APC carries out a lot of research. Why? Because we link research to capacity building, to changed practice, to networking and advocacy. Because the area of information and communication policy particularly changes so fast and is so complex, we often find we have to develop our own resources to analyse and/or demystify the issue because no others exist. Policy issues new to APC are typically first approached by the commissioning of an “issue paper” on the subject to orient us. The views expressed in the papers are those of authors and do not necessarily represent the position of APC.