Policy Briefs from Research into Policy Making in Health Sciences: A Scoping Review

The gap between research evidence and policy-making is a persistent issue, resulting in an inefficient use of resources and an inadequate response to public issues. Knowledge translation aims to bridge this gap by developing evidence-based formats that disseminate, understand and use information in real-world settings. Policy briefs are one such format that can assist policymakers to make evidence-informed decisions, yet there is no standardisation on how and when to conduct policy briefs. With this scoping review we aim to give an overview of recommendations and guidelines regarding the structure, format, lengths, layout and key characteristics of policy briefs to inform policy decision-making from health science academia. Further, we will explore the point in time at which those policy briefs should be developed and how they can be disseminated and evaluated. Relevant literature will be searched in PubMed, Embase as well as through additional manual searches. Eligibility screening will be conducted by two independent reviewers. Data will be extracted and synthesised alongside pre-defined items.