EGAP is a cross-disciplinary network of researchers and practitioners that is united by a focus on experimental research and is dedicated to generating and disseminating rigorous evidence on topics of governance, politics, and institutions. They seek to forge partnerships between researchers and practitioners committed to understanding the politics of global development, advance evidence-based policy making, and improve the quality of empirical research in the social sciences.

Mission + Activities

EGAP members are designing and implementing field experiments throughout the world. From impact evaluations of anti-poverty projects in developing countries, to get out the vote campaigns for national elections in the U. S., to anti-corruption campaigns in Brazil, our work addresses today’s most important questions in the field of government and politics.

Results from research are shared with policy makers and development agencies through regular policy fora, biannual meetings, and policy briefs.

Funding:

They are supported by a grant from the UK Department for International Development and the Hewlett Foundation among others.

EGAP Research Principles

The members of the Evidence in Governance and Politics network (EGAP) seek to support sound and ethical practice in the conduct of experimental research on governance and politics and in the use of such research for policy and decision-making in the public and private sectors.

They pledge theirselves to maintaining high standards of scientific competence and integrity in conducting, analyzing, and reporting their work; in their relations with research participants; with their partners; with those who eventually use the research for decision-making purposes; and with the general public. To do so they subscribe to the following principles.

1.Human Subjects Protection

• They are committed to the protection of human subjects implicated in their research. In cases in which researchers are engaged alongside practitioners an agreement should state which party, if either, has primary responsibility for the intervention. Researchers should disclose the role that they play in the design of interventions implemented by practitioners or third parties.

2. Transparency

• To maintain transparency and limit bias in reporting, researchers should seek to register research designs, hypotheses and tests in advance of data collection and analysis. In presentation of findings, researchers should distinguish between analyses that were planned ex ante and those that were conceptualized ex post.

3. Rights to Review and Publish Findings

• In collaborations between researchers and practitioners it should be agreed in advance, and not contingent upon findings, what findings and data can be used for publication. In cases in which such agreement is not made in advance, and unconditional on findings, this fact should be noted in publications.

4. Publication of Data

• In collaborations between researchers and practitioners, researchers and practitioners should agree in advance that data used for analysis will be made publicly available (subject to masking of identifiable information) for replication purposes within a specified time period after data collection.

5. Remuneration

• Researchers should normally not receive remuneration from project implementers whose projects they are studying. In cases in which researchers receive remuneration from such agencies, this fact should be disclosed in footnotes to publications.