Writing a policy brief
Writing an Effective Policy Brief
Why write a policy brief?
Many of us decided to pursue conservation science to have an impact— to create actionable knowledge that can inform decisions. Yet, for those of you who go on to pursue careers in conservation science, you will quickly realize that you are often incentivized to communicate with other scientists but not with the people that are actually in charge of making decisions! As you have probably noticed, scientific articles are dense and riddled with difficult to understand jargon. Worse, they are often hidden behind paid subscription services that make them inaccessible to policy-makers. In summary, policy makers rarely have the time— or inclination— to access the wealth of conservation relevant knowledge that is constantly being published. Thus, to translate science into practice, we often need to reach out to policy makers directly!
A policy brief is a concise, attractive, synthesis of a scientific study or topic that discusses the relevance and importance of the study or topic to policy-makers. It is often used as a leave-behind. What is a leave-behind? Many scientists will arrange meetings with their representatives (or more likely the staffers of their representatives) and, after giving them a quick elevator pitch about an important issue, will “leave behind” a 1 page policy brief summarizing the issue. Staffers can revisit the policy brief at a later time or when their boss (your representative) needs more information before a crucial vote.
What’s required
Choosing an article or topic— Each student is required to choose either a recent journal article (from 2019, 2020, or 2021) or a timely conservation topic as the subject of their policy brief. Policy briefs are intended to inform policy-makers about a key bit of science they should know to effectively do their jobs. If you choose a scientific article as your subject, it must be:
· Peer reviewed and published in an academic journal such as Conservation Biology, Conservation Letters, Ecological Applications, Journal of Applied Ecology, Global Change Biology or others.
· Relevant to conservation, with clear management implications.
· Recent— published in 2019, 2020, or 2021. Earlier dates are not permitted.
If you choose a timely conservation topic, the topic must:
· Have appeared in a major news outlet in the last 6 months OR be the subject of an upcoming (or recent) vote in either our state or federal legislature.
· Be relevant to conservation
· Be supported by scientific literature. You must cite 1 (or more) studies to back up your policy recommendations.
Assigned course readings cannot be used. The paper you used for the blog cannot be used. Feel free to email the TAs if you have any questions about your article or topic and its appropriateness for the assignment.
Writing the policy brief— The policy brief will be attractively formatted onto 1 page and will be targeted to policy-makers. For the purposes of this assignment, we will use the message box to structure how your policy brief is formatted. An example of how a policy brief could look is available in the files section of canvas. This example, however, was not written with all the guidelines and requirements in mind. It should thus be viewed as an example of how policy briefs should generally look and read, not an example of what is expected for this assignment.
Here is a list of what each policy brief must contain:
· A clear, concise title. The title must reflect the broad topic that you intend to discuss. In message box jargon, the title is your issue or the center of the box.
· Your byline. Include your name, contact information (email/phone number), and affiliation below the title.
· Section headings. The core text of the policy brief will be made up of four sections, corresponding to the four main sections of the message box: (1) the problem, (2) so what?, (3) solutions, and (4) benefits. Do not use the message box titles as section headings! Instead write headings that pertain to your topic.
· The problem. Lead off your policy brief with a succinct description of the problem that you seek to address. State why the problem is important and why it is relevant now.
· So what? Why should your policy-maker care about this issue? Who is affected by this problem? What are the broader implications? Make sure you remember your audience!
· The solution. Clearly articulate a solution to the problem that has emerged from the research you are focusing on. For our purposes, funding more research is not an acceptable solution. I want to see an actionable path forward to address the problem. Also, be sure to explain how the solution differs from current practices or policies.
· Benefits. What would the broad benefits be of adopting this solution?
· A picture or figure. Include at least 1 picture or figure (with a caption) to make your policy brief more attractive. Be sure to cite the source of your picture/figure. Be sure to choose pictures/figures that are NOT copyrighted. See below for choosing appropriate images.
· A box with key points. Also include a box with several (3-5) bullet points detailing the core things that a policy-maker should take away from this document. The policy-maker should be able to read your key points box and broadly understand your policy brief without having to read anything else.
In addition to the components listed above, we will also grade policy briefs based on:
· Visual appeal. Policy briefs should be visually appealing. Make sure to format your brief so that the picture(s), box, title, and text form an attractive document. Feel free to use one or multiple columns of text (like a newspaper).
· Numbers and facts. Back up your statements with numbers and facts, but do not go overboard with statistics. Also, try to translate numbers into a more digestible form. For example, write “excluding birds doubled pest infestations” instead of “excluding birds increased pest infestations by 96%.”
· Clear, jargon-free, professional writing. Remember, you are writing for a policy-maker so keep the technical terms to a minimum unless they are absolutely necessary. Also, unlike the blog, the policy brief is written in a formal tone: puns and wordplay are to be avoided. As always, copy-edit your policy brief to ensure it appears professional.
· Citations. Cite any scientific articles you reference in the text by using a numbering system. For example, “Birds have been shown to eat pests in Costa Rica (1,2). They also are important for ecotourism (3).” Then, on a separate second page, include the bibliography of all cited papers. Use the following format:
· Karp, D.S., Mendenhall, C.D., Sandi, R.F., Chaumont, N., Ehrlich, P.R. & Daily, G.C. (2013). Forest bolsters bird abundance, pest control, and coffee yield. Ecology Letters, 16, 1339–1347
Choosing images— An important part of writing an effective blog is the addition compelling, attractive figures that accent your writing. Such images abound on the internet, but photos and figures represent people’s personal property- even when they are posted on the internet. As such, it is important to carefully abide by copyright laws when choosing photos to post alongside your blog. Even when photos are labeled for reuse (meaning the owner allows them to published on the websites of other people), there may be further restrictions regarding attribution. The procedure below is a surefire way to make sure you are abiding by copyright law and that you are protecting yourself and your institution.
Google image search:
1. Visit images.google.com and type in your search phrase (e.g., Peregrine Falcon)
2. Click on tools.
3. Click on usage rights.
4. Click on labeled for reuse.
5. Click on the photo you would like to use and then visit the website from which it was taken.
6. On that website, there should be a section on attribution. Read how the author would like to be attributed. If it does not say, then, as a rule, cite the author’s name and a link to the website where you got the image.
If you cannot find a suitable image in google image search, try visiting any of the following websites:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/ https://www.pexels.com/ https://freephotos.cc/ https://unsplash.com/
Turning it in— Save your policy brief as a Microsoft word document, and turn it in electronically using the assignments tab in Canvas. The policy brief is due by March 3 at midnight.