Research utilization web resources.

Many Web sites around the world exist to help researchers and policy-makers better understand the process of bringing research to practice:

http://www.researchtopolicy.ca The Program in Policy Decision-Making at McMaster University in Canada maintains this comprehensive Web site. The site describes the program's work to improve understanding of factors that influence policy decision-making and to suggest ways to transfer and facilitate the use of research knowledge in policy decision-making environments.

http://www.health-policy-systems.com/content/1/1/2 This link is to an article entitled "The Utilization of Health Research in Policy Making: Concepts, Examples and Methods of Assessment," from Health Research Policy and Systems, an online journal published in collaboration with WHO. The article examines the relationship between different forms of policymaking and health research. Conditions that facilitate or impede research utilization, as well as various types of assessments, are also discussed.

http://www.dec.org/pdf_docs/PNACB080.pdf "Making a Difference to Policies and Programs: A Guide for Researchers"--a widely cited publication from the Academy for Educational Development's Support for Analysis and Research in Africa (SARA) project--provides guidance for researchers to enhance use of their work.

http://www.socstats.soton.ac.uk/choices/workshop Held at the U.K.-based University of Southampton, the "Moving beyond Research to Influence Policy Workshop" examined strategies for communicating, implementing, and evaluating reproductive health research findings. This Web site details the workshop proceedings and provides a "key issues" paper summarizing background information, main discussion points, and areas of consensus.

http://www.gdnet.org/rapnet This Web site of the U.S.-based Global Development Network contains links to relevant research, documents, recommendations, and researcher profiles, as well as a detailed annotated bibliography of literature examining the links between research and policy.

htlp://www.grip.resources.org The "Getting Research into Policy and Practice" Web site is designed to help researchers communicate their knowledge and findings to policy-makers. The site is divided into six component parts of the research to practice process, beginning with "development of the research question" and ending with "evaluation of the research findings."

http://www.shef.ac.uk/~scharr/ir/units/ resprac/index.htm The U.K.-based University of Sheffield's School of Health and Related Research offers an on-line training module summarizing conditions that might impede or facilitate the research implementation process. Users are guided through general background information and exercises.