Evidence-based research

Calls to list polar bears as a threatened species under the United States Endangered Species Act are based on forecasts of substantial long-term declines in their population. Nine government reports were written to help US Fish and Wildlife Service managers decide whether or not to list polar bears as a threatened species. We assessed these reports based on evidence-based (scientific) forecasting principles. None of the reports referred to sources of scientific forecasting methodology. Of the nine, Amstrup et al. [Amstrup, S. C., B. G. Marcot, D. C. Douglas. 2007. Forecasting the rangewide status of polar bears at selected times in the 21st century. Administrative Report, USGS Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, AK.] and Hunter et al. [Hunter, C. M., H. Caswell, M. C. Runge, S. C. Amstrup, E. V. Regehr, I. Stirling. 2007. Polar bears in the Southern Beaufort Sea II: Demography and population growth in relation to sea ice conditions. Administrative Report, USGS Alaska Science Center,
Anchorage, AK.] were the most relevant to the listing decision, and we devoted our attention to them. Their forecasting procedures depended on a complex set of assumptions, including the erroneous assumption that general circulation models provide valid forecasts of summer sea ice in the regions that polar bears inhabit. Nevertheless, we audited their conditional forecasts of what would happen to the polar bear population assuming, as the authors did, that the extent of summer sea ice would decrease substantially during the coming decades. We found that Amstrup et al. properly applied 15 percent of relevant forecasting principles and Hunter et al. 10 percent. Averaging across the two papers, 46 percent of the principles were clearly contravened and 23 percent were apparently contravened. Consequently, their forecasts are unscientific and inconsequential to decision makers. We recommend that researchers apply all relevant principles properly when important public-policy decisions depend on their forecasts.

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to analyze the evidence-based research strategy (EBRS) used to evaluate eight projects that applied the neighborhood approach for disaster risk reduction (NA-DRR) in informal urban settlements in Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica and Peru, between 2012 and 2017. Design/methodology/approach-The study covers the first five of the seven EBRS stages: first, identify relevant interventions; second, prepare evaluation questions; third, select evidence sources and implement a search strategy; fourth, appraise evidences and identify gaps; fifth, create an evaluation design to include an extensive literature review, followed by a mixed research method with surveys, focus groups and interviews; disaster risk modeling; georeferencing analysis; and engineering inspections. The last two stages: sixth, apply the evidence, and seventh, evaluate the evidence application, will be addressed in a near future. Findings-Even though the reference to "evidence" is frequent in the DRR field, it is largely based on descriptive processes, anecdotal references, best practices, lessons learned and case studies, and particularly deficient on the subject of informal and precariousness settlements. The evaluation allowed a deep and broad analysis of NA-DRR in urban informal settlements, comparing it with other DRR strategies implemented by different stakeholders in fragile urban settings, assessing the effectiveness and sustainability of the various DRR interventions. Originality/value-The abundant data, information and knowledge generated will serve as foundation for forthcoming thematic peer-reviewed publications informing evidence-based DRR research, policy and practice, with emphasis on informal and precariousness settlements in particular.

Across Europe, there is an increasing demand for good evidence that can inform policies aimed at reducing violence against and among children and adolescents. However, there is still a paucity of high-quality research on effective prevention of bullying and violence, and researchers from different parts of Europe rarely discuss their findings. The focus section of this issue of the International Journal of Conflict and Violence brings together work by prominent prevention scholars from across Europe, who show that significant progress is being made. The introduction presents nine recommendations about how prevention re-
search could be further strengthened in Europe.

Across Europe, there is an increasing demand for  good evidence that can inform policies aimed at reducing violence against and among children and adolescents. However, there is still a paucity of high-quality research on the effective prevention of bullying and violence. This position paper
outlines nine recommendations for a European research policy that can contribute to achieving a significant reduction in bullying and violence.

Objective – The primary objective was to examine online journal database usage statistics for a provincial ministry of health in the context of evidence based decision-making. In addition, the study highlights implementation of the Journal Access Centre (JAC) that is housed and powered by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) to inform health systems policy-making.
Methods – This was a prospective case study using descriptive analysis of the JAC usage statistics of journal articles from January 2009 to September 2013.
Results – JAC enables ministry employees to access approximately 12,000 journals with full-text articles. JAC usage statistics for the 2011-2012 calendar years demonstrate a steady level of activity in terms of searches, with monthly averages of 5,129. In 2009-2013, a total of 4,759 journal titles were accessed including 1,675 journals with full-text. Usage statistics demonstrate that the actual consumption was over 12,790 full-text downloaded articles or approximately 2,700 articles annually.
Conclusion – JAC’s steady level of activities, revealed by the study, reflects continuous demand for JAC services and products. It testifies that access to online journal databases has become part of routine government knowledge management processes. MOHLTC’s broad area of responsibilities with dynamically changing priorities translates into the diverse information needs of its employees and a large set of required journals. Usage statistics indicate that MOHLTC information needs cannot be mapped to a reasonably compact set of “core” journals with a subsequent subscription to those.

Available at: <https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/eblip/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/28052>.

Despite increasing knowledge of potential benefits of research utilization in improving quality of healthcare management decision (HMDs) outcomes and practice, the use of research evidence by healthcare authorities continues to be a global concern. We examined the organizational contextual predictors of research utilization in management decisions of healthcare authorities in Arua district local government. The observational cross-sectional survey design was used, involving 225 questionnaires and nine key informant interviews, and the extent of influence of organizational contests was determined by estimation of predicted probabilities, and the corresponding odds ratios and coefficients using the binary logistic regression model. The results reveal that research utilization was significantly influenced by organizational context, whose overall predicted probability was 0.001 (p<0.05), with access to library (p=0.023), performance monitoring (p=0.029), information sharing (p=0.014) and participation in formal meetings (p=0.016) being significant predictors with fairly high odds ratios. These findings highlight the combined importance of performance monitoring, sharing information (social capital), access to library and participation in formal meetings (formal interaction) as significant predictors of increased research utilization. Even-though, sharing information showed strongest positive influence, which implies that workplace measures that promote sharing of information were about four times more likely to increase research uptake.

Criminal justice, a social science discipline intersecting law, psychiatry, psychology, sociology, and social work, continues to work towards developing effective solutions to crime control and reduction.  Increasing numbers of criminologists are engaging an applied evidence-based strategy used widely in medical and public health research. These rigorous research methods more validly assess the effects of mandated programs and policies in criminal justice. This chapter provides a foundational understanding of the circumstances that birthed the traditional approach to research taken by criminologists and how several factors are moving the field to using an evidence-based approach.  Two overarching recommendations from this review are the need for 1) more classes in experimental research at the graduate level, and 2) mentoring young criminologists on ways to run experiments within criminal justice agencies to ensure continued use of these methods by the next generation of criminologists.

The Family Competence Program, the Spanish Adaptation of the Strengthening Families Program 6-11 has been implemented in contexts of drug treatment programs and in contexts of social services. Here the longitudinal analysis will refer to the results in the applications in the context of social services and drug addiction treatment services. Materials and Methods: SFP has been applied with a cuasi-experimental design with control group and pretest and post-test . Also with follow-ups the two years after the end of the program. The sample counts with 290 families that participated in the program and 21 families that participated in the control group. Results: Positive changes are observed in six fundamental family factors, in the short term, and also in the 2 years follow-up. Conclusions: Short-term results could show overvalued results, which are corrected with the follow-up analysis.