Policy briefs are created to provide brief evidence-based overviews and convincing information that urge the reader to make a decision on a particular issue. Briefs are typically concise, often only a few pages long, though some “briefs” can take a more report-like form and extend for fifty pages or more. There are two types of policy briefs: advocacy briefs and objective briefs.
Objective briefs are meant to inform. They provide overviews of a topic to help educate their audience. These briefs summarize various possible options to address a policy concern and leave it to the reader to come to their own decisions about which to follow.
Published in January 2024 by the RAND Corporation, a centrist, nonprofit think tank and research organization.
Rather than seeking to persuade, this brief gathers and organizes evidence. It begins with data about the large percentage of the job-seeking population who have criminal histories, as well as the percentage of active workers with prior convictions. The brief moves into data about the potential for reoffending – 75% of first offenders do not have another conviction within ten years – and evidence-based predictors for reoffending. Altogether, the information outlined in this brief debunks common stereotypes about people with criminal histories without making any specific recommendations for hiring managers. All data points are supported by citations.
Advocacy briefs take a stance. They outline and defend a specific plan of action and encourage policymakers to enact those recommendations.
Published in January 2024 by the Wilson Center, a centrist, nonpartisan think tank chartered by Congress in 1968.
This nine-page brief describes conditions which make U.S. policymakers more likely to enact refugee protections, then goes on to detail specific ways in which the United States has supported refugees: by funding refugee initiatives and organizations, via participation on international councils, and through permitting direct resettlement. It also delves into areas of political disagreement, such as how to address asylum-seeking refugees who have arrived outside of designated points of entry. The brief provides concrete examples in each of these areas and provides citations.
This brief concludes with eleven recommendations: five addressed to the Executive Branch, five addressed to the U.S. Congress, and one to refugee organizations. Each recommendation is only 1-2 sentences long. Some advocate for concrete measures, such as:
“Congress should continue to appropriate sufficient funds to UNHCR, IOM, and other humanitarian organizations to enable them to assist and protect refugees and displaced persons worldwide.”
Others are more general, such as:
“The Executive Branch should continue its efforts to engage refugee-led organizations in policy-making on refugee and asylum issues.”
Policy Commons is a large repository of reports, briefs, and other policy documents from over 35,000 think tanks, universities, governmental agencies, NGOs, and international groups.
In advanced search, users can limit their findings by document type, including an option for limiting to briefs. Users can also limit by date, by organization type, language, and more.
Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) is a smaller database indexing policy documents from 300 institutions, with a focus on international policy topics like “security studies, global finance, diplomatic practice, humanitarian law, global governance, development studies, and environmental studies.” CIAO has over 10,000 policy briefs. Narrow by Content Type on the left to Policy Brief, and choose other filters, including topic, location, institution, and publication year.
The policy briefs above are written for an audience of policymakers, often in quick, scannable forms with visually engaging content. To go more in-depth on policy recommendations, program proposals, or existing initiatives, it may be useful to dig into scholarly analysis, often in the form of journal articles. These articles are written by academics and researcher-practitioners, reviewed by peers, and then published in journals. These works are gathered in scholarly databases such as the ones below.
PAIS Index is a database of many kinds of documents about public policy with a strength in scholarly, peer-reviewed literature.
For example, a search for ("criminal histories" OR "criminal history" OR "criminal conviction" OR "criminal convictions" OR reoffend) AND (hiring OR hire), limited to peer reviewed journal articles, yields scholarly analysis on the use of background checks by employers, initiatives against use of a “criminal history” box on employment forms, and more. These perspectives are published in legal journals, sociology and criminology journals, and interdisciplinary periodicals, like the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.
Scholarly policy analysis can be found in many other academic databases as well. Since these databases can be very large, it's useful to search for specific policy initiatives within them: for example, the "Ban the Box" initiative. A search for "ban the box" in Scopus yields a manageable search result of less than 100 works.
