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Background
Social Research (SR) commissioned by the Scottish Government (SG) is used to inform policy / decisions about policy and practice. Publications from these projects play an important role in ensuring that this information is used as widely as possible. For most projects we request that contractors produce a written final report and a short research findings document. The final report presents the research data collected by a project. We may also require other, shorter reports during the duration of a project. The research findings document is a summary of the research project and highlights the key messages. Such outputs should be written in a language and follow a style / layout which is clear, concise and jargon free, which a non research-trained person would understand. Our policy is to publish all of these documents on the Scottish Government Social Research web-pages. SG Social Research is keen that all research outputs are of the highest possible quality, and recognise that to achieve this every stage of the research process (including research design and analysis) must adhere to certain standards. These include following ethical and procedural principles, and also ensuring that the research project is both carried out and reported transparently and objectively. This guidance provides further information on writing and producing such documents.