ArticleJournal of health services research & policy2017
The 'dark side' of knowledge brokering.
Article in Journal of health services research & policy, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Can we ever have evidence-based decision making in orthopaedics? A qualitative evidence synthesis and conceptual framework.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2025Pooled it
- The effectiveness of knowledge-sharing techniques and approaches in research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR): a systematic review.Health research policy and systems · 2024Pooled it
- Learning from the emergence of NIHR Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRCs): a systematic review of evaluations.Implementation science : IS · 2018Pooled it
- Trial
- The effectiveness of generic emails versus a remote knowledge broker to integrate mood management into a smoking cessation programme in team-based primary care: a cluster randomised trial.Implementation science : IS · 2021Trial
- Reframing knowledge translation for health policy in Kenya: actors, practices and the constitutive role of context.Health research policy and systems · 2026Article
- Embedding research in practice: enablers, challenges and pathways to sustainability for embedded health researchers in Canada.Health research policy and systems · 2026Article
- Ten new insights in climate science 2024.One earth (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Review
- Article
- The collaborative working group method for pre-trial knowledge mobilisation: a qualitative evaluation of a structured process for iteratively refining a complex intervention (DAFNEplus).Pilot and feasibility studies · 2024Article
- A longitudinal mixed methods evaluation of a facilitation training intervention to build implementation capacity.Frontiers in health services · 2024Article
- Academic knowledge brokers in Iran's health sector: Characteristics, skills, and qualifications.Journal of education and health promotion · 2024Article
- Bridging gaps: a systematic literature review of brokerage in educational change.Journal of educational change · 2024Article
- Tapping into the power of coproduction and knowledge mobilisation: Exploration of a facilitated interactive group learning approach to support equity-sensitive decision-making in local health and care services.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2023Article
- Facilitating implementation of primary care mental health over time and across organizational contexts: a qualitative study of role and process.BMC health services research · 2023Review
- Article
- Clinical research coordinators' role in knowledge translation activities in rehabilitation: a mixed methods study.BMC health services research · 2023Article
- Creating conditions for effective knowledge brokering: a qualitative case study.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- When Health Systems Consider Research to Be Beyond the Scope of Healthcare Delivery, Research Translation Is Crippled Comment on "Academic Health Science Centres as Vehicles for Knowledge Mobilisation in Australia? A Qualitative Study".International journal of health policy and management · 2022Article
- A pragmatic evaluation of a public health knowledge broker mentoring education program: a convergent mixed methods study.Implementation science communications · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Deploying knowledge brokers to bridge the 'gap' between researchers and practitioners continues to be seen as an unquestionable enabler of evidence-based practice and is often endorsed uncritically. We explore the 'dark side' of knowledge brokering, reflecting on its inherent challenges which we categorize as: (1) tensions between different aspects of brokering; (2) tensions between different types and sources of knowledge; and (3) tensions resulting from the 'in-between' position of brokers. As a result of these tensions, individual brokers may struggle to maintain their fragile and ambiguous intermediary position, and some of the knowledge may be lost in the 'in-between world', whereby research evidence is transferred to research users without being mobilized in their day-to-day practice. To be effective, brokering requires an amalgamation of several types of knowledge and a multidimensional skill set that needs to be sustained over time. If we want to maximize the impact of research on policy and practice, we should move from deploying individual 'brokers' to embracing the collective process of 'brokering' supported at the organizational and policy levels.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.