Parliamentary research services provide parliamentarians with qualified and politically neutral knowledge on day-to-day basis. Because this is an understudied phenomenon, the aim of the study is to investigate how parliamentarians use research services from the perspective of evidence based policy making. The study was conducted with semi-structured interviews with Swedish parliamentarians and party employees of the Social Democrats, the Green Party, and the Swedish Democrats. An interview was also conducted with a representative from the Swedish Research Service.

The results show that the Swedish Research Service, as an incremental knowledge producer, is used by parliamentarians to reduce insecurity, get cues and assessments and to appear legitimate. It has also been shown that there is a difference between the parties regarding search activities. The study contributes to the policy sciences by introducing an ideal type on how parliamentarians use parliamentary research services in the policy process.