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DISABILITY RESEARCH APO COLLECTION
The NDRP has partnered with the Australian Policy Online (APO) to build a Disability Research Collection designed to improve policies and practices. The Collection will aim to share evidence and knowledge on a range of topics for people with disability and their families and carers, policy makers, researchers, advocates, service providers and practitioners.
In keeping with the NDRP principles, the APO collection values all forms of knowledge from many different sources, and aims to make this accessible to the community.
By adding a resource to APO, authors, publishers and organisations can make their policy and research resources discoverable to thousands of policy and research professionals in Australia, New Zealand and beyond.
Latest resources
Making disability research easier to find, share and use
Research can only make a difference when people can find it, access it and use it. That's why the National Disability Research Partnership (NDRP) invests in the Disability Research Collection, hosted by the Australian Policy Online (APO). The collection brings together disability-related research, reports and policy evidence in one free, publicly accessible place. It helps people with disability, disability representative and advocacy organisations, researchers, policymakers, governments and service providers find the evidence they need to inform decisions, strengthen advocacy, improve practice and identify priorities for future research.
Our investment is about more than maintaining a collection of reports. It's about strengthening the infrastructure that connects disability research with the people and organisations who can use it. This includes making research produced by and with people with disability more visible, helping valuable evidence reach new audiences and ensuring that important findings don't disappear when individual projects end. The collection is regularly updated and organised around key areas of disability research, including First Nations, children and young people, safety of people with disability, accessible and inclusive communities, and research by and with people with disability.
The two resources below explain why this investment matters. They demonstrate the reach and impact of APO's open-access platform and show how curated research collections help bridge the gap between evidence, policy and practice.
APO's impact: Connecting research with policy and practice
APO's impact overview demonstrates the value of making research freely available and easier to discover. With more than 45,000 open-access resources and over one million annual page views worldwide, APO provides an established platform for sharing evidence across research, government and community sectors.
For NDRP, this reach creates opportunities for disability research to be discovered and used beyond its original audience, supporting better-informed advocacy, policy decisions and practice.
APO collections: Building a shared evidence base
APO's overview of its curated collections explains how research can be brought together, organised and promoted to make it easier for people to find and use.
NDRP's Disability Research Collection is an example of this approach. Rather than requiring users to search across multiple websites, publications and organisations, the collection provides a central place to explore relevant disability research and evidence. It also helps preserve and promote research that might otherwise be difficult to locate, supporting the longer-term visibility and use of evidence generated by the disability research community.
Watch the video: Making evidence easier to find and use
Plain text for APO's impact: Connecting research with policy and practice
APO: Australia's trusted repository of policy-relevant evidence
Australian Policy Online (APO) makes high-quality research evidence accessible and easy to find so it can inform public policy, programs and services. Since 2002, APO has provided access to research and evidence across a wide range of policy areas and sectors.
APO specialises in grey literature. This includes reports, policy briefs, discussion papers and evaluations produced by governments, universities, not-for-profit organisations, think tanks, peak bodies and advocacy groups that are not commercially published.
APO's repository contains more than 45,000 resources.
Making evidence easier to find
With so much information available online, finding relevant and reliable evidence can be difficult.
APO's editors identify, catalogue and organise research, making it easier to discover and use.
Resources include:
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Information about the author, publisher and publication date
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Subject terms and keywords
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Links to related resources
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Short summaries
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Access to full-text documents
People can search by policy topic or research methodology, including co-design, evaluation, systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials.
Collections at APO
APO's curated collections bring together evidence on particular topics to support research, policy and practice communities.
A collection is a regularly updated repository of research and evidence. It can include grey literature and academic publications.
Collections are designed to:
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Make relevant evidence easier to find
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Support collaboration and information sharing
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Increase the visibility of research
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Connect evidence from different sectors and disciplines
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Support the use of research in policy and practice
Collections are integrated with APO's broader repository so resources can be found through searches as well as by browsing individual collections.Collections are also promoted through APO's newsletters, which reach more than 15,000 subscribers.
Browsing collections
People can browse collections using different filters, including:
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Year of publication
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Research subject
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Publisher
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Author
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Geographic coverage
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Resource type
Collections can also include Topics in Focus, which provide another way to explore research on particular issues.
Benefits of APO's collections
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Research infrastructure: APO maintains the technology and information systems needed to organise, preserve and share research resources.
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Integration with other platforms: Collections can be connected with other websites and information hubs to make resources more widely available.
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Improved discoverability: Resources are included in APO's broader repository, making them easier to find through different search methods.
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Increased visibility and reach: Collections help research reach audiences beyond the organisations that originally published it. APO also provides access to older publications that may be difficult to find elsewhere.
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Monitoring engagement: APO provides collection partners with access to engagement data and APO+ membership so they can understand how people are using their resources.
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Supporting collaboration: Collections provide a shared digital space for organisations and communities to access and exchange evidence.
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Promoting research: APO promotes resources and collections through its three weekly newsletters, helping research reach policy, research and practice audiences.