A matter of culture? Conceptualizing and investigating “Evidence Cultures” within research on evidence-informed policymaking

This paper conceptualizes the notion of “evidence culture” in evidence-informed policymaking by surveying existing literature that either specifically employs the term or uses adjacent terms such as “epistemic” or “research culture”. It employs mixed-methods scoping review, combining citation analysis using Web of Science data used to identify the key clusters of scholarship with a qualitative thematic analysis of key papers across these clusters. This analysis identifies seven distinct approaches to “evidence cultures” across disciplinary communities. The key points of divergence across the clusters include the meanings of evidence, the underlying understanding of the evidence–policy interplay, the conceptualization of culture, and its implications for evidence use in policy. Building on these insights, we offer a framework for analyzing evidence cultures, arguing for the conceptual and empirical utility of this term in advancing scholarship on evidence use in policy settings.