from practice.
2023 Impact Factor: 1.8 (2yr), 2.1 (5yr)
Ranking: 70/263 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary (Q2);
2023 Journal Citation Indicator: 1.22
Ranking: 48/263 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary (Q1);
2023 Scopus Cite Score: 4.5
Ranking: 73/604 in Social Science, miscellaneous (87th percentile)
2023 SJR: 0.665
Ranking: 154/795 in Social Science (miscellaneous) (Q1)
Evidence & Policy is abstracted and/or indexed in:
Current Contents/Social and Behavioural Sciences
CSA Sociological abstracts
Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)
European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences (ERIH PLUS)
International Bibliography of Social Sciences (IBSS)
International Political Science Abstracts (IPSA)
MEDLINE / PubMed
ProQuest Central
ProQuest Criminal Justice Collection
ProQuest Criminology Collection
ProQuest Politics Collection
ProQuest Social Sciences Premium Collection
Scopus
Social Care Online (SCIE)
Social Policy & Practice
Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) (Web of Science)
Zetoc (through the British Library)
Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion statement outlines the ways in which we seek to ensure that equity, diversity and inclusion are integral to all aspects of our publishing, and how we might encourage and drive positive change.
The current average turnaround times for Evidence & Policy:
34 days for submission to first post-review decision
38 days from acceptance to online publication
To mark the tenth anniversary of Evidence & Policy, the journal launched a prize that recognises outstanding early career contributors to the journal. The prize was created in memory of Professor Carol Weiss, the first North American Editor of Evidence & Policy and a pioneer in the field, and it will be awarded every two years.
We are delighted to announce that the winners of the 2023 Carol Weiss Prize are Brian W. Gac, Hanna Yakubi and Dorie E. Apollonio, for their Research Article:
Learn more about the Carol Weiss Prize.
"Evidence & Policy is the journal that helps me to keep up to date with the latest thinking and research in this field .”
Sandra Nutley, Professor of Public Policy and Management, School of Management, University of St Andrews, UK
"It is crucial to understand how the use of solid evidence can improve policy advice, and improve professional service delivery practices. Evidence & Policy stepped boldly into this emerging field a decade ago, and helped define the issues, advance understandings, and improve professional practices. I look forward to the next 10 years, and beyond, as it helps to shape the future of the field."
Professor Brian Head FASSA, ARC Professorial Fellow, Institute for Social Science Research & School of Political Science, The University of Queensland, Australia
Editorial team: evidenceandpolicy@outlook.com
Read our instructions for authors for guidance on how to prepare your submissions. The instructions include the following:
What are we looking for?
How to submit an article
Editorial review process
Ethical guidelines
Copyright
Style
Alt-text
References
English language editing service
Open Access
Self-archiving and institutional repositories
How to maximise the impact of your article
Contact us
Visit our journal author tool kit for resources and advice to support you through the publication process and beyond.
Evidence & Policy publishes original and outstanding scholarship addressing the relationship between evidence and policy or practice. We currently publish five types of paper: (1) research articles (5-7000 words); (2) review articles (5-7000 words); (3) methods articles (5-7000 words); (4) debate articles (3-5000 words); and (5) practice articles (up to 3000 words). We welcome papers from any disciplinary perspective, and geo-political context, and from authors based in any world region. Authors based in low- and middle-income settings can benefit from Policy Press’s reduced Open Access rates and waivers.
Contributions are welcome from a wide range of disciplines and policy areas, and papers that adopt an interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary approach are especially welcome. All contributions should offer new insights or describe research or practice that develops the transdisciplinary field of knowledge about the relationship between evidence, policy and practice. Papers that solely present evidence to inform policy or which focus on single case studies in ways that do not build on the wealth of existing knowledge will not be considered. Instead, we seek articles to present nuanced and well-informed characterisations of teh state of the field. Manuscripts should not be published or be under consideration for publication elsewhere. The editors welcome pre-submission inquiries about the suitability of manuscripts for Evidence & Policy; such inquiries should include an abstract (see below) for the prospective manuscript.
The scope of the journal is expanded upon in the Editorials published in 14:2, 15:4, and 18:1.
