10 Best resources for community engagement in implementation research

Area of Science:

• Health Systems Research
• Implementation Science
• Community-Based Participatory Research

Background:

• Implementation research (IR) requires stakeholder engagement, particularly at local/community levels, where guidance is lacking.
• Existing community engagement guidance primarily focuses on clinical trials, not IR.
• A gap exists in practical, context-specific methods for community engagement within implementation research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and evaluate resources for effective community stakeholder engagement in implementation research.
• To address the gap in guidance for engaging communities at the local level within IR.
• To provide practical tools for implementation researchers to enhance their work.

Main Methods:

• Conducted comprehensive searches of peer-reviewed and grey literature.
• Utilized crowd-sourcing via the Health Systems Global platform.
• Employed a two-round rating process for 59 identified resources to select the top 10.

Main Results:

• Identified and curated 10 high-quality resources for community engagement in IR.
• Resources were selected based on relevance, conceptual framework, guidance comprehensiveness, applicability, and evidence of successful use in diverse contexts.
• The selected resources offer strategic and practical approaches for implementation researchers.

Conclusions:

• The identified 10 resources provide valuable guidance for implementation researchers on engaging community stakeholders.
• Effective community engagement can improve the quality, relevance, and application of IR findings.
• Further development of specific guidance for community engagement in IR planning and implementation is warranted.