What is an assessment?

An assessment is a process that translates existing scientific information into a form usable by policymakers. Examples of highly influential recent assessments are the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 4th Assessment, and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA). Walt Reid, Director of the MA, identified three critical success factors:

  1. Legitimacy: the stakeholders have to accept that the process is well-founded
  2. Saliency: it must be relevant to an expressed need
  3. Credibility: it must be conducted by experts, to the highest standards

Assessments are characterised by extensive, transparent review process by both experts and stakeholders. An assessment encourages the authors to provide their own expert judgements when the data are sparse or equivocal (as long as these judgements are clearly identified as opinions), but puts checks and balances in place to ensure that all reasonable viewpoints are fairly reflected. Assessments include explicit evaluation of the uncertainties on key issues, either quantitatively in terms of probability ranges (e.g. 'near certain' is >95% confidence of being true), or qualitatively (such as 'established', 'established but incomplete', 'competing explanations' or 'speculative').

Some of the key attributes of successful assessments are:

  • The scope and questions are defined by the stakeholders.
  • Driven by gaps in the knowledge required to make or implement decisions.
  • The defined topic is typically broad and complex.
  • Assessments relate to the situation at a particular time and in a defined geographical domain.
  • Conducted according to an open, transparent, balanced and legitimate process.
  • All stakeholders are involved in the preparation and peer-review - ownership of the process and results is essential.
  • The policy- or decision-makers are the audience.
  • Findings are policy relevant, not policy prescriptive.
  • Reduce complexity by summarization and synthesis, and by sorting what is known and widely accepted from what is not known or not agreed.
  • Statements of certainty and uncertainty are essential.
  • Judgment needs to be evidence-based and clearly flagged as expert opinion.
  • Incorporate legitimate different views and note which issues are scientifically unresolved.
  • Take a multi-scale perspective.

Assessments are not research projects. They do not generate new primary data, but generate new information based on the evaluation of existing studies, including an assessment of the adequacy of the information itself. Assessments are also not reviews. Reviews are written by experts for experts, and specifically avoid making evaluations. Assessments are written by scientists for policymakers, and explicitly evaluate the evidence.