We cite a lot of research literature on this blog. Why? Because, even if imperfect, we think it’s the best way to inject what’s known about health care into the health policy debate. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is now offering another way to honor and celebrate research, running a contest to pick the five most influential articles of 2011 out of 20 candidates.* Anyone can vote. You get five votes.
Confession: I voted and I have not read all the papers. Enough information was available about each paper on the site or by following the links for me to tell what each was about. I judged papers based on whether I could recall discussions of their topics in the media or health policy debate. The five most “policy relevant” papers by that measure got my vote. This is not a contest of what is “best” but what is most “influential.” You are free to invent your own criteria.
Go vote.
* How were these 20 candidates selected? The vote website says, “This year’s 20 research articles were selected based on their solid research and their popularity as revealed by the number of visits each article collected since published to the website.” All 20 papers are based on work at least partly funded by RWJF.
AF
