1. Do good social science. The proliferation of info means that policy-makers may reach for academic work that supports their own conscious & unconscious biases. That means your work may be ignored or adopted with little evaluation of methodology; the onus for rigor is on us.
2. Understand policy timelines. A recent piece with @jumacdo was just accepted for publication after the project began in 2014. Either ask questions whose relevance can survive that time lag, or be creative about publicizing your work prior to pub (but keep in mind rule #1).
3. Spend time w those in policy or ops. A common issue for scholars is that they can read & memorize the ingredients, but don't know how the sausage is made. The more interaction you have with those working the issues, the more you understand the complexity of the problem.
4. Work in government. Nothing (besides doing good social science) is more helpful than actually working the problem. If more people were afforded the opportunity to move btwn gov/edu, we wouldn't need to teach how to find policy-relevant questions--it would be intuitive.
5. Go into the weeds when necessary. Those in the weeds very rarely know how to abstract out--this is a major service scholars can provide policy, but you have to take the time and effort to learn the technical, tactical, or bureaucratic details of issues.
6. Publish/talk outside of academia. Write for blogs, opeds, mags & academic pubs. Attend & present at gov events. Say yes to briefings at with policy orgs. Reach out to orgs you want to influence. And always remember--no matter where you're speaking or writing--rule 1.
Finally, remember doing policy-relevant work doesn't have to compete with good scholarly work. It can often provide the inspiration for great research. So glad @BtGProjectDC is working these issues!
