Informed decision-making and democratic debate relies on access to urban policy resources. Such access is critical to understanding policy context, analysing path dependencies and critiquing accepted knowledge of what is possible for Australian cities. It can support systematic historical analysis—which can be an important tool for planning practitioners (Abbott & Sydler 1989; Ward, Freestone &...

Publishing by organisations has proliferated in the digital era, becoming a key tool in influencing public debate and part of the evidence-base for public policy and practice, yet it is often overlooked as a form of scholarly publishing. This paper looks at the way organisations produce, publish and disseminate policy-related research.

What aspects of the current system hamper the effective flow of knowledge and good governance, how can they be reformed and what advocacy is required?

Survey data on 155 organisations producing research and information for policy and practice. The survey aimed to gather data that would help understand how information and research is produced and disseminated as grey literature for impact and influence on public interest issues.

This paper looks at the production of grey literature for public policy and practice where the changes enabled by computers and the internet are causing a hidden revolution in the dissemination of knowledge and evidence.