SDG research in policy

1.1 How does SDG policy use research? 

Between 2015 and 2025, more than 5.5 million policy documents were classified to at least one SDG (Fig. 5) – this amounts to 45% of the total 12 million documents analysed in this report. Of these, 637,000 SDG-classified documents cite at least one scholarly publication, compared with just 232,000 non-SDG classified documents.  

Figure 5: Percentage of policy document citations 2015–2025   

See full breakdown by SDG in the Appendix 

Documents classified to an SDG are more likely to cite research evidence

SDG-related policy documents are more likely to cite both scholarly and other policy documents, suggesting greater integration of evidence overall. However, it’s important to note that many policy documents not classified to an SDG are documents that would not be expected to cite anything, for example, budgets or meeting minutes.

When we consider only documents that cite anything (scholarly documents or other policy documents), those classified to an SDG are still more likely to cite scholarly research than non-SDG documents (Fig. 6). This suggests there is a greater connection between policy and research within the SDGs.

Figure 6. Percentage of policy documents citing other documents (limited to documents citing at least one other document).

Society-related policy uses the most research 

Using the Stockholm Resilience Centre’s “wedding cake” model, we see that society-related SDGs account for the largest share of documents which cite research (Fig. 7). ⁴ 

Figure 7. Count of policy documents citing research by “wedding cake” groupings

This figure shows the number and percentage of policy documents that cite at least one scholarly publication, broken down by “wedding cake” groupings of SDGs (Biosphere, Economy, and Society). Percentages are calculated relative to the total number of policy documents in each grouping.

⁴ SDGs 1–5, 7, 11, and 16

1.2 Who is making the connection from research to policy? 

Think tanks are most likely to cite SDG research 

Looking at SDG-related documents, think tanks are the policy actors most likely to cite anything – either policy or scholarly (Fig. 8). This could partly reflect the types of publications that Overton indexes for these sources, such as white papers and reports, as these typically engage with more scholarly sources. 

Figure 8. Percentage of SDG-related policy documents citing other sources   

This figure shows the percentage of SDG-related policy documents that cite scholarly research, cite other policy documents only, or do not include any citations, broken down by the type of institution that authored the policy (e.g. governments, IGOs, NGOs, think tanks, legislative bodies, judicial bodies). Source type classifications follow Overton’s schema (see Overton help article https://help.overton.io/article/how-does-overton-index-classify-its-sources/).
Percentages are calculated as the share of all documents within each source type.

By contrast, while government bodies are the most prolific authors within the dataset, they are more likely to publish a varied range of documents, including those that don’t cite anything. Legislative bodies and judicial bodies are least likely to cite research, which is consistent with the nature of their outputs (such as legal texts or administrative procedures).  

If we narrow our analysis to look only at documents that cite other documents (scholarly or policy), IGOs, NGOs, and think tanks emerge as most likely to cite scholarly research (Fig. 9). This suggests that there might be a role for these types of organisations as knowledge brokers between research and policy. These organisations absorb academic findings, synthesise them, and repackage evidence in ways that can influence policymaking across multiple arenas. 

Figure 9. Percentage of SDG-related documents citing other documents by source type

This figure restricts the analysis to SDG-related policy documents that contain at least one citation of any type (scholarly or policy). Within this subset, it shows the proportion citing at least one scholarly publication versus those citing only other policy documents, again broken down by the type of institution that authored the policy. Source type classifications follow Overton’s schema (see Overton help article https://help.overton.io/article/how-does-overton-index-classify-its-sources/)