Selection Criteria for Papers
A two-stage process is used to select papers for inclusion in the RURU database. Initial selection criteria are applied to the titles and abstracts of references retrieved by searches. These criteria are:
• The paper focuses on one or more of the following fields:
• health care, education, social care and criminal justice or
• social policy or
• social research.
• A primary focus of the paper is:
• research utilisation or
• implementing evidence-based policy or practice or
• the use of a research project or programme.
• The paper dates from 1985 and is in the English language.
More detailed selection criteria are used with full texts of papers identified as potentially relevant at the title and abstract stage.
For health care papers, these criteria are:
• The paper reports findings from a review of empirical studies or an overview of empirical reviews or
• The paper details an empirical study of a large-scale, multi-site UK initiative to improve research use.
NB. Health care reviews have been included in the database where they report on studies of interventions that have regularly been used to promote the use of research, e.g. guidelines.
For papers from the education, social care and criminal justice sectors, three sets of criteria are used:
1) Selection criteria for empirical papers
Empirical papers contain studies of
• an intervention designed to promote research use or
• the use of research in policy or practice or
• the impact of a research project or programme or
• methodologies used to assess the use of research or
• a review of any of the above.
2) Selection criteria for conceptual papers
Conceptual papers contain
• in-depth contribution to thinking or theory about research use or implementing evidence-based policy or practice or
• a review of conceptual ideas about research use or implementing evidence-based policy or practice or
• discussion of how the nature of research might influence its use in policy or practice or
• discussion of methodological issues around measuring and assessing the use of research.
3) Selection criteria for background papers
Background papers
• fail to meet any of the criteria above but are of general interest in relation to research use and implementing evidence-based policy and practice.
The following types of paper are excluded from the database:
• Editorials
• Book reviews