Sage Publications Communicating Social Science Research to Policy Makers: 48 (Applied Social Research Methods)

This practical guide for doing policy analysis is written for academics who want to get their research to the attention of decision-makers in the public sector, or who want to train their students in the skills necessary to undertake policy-relevant research. Readers will learn: how to prepare an unbiased description of a problem to be studied; the various diagnostic techniques; the rules for designing policy prescriptions; how to use formal forecasting models; how to reach consensus over fiscal and benefits analysis; how to do costs and benefits analysis strategies for the effective communication of policy analysis. About the Author Terry F. Buss, PhD, is Executive Director and Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at the Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University, in Adelaide, Australia. Buss earned his doctorate in political science and mathematics at Ohio State University. Over the past 30 years, Buss has built his career in both academe and government. In his immediate past position, he directed the program in International, Security and Defense Studies at the National Academy of Public Administration for five years. From 2000 to 2003, Buss served as dean of the School of Policy and Management at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami. In 2000, Buss worked as a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, DC. From 1997 to 2000, Buss chaired the Department of Public Management in the Sawyer School of Business at Suffolk University in Boston. While on leave from Suffolk, Buss spent one year at the World Bank as a senior strategy advisor to the vice president for training and technical assistance and as the secretariat for the development of the World Bank’s Global Distance Learning Network (GDLN). From 1987 to 1997, Buss was director of the Ph.D. program at and chair of the Department of Public Administration and Urban Studies at the University of Akron in Ohio and also Director of Research at the St. Elizabeth Hospital Medical Center/Northeast Ohio College of Medicine. During this period, Buss, while on leave from Akron, directed the U.S. Information Agency technical assistance program in Hungary for three years immediately following the fall of communism in Eastern Europe; he replicated this program in Russia from 1993 to 1996. In addition, he worked on leave with the Council of Governors Policy Advisors, an affiliate of the National Governors Association as a senior advisor. He did so as an unprecedented two-time Fulbright Scholar winner in Hungary, working with the Minister of the Interior and Budapest University of Economic Science. He also received two fellowships with the Congressional Research Service, where he authored policy studies mandated by Congress. Buss has published 12 books and nearly 340 professional articles on a variety of policy issues. Buss has won numerous awards for research and public service, among them, Most Honored Professor of the Russian Federation. Over the years, Buss has worked overseas on major projects in England, Wales, Italy, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Ghana, Haiti, Canada, Colombia, Jamaica, Bahamas, and Australia. He also directed projects in Iraq, South Africa and Botswana from the United States.