1. Research articles describe an original piece of primary research that has relevance to the relationship between evidence and policy or practice. Shorter papers of up to 5000 words are encouraged, but the maximum limit is 7000 words, including figures and tables. Each research article must include the following sections:
2. Review articles take stock of research on the relationship between evidence and policy or practice, or on methodological approaches to conducting research on this relationship. Authors should clearly articulate the contribution the review has made to our understanding of the research theme under review and to advancing the science of evidence use. Reviews that incorporate a wider range of sources from more than one field of inquiry are more likely to fulfil this brief than reviews that focus more tightly on one programme, profession, or setting. Review articles may take the form of either systematic reviews or scoping reviews, and should follow the relevant Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses, or PRISMA, guidelines (see http://www.prisma-statement.org/ and http://www.prisma-statement.org/Extensions/ScopingReviews).
Shorter papers of up to 5000 words are encouraged, but the maximum limit is 7000 words, including figures and tables. It is not required that all reviewed items to be cited; optionally authors may provide a complete list of reviewed items as supplementary material that does not count against the word limit. Each review article must have the following sections:
3. Method articles describe quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods that are uniquely useful for investigating the intersection of evidence with policy or practice. Papers introducing new or innovative methods/measures should contain evidence of their utility and validity, and should discuss their relationship to similar existing methods/measures. Papers demonstrating existing methods should adopt a tutorial style and should include detailed examples. If the method involves materials (e.g., computer code, survey items, interview protocol), these materials must be provided with the submission.
Shorter papers of up to 5000 words are encouraged, but the maximum limit is 7000 words, including figures and tables. Method articles must include an abstract, and may include the following additional sections as necessary:
4. Debate articles are opinion pieces on an issue relevant to the relationship between evidence and policy or practice. Debate articles should take a position on a point of controversy about evidence use or related issues in academia, policy or practice, and construct a supporting argument. For example, they could focus on the use of a particular methodology, bring in concepts from new fields to the evidence/policy debate, or discuss the implications of a change in policy on evidence generation, funding or use. The editors may choose to invite brief commentaries to be published alongside debate articles. Debate articles are externally peer reviewed, while commentaries are only internally reviewed.
Shorter papers of up to 3,000 words are encouraged, but the maximum limit is 5,000, including figures and tables. All debate articles must include an abstract of up to 250 words, but other wise may be organised using subheaders as necessary:
5. Practice papers are a description and assessment of a project or process by which evidence was or could be applied to policy and practice, from the point of view of a practitioner. Practice articles are not externally peer reviewed, but are reviewed internally by the editors. Shorter papers of up to 3000 words and no more than 10 references are preferred. All practice articles must include at least one non-academic practitioner as an author. This sections included in practice papers are flexible, and prospective authors are encouraged to contact the editors for guidance prior to submission.
All submissions should be made online at the Evidence & Policy Editorial Manager website: http://www.editorialmanager.com/evidpol/default.aspx, in Word or Rich Text Format (not pdf). New users should first create an account, specify their areas of interest and provide full contact details.
Preparing your anonymised manuscript
Your initial submission must consist of the following separate files:
You may also upload an optional cover letter with your submission. In the cover letter you may request that a specific editor or associate editor handle your submission, and you may recommend potential peer reviewers. If you recommend peer reviewers, these individuals should not include colleagues at your institution, advisors or advisees, or recent collaborators.
During the submission process you will be required to confirm that all authors have:
During the submission process, you will also be required to:
For help submitting an article via Editorial Manager, please view our online tutorial.
Once a submission has been conditionally accepted, you will be invited to submit a final, non-anonymised version.
Checklist: what to include in your final, accepted non-anonymised manuscript:
Research Ethics Statement: if your article does not present or draw directly on data/findings from empirical research the following text should be added to the final manuscript: "The author(s) of this paper has/have declared that research ethics approval was not required since the paper does not present or draw directly on data/findings from empirical research."
If the paper you are submitting draws on any empirical research, please include a statement to explain how you approached research ethics. If any formal research ethics approval was sought, please name the organisation from which approval was sought and provide the date on which research ethics was approved. If the paper draws on empirical research that did not require research ethics approval, please also explain why this was the case.
Funding details: list any funding including the grant numbers you have received for the research covered in your article as follows: "This work was supported by the [Funding Agency] under Grant [number xxxx]."
Contributor Statement: please include a brief statement, with each author’s initials being used to refer to their contribution.
Conflict of interest statement: please declare any possible conflicts of interest, or state "The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest" if there are none. Find out more about declaring conflicts of interest in the Bristol Universty Press/ Policy Press Ethical Guidelines.
Acknowledgements: acknowledge those who have provided you with any substantial assistance or advice with collecting data, developing your ideas, editing or any other comments to develop your argument or text.
