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Top 5 Expert Tips for a Great Policy Position Statement Proposal

Megan J. Shen, PhD; Alyssa M. Vela, PhD, Amanda C. Blok, PhD MSN RN PHCNS-, Joanna Buscemi, PhD, Sarah Miller, PsyD, Laura L. Hayman, PhD, MSN; Jocelyn E. Remmert, PhD - Position Statement Committee

Submitting a health policy position statement, especially for the first time, can feel intimidating. But we have seen many novice authorship teams write extraordinarily impactful and actionable statements. The Position Statements Committee is designed to support new, and returning authors, in their effort to write and publish statements that advocate for important behavioral science to policy makers. Importantly, the committee is available to provide feedback and guide you as you develop your statement from a proposal to a published product. As members of the Position Statements Committee, we would like to share the “Top 5” recommendations for authors to write a highly impactful statement. We strongly encourage you to submit a proposal!

1. Keep your audience in mind.

Most SBM position statements are written for federal policy makers, including members of the US Congress. Critical to writing a good position statement is keeping your audience in mind. Make sure that your statement is relevant to the audience, clear and to the point, and actionable for legislators. It is also important to make sure that the tone and focus of your position statement is grounded in behavioral, describes prior legislation and focuses on how to work on topics that align with legislators’ areas of focus or priority when possible.

2. Make the recommendations actionable.

It is critically important to make policy recommendations that legislators can act upon at the level. We commonly review recommendations that are vague or unhelpful, such as “Increase funding for research around nutrition” or “Provide more support for school-based programs on healthy meals.” These general recommendations lack specificity and thus, decrease the ability for legislators to know how to act upon them. An example of a strong recommendation is the following: “We urge members of Congress to co-sponsor the TRUTH in Labeling Act of 2023, which updates front-of-package food labeling requirements that would allow consumers to quickly identify foods high in sodium, saturated fat, and added sugar.” (Pulled from a recently published position statement on front-of-package nutrition labeling)

3. Make sure the science is robust and related to behavioral medicine.

One common reason that we reject proposals is that they are providing recommendations that are outside the field of behavioral medicine. An important first step in writing a proposal is to ensure you are addressing an area relevant to behavioral medicine. As an organization, the Society for Behavioral Medicine’s greatest strength is our ability to provide insight, scientific expertise, and policy recommendations logically tied to rigorous behavioral science. Given this focus and strength, one of the first review criteria we use as a committee to screen proposals is whether they relate to behavioral medicine.

4. Keep it simple (1 to 3 policy recommendations).

It is always important to keep policy recommendations to a minimum, with one to three being the ideal number. Any more than that and the statement becomes difficult to navigate or communicate the importance of the recommendations. It is more critical to focus on a single area or recommendation rather than covering a lot of ground and lack focus. When writing your own statements, be sure to narrow your message on a single topic of focus and build recommendations around that.

5. Check with Congress.gov to see what bills have already been proposed on your topic.

In working with legislators, we have found that one of the most effective strategies is to identify a current bill that has been introduced already and tie that bill to your policy recommendations. The best way to do this is to familiarize yourself with current bills available on Congress.gov and tie in your policy recommendations around these.

With a focus on policy statements that are direct, focused, actionable, scientifically robust, grounded in behavioral medicine, and relevant to current legislation, we have found that most authors can and do put together a strong policy statement! We genuinely hope you will consider submitting a policy recommendation to our Position Statements Committee.

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