LAUSR

Coordinating and integrating different policies and public sector organizations is a major challenge for practitioners and a continuing topic of interest for researchers. This Viewpoint essay argues that research on this topic needs reorientation to provide better insights for practice and theory of policy making, as well as policy implementation. The authors offer four suggestions on how future research could advance: (1) combining existing conceptual and epistemological approaches more systematically; (2) complementing case studies and surveys with large‐N analyses and novel research tools and methods; (3) more systematic analysis of the causal mechanisms in policy coordination and integration; and (4) more thorough study of the real‐world impact of policy coordination and integration.