Figures and Tables: should be included as separate files at the end of the manuscript. Please indicate where these should be placed in the text by inserting: ‘Figure X here’ and provide numbers, titles and sources where appropriate. For advice about less common file formats please contact bup-journalsproduction@bristol.ac.uk.
Supplemental data: We recommend that any supplemental data are hosted in a data repository (such as figshare) for maximum exposure, and are cited as a reference in the article.
Journal Contributor Publishing Agreement: Please upload a scanned copy of the completed and signed agreement with your final non-anonymised manuscript. The Journal Contributor Publishing Agreement can be downloaded here.
Author contribution statement
The author contribution statement should identify each author’s contributions to the manuscript. We recommend using the Contributor Roles Taxonomy (CRediT), and identifying authors by initials, when preparing this statement. For example, in a manuscript authored by John Doe and Jane Smith, the statement might appear as: “Conceptualization: JD; Formal Analysis: JD & JS; Writing – original draft: JS; Writing – review & editing: JD & JS.” For more details on CRediT, please see https://casrai.org/credit/.
Data availability statement
Given its focus on facilitating evidence use, and to promote transparency and openness in research, Evidence & Policy expects that authors share their data and materials via a public repository. When you submit a manuscript to Evidence & Policy, you will be asked to enter a Data Availability Statement. Your data availability statement should (1) provide a link to all the data and materials, or (2) explain that data and materials will be shared if the manuscript is accepted for publication, or (3) explain why data and materials cannot be shared. Sharing data and materials, or providing an adequate explanation why they cannot be shared, is a condition of publication for articles in Evidence & Policy.
In this policy, "data" refers to the actual qualitative or quantitative data upon which an empirical study's claimed are based. In some cases data cannot be shared because doing so would violate ethical or legal requirements. In such cases, it is acceptable not to share data, however the data availability statement must explain why they cannot be shared.
In this policy, "materials" refers to the materials used to collect the data (e.g. surveys, interview guides) and the materials used to analyze the data (e.g., computer code, qualitative codebooks). Generally materials are not subject to ethical or legal restrictions and therefore can usually be shared. In the case that materials cannot be shared, the data availability statement must explain why they cannot be shared.
These are some examples of appropriate data availability statements:
These are some examples of inappropriate data availability statements:
You can find a brief guide to sharing data and materials using the Open Science Foundation repository at https://osf.io/9mu7r. If you have questions about Evidence and Policy’s sharing expectations, or would like help sharing your data and materials, please contact the editorial office before finalizing your submission.
If you have any questions or concerns about the data availability statement or would like assistance sharing your data, please contact editor Dr. Zachary Neal by email at zpneal@msu.edu.
Citation equity
It is often important for research to cite certain “foundational” or “classic” sources. We encourage authors to consider opportunities to also draw on work by early career scholars, scholars from marginalized populations, and scholars from world regions that are underrepresented in the literature and pay attention to gender balance in citations. Please note that references do not count toward a submission’s word limit, so space limitations should not preclude citation equity.
Initial decisions are made within two weeks and the first post-review decisions and feedback are given within 12 weeks.
All submissions (except for practice articles and commentaries) passing the initial review by the Editor in Chief or Associate Editor, will be subject to anonymous peer-review processes by at least two referees currently working in the appropriate field. The editors aim to provide quick decisions and to ensure that submission to publication takes the minimum possible time. The final decision on publication rests with the Editor in Chief. Accepted papers will be published online ahead of print after copy editing and typesetting; all papers will appear in hard copy issues, but the timing of publication is at the discretion of the editors.
When papers are accepted for publication, authors are encouraged to submit a lay or non-technical summary of their piece for publication in the Evidence & Policy blog. For more information, please see our blog guidelines.
Peer Review Expectations
An efficient peer review system depends on the participation of researchers, especially those who are submitting their work for peer review. Therefore, submission of a manuscript to Evidence & Policy implies that the manuscript’s authors are willing to review other manuscripts submitted to Evidence & Policy. If you receive an invitation to review for Evidence & Policy while your manuscript is under review, or after it has been reviewed, we encourage you to accept this invitation. Please note that reviewing a manuscript for Evidence & Policy while your own manuscript is under review does not constitute a conflict of interest, nor will it have any impact on the peer review of your own manuscript.
Portable Peer Review
Evidence & Policy is piloting a new portable peer review policy aimed at reducing inefficiencies in the publication process, and lessening some of the burdens placed on reviewers and authors by the cycle of repeated submissions to different journals.
