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RAND Standards for High-Quality Research and Analysis
Overview | General Standards | Special Standards
Introduction
The mission of the RAND Corporation is to help improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis.
Since its inception in 1948, the RAND Corporation has pursued its mission by conducting objective research on important topics, first in national security and later in such areas as health care, criminal and civil justice, public safety and homeland security, intelligence and counterterrorism, education, labor and population, and science and technology. The quality of that research and the importance of RAND's contributions to the public good have earned it an enviable reputation. ...RAND is "the most famous and one of the most important in that elite group of American R&D institutions known as think tanks ... RAND became the preeminent model." 1
In conducting studies on behalf of clients and the larger public, RAND confronts different analytical challenges over time. However, its commitment to high-quality research never changes. Every RAND report, article, database, and presentation is carefully reviewed before its public release. RAND also conducts periodic external and internal reviews of its body of research. In one such review, members of RAND's principal policy audiences were asked how they determine research quality. Most said that they rely on their own personal judgment.
However, personal judgment —quality in the "eye of the beholder" —is not a reliable basis for a quality assurance program. RAND undertook an institution-wide effort to define its standards for high-quality research. Formulated over eight years ago, the standards articulate long-standing RAND conceptions and values regarding the characteristics of high-quality research.
The standards described here express RAND's analytic aspirations. They are important tools for everyone involved in conducting and evaluating RAND's research —the research teams, research managers, and peer reviewers. They are also important to the users of RAND's research, both in the policymaking and in the research communities, who naturally have an interest in the quality of the research and how it is assured. The standards help to ensure that RAND's influence is based on studies and analyses that are technically sound and free from bias.
(1) Paul Dickson, Think Tanks, Atheneum, New York, 1971.
Summary of RAND Standards for High-Quality Research
General Standards
- The problem should be well formulated
- The research approach should be well designed and well executed
- The data and assumptions should be sound
- The findings should be useful and advance knowledge
- The implications and recommendations should follow logically from the findings and be explained thoroughly
- The documentation should be accurate, understandable, cogent, and temperate in tone
- The research should demonstrate understanding of previous related studies
- The research should be relevant to the client and other stakeholders
- The research should be objective, independent, and balanced
Special Standards
Perpetuating the Tradition of Quality Research
For 60 years, the RAND name has been synonymous with high-quality, objective research and analysis on issues at the top of the national and international policy agendas. We at the RAND Corporation are proud of that reputation and of the researchers and support specialists who built and sustain it, and we are likewise proud of the process that has evolved to ensure the quality of our studies and the analytical products that result from them. Although internal discussions about quality have always been an integral part of RAND life, about eight years ago we decided to draft a description of the quality standards for all RAND research —both as a guide for those of us who work at RAND and as the set of principles by which our research divisions and programs would shape their individual quality assurance processes. The initial standards grew out of a lengthy and lively “conversation”in the RAND hallways and on the RAND email network. They were first posted on our internal Web page in 1997 and have been the subject of continuous discussion and refinement. Based on suggestions by many RAND associates, clients, and donors, we decided to publish RAND's research quality standards in the form you now see as a way of emphasizing the importance of RAND's core values of quality and objectivity to all aspects of our institution. This is the third edition. We hope you will find this information useful, and we hope the discussion and refinements will continue.
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