Replication Data for: Researchers in the Laboratories of Democracy: A Quarter Century of Innovations in Studying Policy Diffusion in SPPQ

This dataset includes information on all articles published in SPPQ from 2000-2025 that relate to the study of policy diffusion. It was written as part of a series of articles commemoration the journal's 25th anniversary. The paper's abstract follows. Policy diffusion has become one of the most vibrant areas of research in the study of American state politics, and State Politics & Policy Quarterly has played a leading role in shaping that scholarship. While scholars agree that states routinely look to one another when making policy decisions, questions persist about the mechanisms that drive these processes, the methods best suited to studying them, and the implications for policymaking. This article reviews twenty-five years of diffusion research published in SPPQ. We classify articles into four categories—those developing theory, advancing methods, applying diffusion insights to substantive policy domains, and diffusion-adjacent studies—and analyze both their content and contributions. Our review highlights the richness of this work, the frequent overlap across categories, and the distinctive advantages of studying diffusion in state politics. We conclude by outlining opportunities for the next generation of research and reaffirming SPPQ’s role in advancing the field.本数据集收录了2000年至2025年间发表于《State Politics & Policy Quarterly》（SPPQ）中所有与政策扩散（policy diffusion）研究相关的文章信息。其中作为核心内容的综述文章，是为纪念该期刊创刊25周年而组稿的系列文章之一，下文为该综述文章的摘要：政策扩散现已成为美国州级政治研究领域最具活力的研究方向之一，而《State Politics & Policy Quarterly》（SPPQ）也在推动该领域学术发展的进程中发挥了引领作用。尽管学界普遍认可各州在制定政策决策时会相互借鉴参考，但关于驱动这一过程的内在机制、最适用于该领域研究的方法体系，以及其对政策制定的实际影响等核心问题，目前仍存在诸多待解的争议与研究空白。本文对SPPQ创刊25年来发表的所有政策扩散相关研究文章进行了系统性回顾。我们将收录的文章划分为四大类别：一是开展理论构建的研究，二是推进研究方法的研究，三是将政策扩散研究视角应用于具体政策领域的实证研究，四是与政策扩散研究相关的关联研究，并对各类文章的核心内容与学术贡献进行了全面分析。本次综述清晰展现了该领域研究的丰富性与多元性，同时凸显了各研究类别间的频繁交叉融合，以及在州级政治语境下开展政策扩散研究的独特学术价值。文末我们展望了下一代政策扩散研究的潜在发展机遇，并再次重申了SPPQ在推动该领域学术进步中的核心地位。