What does it mean to 'use evidence'? Applying a broader understanding to inform the design of strategies to enable the use of evidence

Four decades after Carol Weiss began to disentangle the instrumental, conceptual, and symbolic forms of research use (Weiss, 1980), the challenge of researching the complexity of different forms of evidence use remains. This challenge is reflected in the research articles in this issue which grapple with how evidence is used in public policy making and what strategies might enable it to be used more effectively. The content of this issue also underlines two points we made in the previous editorial (Smith et al, 2019): (1) that bringing different disciplinary lenses to investigate evidence use can provide new insights; and (2) understanding the use of evidence within political and social contexts requires that attention be paid to issues of power and leadership.