Leveraging a three-state survey of 323 civil servants and 36 interviews, representing blue and red states, this university-government-nonprofit collaborative research project aims to better understand how civil servants access and use evidence in their decision-making process. Our findings show that 54% of respondents find evidence-based practices (EBPs) useful in making budget, policy, and contracting decisions, with 68% of civil servants anticipating future benefits from evidence use. Our hypothetical funding choice experiment indicates that civil servants prefer programs that are more recent and in their state, identify outcomes over outputs, demonstrate effectiveness for diverse demographic groups, and are evaluated by independent research entities. The main challenges in using EBPs include time constraints, resource limitations, decision-making fragmentation, and lack of evidence for certain communities. Qualitative interviews provide valuable strategies for overcoming these challenges. We conclude this article by offering practical insights for improving the integration of EBPs in state government decision-making processes.

中文翻译：

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循证实践和美国州政府公务员：当前的使用、挑战和前进的道路


该大学-政府-非营利组织合作研究项目通过对代表蓝州和红州的 323 名公务员进行的三个州调查和 36 次访谈，旨在更好地了解公务员在决策过程中如何获取和使用证据。我们的研究结果显示，54% 的受访者认为循证实践 (EBP) 对于制定预算、政策和合同决策很有用，68% 的公务员预计未来会从证据使用中受益。我们假设的资金选择实验表明，公务员更喜欢最新的、适合其所在州的项目，确定成果而不是产出，证明对不同人口群体的有效性，并由独立研究实体进行评估。使用 EBP 的主要挑战包括时间限制、资源限制、决策分散以及某些社区缺乏证据。定性访谈为克服这些挑战提供了有价值的策略。我们通过提供改进 EBP 在州政府决策过程中的整合的实用见解来结束本文。