"Think tank" refers to a policy institute or a research institute which conducts research on topics such as economics, political climate, military, social policy and culture. Well-known political think tanks include:
| Type of source | Examples | Purpose | Authors | Audience | Publishers | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
SCHOLARLY |
Certain books; scientific/academic journals |
To advance knowledge in an academic discipline |
Researchers, professors, experts | Academics, scientists, policymakers, students | Scientific/academic publishers (may be commercial or nonprofit) | Usually peer-reviewed |
| POPULAR | News articles, magazines, op-ed pieces, some books | To discuss current trends, events, ideas | Journalists, politicians, occasionally scholars | General public | Commercial publishers, newspapers, magazines | Not peer-reviewed, but may go through an editorial process like fact-checking |
| GREY LITERATURE | Issue briefs, policy papers, case studies, technical reports | To further the mission of the organization that funded and/or published it | Practitioners, experts, government workers, public relations staff | Other practitioners, policymakers, donors, the public | Usually the organization itself | May be biased in favor of the mission of the organization |
“Despite a wealth of research, accessing high quality evidence and making it readily available to policymakers and practitioners remains a challenge. Evidence synthesis is the process of bringing together information and knowledge from a range of sources to inform debates and decisions on policies, programming, and evidence generation.”
UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti. (2018, May 17). Evidence synthesis. UNICEF-IRC. https://www.unicef-irc.org/article/1812-evidence-synthesis.html
