Module 7: Publication and Dissemination

This module teaches the seventh stage of the policy surveillance process: publication and dissemination. 

Once your team has completed its research, it is time to publish and disseminate the project. This module provides instruction on how to release your coded questions and responses (legal data) to your intended audience and offers strategies for making users and groups aware that the project has been published. 

Steps in publishing and disseminating 

This module walks through all the steps in publishing and disseminating a policy surveillance project.

The steps are:  

  1. Establish a dissemination plan

  2. Complete final quality control checks

  3. Finalize publication documents

  4. Publish and disseminate 

Writing a Legal Mapping Paper 

A legal mapping paper (sometimes called a “50 state survey”) reports the results of research to identify the key provisions of laws on a particular issue, identifies patterns in the nature and distribution of laws, and defines important questions for evaluation research, legal analysis and policy development. The 50-state survey has a long history of public health law, but scientific legal mapping papers now set the standard for legal mapping work. 

Click here to learn how to write a legal mapping paper. 

Additional Resources 

Below, you will find a slide deck that teaches the skills in this stage, as well as additional resources that will assist you in drafting and finalizing publication documents. Please explore the other modules if you are interested in learning more about policy surveillance. 

Module 8 >>

The Learning Library was developed using funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, with modules supported in part by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and ChangeLab Solutions under Cooperative Agreement Number NU38OY000141. The views expressed in written materials or publications and by the speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does the mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.