My latest article on research use in the higher education rulemaking process is now out in @epaa_aape – and it’s open-access! A few key takeaways of this study … (thread) 1/9 https://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/5048#.XvE7qfd6Dp8.twitter

This multi-case study found that research has been used and cited in #HigherEd regulations, but not as frequently as other factors, such as experience, beliefs, examples, and the law 2/9

Research that has been cited in #HigherEd rules more frequently comes from government agencies or nonprofit organizations than academic journals 3/9

And context is important: regulations that were controversial, had a contentious history, or were expected to receive a great deal of scrutiny cited research more frequently than less controversial regulations 4/9

Barriers to research use in #HigherEd rulemaking included time constraints, unavailability of desired data, the highly political nature of the process, and lack of government capacity for research and data requests 5/9

While #HigherEd rulemaking (esp. #NegReg) provides a chance for research-oriented organizations like universities and some nonprofits to work closely with policymakers, this study found mismatches between researchers and policymakers reminiscent of the “two communities” … 6/9

… perspective that researchers and policymakers inhabit separate communities. In fact, this study discovered incidents of research-policy disjunctions even within a single organization, such as where universities were represented at #NegReg by non-research administrators … 7/9

… and when government policymakers did not work with their agency’s own research division until near the end of a rulemaking procedure 8/9

There is a lot more in the article, which is available open-access on the @epaa_aape website – PDF can be found at this link. 9/9 https://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/5048/2463