How Does the Evidence-Based Approach Contribute to Ethical Policy-Making in Science and Technology?

Evidence-based policy-making is a continuous process of collecting valid and ethical information, intelligently analyzing it, and effectively communicating the findings to policymakers at the operational level in a controlled manner. This approach enables policymakers to take a proactive stance toward the consequences of science and technology (S&T) and develop ethical policies to achieve favorable economic and social outcomes in the S&T field. The purpose of this research is to describe how the evidence-based approach contributes to ethical policy-making in science and technology (S&T). To achieve this goal of explaining the evidence-based policy-making approach, the concept of strategic intelligence in policy-making has been utilized to elucidate the theoretical foundations of the research. The ethical components of evidence-based policy-making are then identified from relevant resources and documents through a documentary study. To classify the ethical components of evidence-based policy-making, identify the relationships between them, and formulate the framework for evidence-based ethical policy-making, a thematic analysis method inspired by the 7-step approach of Noblit and Hare (1988) has been used. Based on the results of this research, the steps of evidence-based ethical policy-making include the identification of information sources, the use of analytical tools for strategic intelligence in policy-making, policy intelligence, and ethical policy formulation. Also, in all these steps, policymakers must adhere to ethical principles of politics, which include participation, objectivity, methodicality, and learning.