Government Social Research
The Magenta Book is a set of guidance notes for policy evaluators and analysts, and people who use and commission policy evaluation. It is organised around a number of questions frequently asked about policy evaluation and analysis. Follow the links below to read the guidance notes.
> Introduction to the Magenta Book (pdf, 141kb)
> What is Policy Evaluation? (pdf, 32kb)
> What do we already know? (pdf, 232kb) Harnessing existing research
> What do the statistics tell me? (pdf, 725kb) Statistical concepts, inference & analysis
> What is sampling? (pdf, 192kb)
> How are the data collected? (pdf, 362kb) Data collection & survey design
> Why do social experiments? (pdf, 163kb) Experiments and quasi-experiments for evaluating government policies and programmes
> How do you know why (and how) something works? (pdf, 472kb) Qualitative methods of evaluation
> The Magenta Book: all chapters (pdf, 2.76mb - this file may take some time to download)
Follow the links below to find out more about the Magenta Book and other sources of guidance on policy evaluation.
You may find the following publications useful:
The Magenta Book is linked to a series of professional development courses in Policy Evaluation and Analysis run by the the Government Social research unit (GSRU) in the Cabinet Office. These courses are designed for government analysts and policy makers who use and commission policy evaluation.
The courses are based on the principles of 'problem-based learning' and 'problem-based assessment'. This is so that people attending the courses can develop their analytical skills by finding solutions to the kind of 'real life' analytical and policy problems that may arise in their everyday work.
Recently, the opportunity has arised for those working in government to accredit these courses at Master's degree level from October 2005 onwards.