If your manuscript has been externally reviewed and rejected by another journal, and you believe you have addressed the reviewers' concerns, you may be able to benefit from Evidence & Policy's portable peer review policy. Under portable peer review, the editors will internally review the manuscript in light of the prior journal's reviews and your revisions. Following internal review, at their sole discretion the editors may accept the manuscript, request further revisions, seek additional reviews, or reject the manuscript. Portable peer review does not necessarily increase the likelihood of acceptance, however it can reduce the time to decision by providing the editors with additional information.
If you would like to be considered for portable peer review, you must provide with your submission:
The provided materials will be used by the editors to evaluate the manuscript. If additional reviews are sought the editors may share your anonymous summary of revisions, but will not share any details about the prior review (e.g. the journal's name, the reviewers' comments) with the additional reviewers.
For additional details on the background and rationale for portable peer review, see the Evidence & Policy blog.
At Policy Press we are committed to upholding the highest standards of review and publication ethics in our journals. Policy Press is a member of and subscribes to the principles of the Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE), and will take appropriate action in cases of possible misconduct in line with COPE guidance.
Find out more about our ethical guidelines.
Evidence & Policy is published by Policy Press. Articles are considered for publication on the understanding that on acceptance the author(s) grant(s) Policy Press the exclusive right and licence to publish the article. Copyright remains with the author(s) or other original copyright owners and we will acknowledge this in the copyright line that appears on the published article.
Authors will be asked to sign a Journals Contributor Agreement to this effect, which should be submitted online along with the final manuscript. All authors should agree to the agreement. For jointly authored articles the corresponding author may sign on behalf of the co-authors provided that they have obtained the co-authors' consent. The Journals Contributor Agreement can be downloaded here.
Where copyright is not owned by the author(s), the corresponding author is responsible for obtaining the consent of the copyright holder. This includes figures, tables and excerpts. Evidence of this permission should be provided to Policy Press. General information on rights and permissions can be found here.
To request permission to reproduce any part of articles published in Evidence & Policy, please email: bup-permissions@bristol.ac.uk.
For information on what is permissible use for different versions of your article please see our policy on self archiving and institutional repositories.
Further guidance may be found in the Policy Press editorial guidelines.
In order to improve our accessibility for people with visual impairments, we are now required to ask authors to provide a brief description known as alt text to describe any visual content such as photos, illustrations or figures. It will not be visible in the article but is embedded into the images so a PDF reader can read out the descriptions. See our guidance on writing alt-text.
To ensure your bibliography is complete before submitting your final article, we recommend using a reference manager such as Zotero when writing your article. If you cannot find the style under the specific Bristol University Press journal name, the closest format is Zotero "Consumption and Society".
Download the endnote output style for Policy Press and Bristol University Press Journals.
Policy Press uses a custom version of the Harvard system of referencing:
Examples
Book:
Bengtson, V.L. and Lowenstein, A. (2003) Global Aging and its Challenge to Families, New Jersey, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Darling, D. (2010) Injustice: Why Social Inequality Persists, Bristol: Policy Press.
Book with editor:
Bengtson, V.L. and Lowenstein, A. (eds) (2003) Global Aging and its Challenge to Families, 5th edn, New Jersey, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Chapter in book or in multi-authored publication:
Bengtson, V.L. and Lowenstein, A. (2003) Citizenship in action: the lived experiences of citizens with dementia who campaign for social change, in R. Smith, R. Means and K. Keegan (eds) Global Aging and its Challenge to Families, New Jersey, NJ: Transaction Publishers, pp 305–26.
Journal reference:
Williamson, E. and Abrahams, H. A. (2014) A review of the provision of intervention programmes for female victims and survivors of domestic abuse in the UK, Journal of Women and Social Work, 29(1): 178-191. doi: doi.org/10.1177/0886109913516452
Jeffrey, C., Williams, E., de Araujo, P., Fortin-Rochberg, R., O'Malley, T., Hill, A-M., et al (2009) The challenge of politics, Policy & Politics, 36(4): 545–57. doi: doi.org/10.1177/0886108913516454
Website reference:
Womensaid (2016) What is domestic abuse?, https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/.
