Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) is an international collaboration center for evidence-based healthcare, which mainly focuse on evidence-based activities in nursing science, rehabilitation science and psychiatry science. The present article systematically and comprehensively introduces the foundation, development, mission, organizational structure, and the major contents of the JBI institute, so as to provide theory support for Chinese researchers who specialize in studying methods and practice in these given fields.
As the global health crisis erupts, there is an unprecedented focus on evidence across all sectors, becoming a critical trigger for changing research plans, development, synthesis, implementation, and evidence-informed decision-making. The establishment of the Global Commission on Evidence and the publication of two reports further emphasize the significance of evidence-informed decision-making in addressing social challenges. With the dissemination and development of evidence-based social science, there is a need to continually improve the ecosystem from evidence to decision and provide rigorous methods and approaches for different decision-makers to address social challenges. This article aims to interpret the Evidence Commission Report and explain the demand and supply of evidence, global public goods, and eight most-important Evidence Commission recommendations that can be used to address most social challenges. It also presents the key issues and insights that the evidence-based social science ecosystem faces from evidence to decision-making, putting evidence at the center of everyday work and life.
Decision-making is often a complex and hard-to-routinize process. Based on the decision-making experience of fighting COVID-19, policymakers have gradually realized that climate action, quality education, and other societal challenges, as well as the sustainable development goals (SDGs) need to be addressed with the best available evidence using an evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM) approach. The Global Commission on Evidence was established in 2021. In addition, the Evidence Commission issued reports in 2022 and 2023. A systematic methodology to address societal challenges with EIDM has been constructed in the report. Five types of domestic evidence (data analytics, evaluation, modeling, qualitative insights, and behavioural/implementation research) and four steps in decision-making process (understanding a problem and its causes, selecting an option for addressing the problem, identifying implementation considerations, and monitoring implementation and evaluating impacts) were used to support four types of decision-makers (government policymakers, organizational leaders, professionals and citizens) in EIDM, as demonstrated by the reports. To further disseminate the concept and methodology of EIDM globally, the secretariat works with 25 Evidence Commissioners to write the report, and continues to cooperate with Country Leads Group from 12 countries to conduct rapid evidence-support system assessments (RESSAs), and collaborates with Evidence Commission Implementation Council to accelerate the implementation of 24 recommendations. The main history, core methodology, and latest developments of the Global Committee on Evidence were systematically reviewed in this paper. We aimed to show decision-makers a new version of how to scientifically address the societal challenges of EIDM.