One sign that ‘theory-informed’ evaluation approaches have become mainstream is that the focus of scholarly attention has moved beyond simply advocating the importance of theory. Instead, we are seeing discussions about the scope of theory, sources of theory and how theory is expressed in evaluation practice. In this issue these discussions continue. We also continue the thread of articles on evaluation and environmental sustainability that over the last year or so has become one of the most animated topics in this journal as elsewhere. This issue also continues to illustrate what until recently have been considered ‘frontier’ methods such as ‘Contribution Tracing’ and ‘Process Tracing’, which as this issue demonstrates are increasingly being applied in new evaluative policy and institutional settings. Finally, exploring adjacent fields continues to provide valuable insights for evaluation practice. In this issue, we delve deeply into the worlds of mental health and spatial planning. After all, evaluation as a practice is widespread nowadays, no longer confined to the world of evaluation specialists.

中文翻译：

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社论

“以理论为依据”的评估方法已成为主流的一个迹象是，学术关注的焦点已经超越了简单地提倡理论的重要性。相反，我们看到了关于理论范围、理论来源以及理论如何在评估实践中表达的讨论。在这个问题上，这些讨论还在继续。我们还继续发表关于评估和环境可持续性的文章，这些文章在过去一年左右的时间里已成为本期刊与其他地方一样最活跃的话题之一。本期还继续说明直到最近才被认为是“前沿”方法的方法，例如“贡献追踪”和“过程追踪”，正如本期所示，这些方法正越来越多地应用于新的评估政策和制度环境中。最后，探索相邻领域继续为评估实践提供宝贵的见解。在本期中，我们深入探讨了心理健康和空间规划的世界。毕竟，评价作为如今，这种做法很普遍，不再局限于评价专家的世界。