Mariah Kornbluh Co-Editor in Chief; University of Oregon, US
Daniel Mallinson Co-Editor in Chief; PennState University, US
Peter Van der Graaf Associate Editor; Northumbria University, UK
Gedion Onyango Associate Editor; University of Nairobi, Kenya
Justin Parkhurst Chair of the Management Board, London School of Economics, UK
Caroline Oliver Chair of the Editorial Advisory Board, University College London, UK
Michaelagh Broadbent Editorial Officer; University College London, UK
Founding Editors: Ken Young (1943-2019) and Annette Boaz, King's College London, UK
The editorial team at Evidence & Policy is supported by a distinguished international advisory board, including:
Will Allen, University of Oxford, UK
Amy Anderson, University of North Texas, USA
Patrick Bailey, University College London,
Paul Cairney, University of Stirling, UK
Asiyati Lorraine Chiweza, University of Malawi, Malawi
Johan Christensen, Leiden University, Netherlands
Helen Dempster, Center for Global Development, USA
Simon Haeder, Texas A&M University, USA
Mark Hardy, University of York, UK
Sosanya Jones, Howard University, USA
Jesper Dahl Kelstrup, Roskilde University, Denmark
Anita Kothari, Western University, Canada
Michael Kpessa-Whyte, University of Ghana, Ghana
Adam Seth Levine, Johns Hopkins University
Cynthia Lum, George Mason University, USA
Jordi Molas-Gallart, INGENIO, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain
Jennifer Watling Neal, Michigan State University, USA
Frank Ohemeng, Concordia University, Canada
Mark Pearson, University of Hull, UK
Jonathan Purtle, New York University, US
Carol Rivas, University College London, UK
Michael Sanders, King's College London, UK
Valerie Shapiro, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Kat Smith, University of Strathclyde, UK
Jack B. Spaapen, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Netherlands
Jennifer Wilking, California State University, USA
The Editorial Management Board of the journal Evidence & Policy invites applications for Associate Editors.
Evidence & Policy is the first peer-reviewed journal dedicated to comprehensive and critical assessment of the relationship between research evidence and the concerns of policy makers and practitioners, as well as researchers.
The journal is international and cross disciplinary. It has an Impact Factor of 1.8 and will be indexed in MEDLINE this year.
Beginning in January 2025, Dr. Mariah Kornbluh (University of Oregon) and Dr. Daniel J. Mallinson (Penn State Harrisburg) will assume the role of Co-Editors-in-Chief.
Both new and continuing Associate Editors will work closely with the Co-Editors-in-Chief to continue the journal’s existing mission, as well as to expand in new directions, including attracting interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary scholarship, models for democratizing science, situating evidence in policy process research, and encouraging open science practices.
Associate Editors play a critical role in the editorial process, particularly in taking papers through the peer review process.
Working with a Co-Editor-in-Chief, they invite peer reviewers, correspond with authors and make decisions about which papers to include, revise, or reject. They also play an active role on the Editorial Management Board, which meets twice a year, and work with the Co-Editors-in-Chief to inform strategic decisions about the journal’s direction and activities.
The Board discusses managerial aspects of publishing a journal, and offers opportunities to engage in strategic academic activities supporting the development of the field. While workloads vary, most Associate Editors spend between 1-2 hours per week on journal activities. The standard term of an Associate Editor is 3 years.
We would particularly welcome applicants with expertise in any of the following areas:
We are particularly interested in building a diverse editorial team with good international networks that reflect the breadth of our intended readership.
Applicants should send a copy of their CV (1-2 pages maximum) and a short supporting statement (up to 1 page) which should set out their relevant topic specific and methodological expertise, as well as relevant editorial or reviewing experience to Michaelagh Broadbent, Editorial Officer, Evidence & Policy, evidenceandpolicy@outlook.com. Applications will be considered by a sub-panel drawn from the Evidence & Policy Editorial Management Board.
Applications should be submitted by e-mail by 28 February 2025.
To discuss this opportunity, please contact one of the Co-Editors:
Dr. Mariah Kornbluh @ mkornbl2@uoregon.edu, Dr. Daniel J. Mallinson @ djm466@psu.edu
For more information about the journal, including the current Associate Editors: https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/evp/evp-overview.xml
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2023 Impact Factor: 1.8 (2yr), 2.1 (5yr)
Ranking: 70/263 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary (Q2)
2023 Journal Citation Indicator: 1.22
Ranking: 48/263 in Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary (Q1)
2023 Scopus CiteScore 4.5
Ranking: 73/604 in Social Sciences (miscellaneous) – 87th percentile
2023 SJR: 0.665
Ranking: 154/795 in Social Science (miscellaneous) (Q1)