Evidence-based Policy: The Promise of ‘Realist Synthesis’

Evaluation research is tortured by time constraints. The policy cycle revolves more quickly than the research cycle, with the result that ‘real time’ evaluations often have little influence on policy making. As a result, the quest for evidence-based policy (EBP) has turned increasingly to systematic reviews of the results of previous inquiries in the relevant policy domain. However, this shifting of the temporal frame for evaluation is in itself no guarantee of success. Evidence, whether new or old, never speaks for itself. Accordingly, there is debate about the best strategy of marshalling bygone research results into the policy process. In the first of this pair of articles (published in the previous issue of Evaluation) a critical review of the existing EBP strategies was conducted. This companion article considers the merits of a new methodology for systematic reviews, namely ‘realist synthesis’