Objective To analyze the research status and development trend of evidence-based social sciences, and to explore the synergistic relationship among branches of various fields. Methods A comprehensive search for research related to evidence-based social sciences published between the establishment of the database and September 2022 was conducted on the Web of Science, China Science Citation Database (CSCD), and Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI). The VOSviewer software was used to analyze the author and keywords and to perform the visualization. Results A total of 6 969 papers were included, 195 of which were in Chinese. The first paper, published in 1995, was on evidence-based management. The number of papers published on evidence-based social science research presented a trend of increasing continuously. The country with the most papers published was the United States; the institution outside China with the most papers published was McMaster University; and the institution in China with the most papers published was Sichuan University. The analysis of keywords showed that evidence-based policy, evidence-based practice, evidence-based management, and evidence-based decision-making appeared more frequently; research questions focused on evidence-based health policy development, application of big data in the context of COVID-19, evidence of climate change-induced disease, and real world research. Conclusion All the fields of evidence-based social sciences are closely related to each other in terms of research content and methods, and it presents a multi-level and multi-field crossover with evidence-based medicine. However, evidence-based social sciences in China are still in their infancy. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the methodological system of evidence-based social sciences, enrich the research content of social sciences, speed up the filling of evidence gaps in various fields, and promote the improvement and sustainable development of evidence-based social sciences.
As the global health crisis erupts, there is an unprecedented focus on evidence across all sectors, becoming a critical trigger for changing research plans, development, synthesis, implementation, and evidence-informed decision-making. The establishment of the Global Commission on Evidence and the publication of two reports further emphasize the significance of evidence-informed decision-making in addressing social challenges. With the dissemination and development of evidence-based social science, there is a need to continually improve the ecosystem from evidence to decision and provide rigorous methods and approaches for different decision-makers to address social challenges. This article aims to interpret the Evidence Commission Report and explain the demand and supply of evidence, global public goods, and eight most-important Evidence Commission recommendations that can be used to address most social challenges. It also presents the key issues and insights that the evidence-based social science ecosystem faces from evidence to decision-making, putting evidence at the center of everyday work and life.