روندنگاری دانش مشارکت اندیشکده‌ها در نظام حکمرانی

In today's complex world, which is moving toward advanced knowledge, the specialized recommendations of experts are gaining increasing importance. As political decision-makers face the challenges of the modern era, the demand for scientific knowledge has grown. Simultaneously, scientific evidence has become a strategic resource capable of justifying and legitimizing worldviews, positions, and political decisions. It can be argued that academic expertise is a key pillar of governance processes worldwide. Public policymakers and actors aim to utilize research to improve decision-making. Similarly, researchers in public policy and public administration strive to provide specialized recommendations relevant to these decisions.

Often, political responses to crises are immediate and lack consideration for long-term strategies or goals. Previous research has characterized policymaking as a process marked by long periods of stability and delay, followed by short bursts of significant reactions and changes. At times, traditional decision-making cannot address the growing complexity of problems faced by nations. Hence, public policy experts in think tanks must step in to act as rational external advisors to governments. Since policy impacts diverse issues with varying interests, think tanks can serve as platforms to integrate and represent these interests.

Today, the comprehensive role of think tanks is significant due to their lasting impact on governance, civil society management, and increased participation in public policy discourse. Think tanks have a proud history of guiding various government sectors toward result-oriented decisions by thoroughly examining issues and assisting in domestic and foreign policies—granting them an indispensable role in governance. Global scholarly literature places think tanks as the fifth estate of global civil society engaged in all dimensions of public policies, governance, and administration.

Given their history and current level of participation, it is unlikely that the influence of think tanks will diminish in the coming years. Therefore, comprehensive research is needed to map knowledge trends and review global studies on think tank participation in governance systems. Accordingly, this study extracted 1,196 works from the Web of Science database between 2000 and 2024 using strategic search methods to identify trends, production patterns, key countries, major journals, and core concepts.

Methodology: This study employed scientometrics for data analysis. Scientometrics involves quantitatively studying science, communication within science, and science policy—a concept initiated by Eugene Garfield in the 1960s with his creation of the Science Citation Index (SCI). Bibliographic data were collected from the Web of Science database using keywords like "Think Tank AND Public Policy" and "Think Tank AND Governance." The search was limited to organizational domains and publications from 2000–2024. A total of 1,196 outputs formed the study's dataset.Data analysis included citation network mapping, keyword clustering using VOS Viewer software, co-occurrence analysis of keywords, and journal status analysis via JCR (Journal Citation Reports).

Findings: The study identified 1,196 works from 2000–2024: 1,026 journal articles; 117 book chapters; 12 books; and 24 review books. The publication trend surged after 2019 due to increased focus on keywords like "think tanks" and "governance." Web of Science categorized these publications into fields such as Political Science (22 works), Public Administration (178 works), and Environmental Studies (138 works). China led with 344 publications due to its comprehensive humanities policies alongside advancements in science and technology. The U.S., U.K., and Germany followed with 265, 155, and 50 publications respectively.