With 2017 bringing the opportunities and challenges of a new year, here at R2A in the spirit of reflection and continual learning we thought we would look back at the top ten posts of all time. In reverse order, here are the most popular posts, blogs, and resources of all time:

10. Betty Paton’s guide ‘How to use Instagram for research communications’, covers the basics of the visual social media platform as well as suggesting key accounts to follow and further resources for using the increasingly popular social network. Don’t forget you can find Research to Action on Instagram for further tips and inspiration.

9. The IDRC guide ‘How to write a policy brief’ provides a useful framework and offers suggestions for how to effectively communicate with policymakers in this PowerPoint presentation.

8. Simon Hearn from ODI asks ‘What do we mean by impact?’ and are we all talking about the same thing?

7. Ironically at number 7 is the R2A Reading List ‘Six useful guides to communication strategies’.

6. Also written by Betty Paton is the guide to ‘Presenting complex data visually: using web-based tools to make your development research travel’.

5. ‘A basic introduction to outcome mapping’ outlines the methodology for planning and assessing projects that aim to bring about ‘real’ and tangible change.

4. A cross-post from Ian Thorpe’s KM on a Dollar a Day explores ‘Four types of knowledge management for development’. It segments knowledge management into: internal knowledge management, knowledge disseminating, knowledge brokering, and building knowledge capacity.

3. Roger Harris presents ‘The impact of development research on policy and practice: An introduction to a review of the literature’, finding that “communication is the most cited factor for achieving impact; its various forms and processes, channels, timing and involvement pervading the literature and intermingling with the other themes. Significantly, communication is regarded as much more than a mere conference presentation and peer-reviewed publication”.

2. ‘A basic introduction to stakeholder analysis’ introduces and defines a stakeholder, details how to conduct an analysis, and explains why it is important: “once you understand the needs and concerns of the stakeholders you can manage their expectations, ensure that they are all constructively involved in contributing to the project outcome, and you can plan how to deal with stakeholders who do not share the project’s aspirations”.

1. Nyasha Musandu makes nine simple suggestions and lists further resources about writing policy briefs in the most popular piece of all time ‘How to write actionable policy recommendations’.

You can also view a countdown of our top ten posts in Storify. To browse more of R2A’s most popular blogs and resources you can look back at summaries of 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.

Thank you to all our fantastic contributors and readers over the years!