Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31255320›Full record

ReviewPsychiatry research2020

Experimental and quasi-experimental designs in implementation research.

Christopher J Miller, Shawna N Smith, Marianne Pugatch

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Psychiatry research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 103 papers, 13 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
103citing papers in PubMed, 13 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

103 citing papers in PubMed, 13 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Pooled it
  6. Patient navigation programmes for symptomatic lung cancer patients: a scoping review.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2025
    Pooled it
  7. Pooled it
  8. Pooled it
  9. Pooled it
  10. Pooled it
  11. Pooled it
  12. Pooled it
  13. Pooled it
  14. Trial
  15. Trial
  16. Trial
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. The I-DECIDEDJournal of research in nursing : JRN · 2026
    Article
  20. Article

43 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Christopher J MillerVA Boston Healthcare System, Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research (CHOIR), United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: Christopher.Miller8@va.gov.
Shawna N SmithDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Marianne PugatchVA Boston Healthcare System, Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research (CHOIR), United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Boston, MA, USA.

Funding

Improving Student Mental Health: Adaptive Implementation of School-based CBTR01MH114203 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI KILBOURNE, AMY M · 2017 to 2021
$3.6M
Improving Mental Health Outcomes: Buidling an Adaptive Implementation StrategyR01MH099898 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · PI KILBOURNE, AMY M · 2014 to 2017
$1.9M
NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH099898NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH114203
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Implementation science is focused on maximizing the adoption, appropriate use, and sustainability of effective clinical practices in real world clinical settings. Many implementation science questions can be feasibly answered by fully experimental designs, typically in the form of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Implementation-focused RCTs, however, usually differ from traditional efficacy- or effectiveness-oriented RCTs on key parameters. Other implementation science questions are more suited to quasi-experimental designs, which are intended to estimate the effect of an intervention in the absence of randomization. These designs include pre-post designs with a non-equivalent control group, interrupted time series (ITS), and stepped wedges, the last of which require all participants to receive the intervention, but in a staggered fashion. In this article we review the use of experimental designs in implementation science, including recent methodological advances for implementation studies. We also review the use of quasi-experimental designs in implementation science, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these approaches. This article is therefore meant to be a practical guide for researchers who are interested in selecting the most appropriate study design to answer relevant implementation science questions, and thereby increase the rate at which effective clinical practices are adopted, spread, and sustained.

Indexed as

Implementation ScienceResearch DesignBiomedical ResearchControl GroupsHumansRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicImplementationInterrupted time seriesPre-post with non-equivalent control groupQuasi-experimentalSMART designStepped wedge

Identifiers

PMID31255320
PMCPMC6923620

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.