Mapping the academic production of policy evaluation in a journal from Campo de Públicas in Brazil

Abstract

The article discusses the production of public policy evaluations. The debate of this theme revolves around theoretical and methodological references of evaluations from the Public Field in Brazil. Based on the systematic integrative literature review technique, a specific analysis of articles published in the Revista Avaliação de Políticas Públicas (AVAL) was performed. The study generated understandings about the advancement of publications over the years and how they diversify in methodological and epistemological terms. As a result of the analyses, the study concludes that Revista AVAL attracts a diverse set of articles related to the evaluation of public policies, both in methodological terms and in the types of policies being evaluated, with a marked presence of articles that produce literature reviews and, also, proposing alternative evaluation methods to those considered predominant, producing innovation and a potential use of evaluations as a strategic instrument of management and social control.