Stakeholder engagement in research: a scoping review of current evaluation methods

Abstract

Aim: Evaluating stakeholder engagement can capture what meaningful engagement in research entails, how it develops, and how it is experienced by all collaborators. We conducted a scoping review of recent approaches for evaluating engagement in research and present a descriptive overview of our findings. Methods: We searched peer-reviewed journal articles published worldwide in English between January 2013 and June 2018. Results: Our final sample consisted of 17 articles. Various approaches for evaluating stakeholder engagement were identified including qualitative approaches, surveys and engagement logs. Discussion & conclusion: We identified evaluation approaches that varied in quality, detail and methods. Valid, systematic and inclusive approaches that are developed with research partners and are inclusive of diverse perspectives are an important area for future research.

Evaluating Stakeholder Engagement: Stakeholder-Centric Instrumentation Process (SCIP)

“…The research team engaged two advisory committee members (i.e., patient advocate and caregiver) in this scoping review as coauthors. The results of indicated a need for ongoing, regular assessment of engagement, a lack of consensus on specific strategies for evaluating research team-stakeholder partnerships, a lack of published tools for this purpose, and common themes in stakeholder engagement evaluations (Martínez et al, 2019b(Martínez et al, , 2019c. Our scoping review also uncovered a single available tool for capturing engagement in research-a tool that presented a quantitative measure of stakeholder engagement created by Goodman et al (2017).…”

“…Next, the research team conducted a scoping review on recent approaches for evaluating stakeholder engagement in research in response to an action item from the kickoff meeting (Martínez et al, 2019b(Martínez et al, , 2019c. The research team engaged two advisory committee members (i.e., patient advocate and caregiver) in this scoping review as coauthors.…”

“…

Engaging patients, caregivers, practitioners, and other health care stakeholders in research is essential for actionable studies that directly inform patient choices, treatment options, and health care policies (Forsythe et al, 2019;Martínez et al, 2019b). The shift from traditional research models to stakeholder-centric methodologies is intended to produce scientific findings that align with consumer-prioritized outcomes and the realities of everyday practice (Pandi-Perumal et al, 2019).

…”

“…Western Journal of Nursing Research 43(10) to experience health care disparities or distrust and (b) have little to no experience engaging in scientific research (DeCamp et al, 2015;Martínez et al, 2019bMartínez et al, , 2019cPoger et al, 2020). Gaps in evidence and limited investigator experience may lead to low-quality stakeholder engagement, thereby exacerbating disparities in research participation and health inequities.…”

“…For example, past research has found wide variability in how stakeholder engagement occurs, as most collaboration has been documented during participant recruitment or dissemination of findings (Goodman et al, 2020). Past studies have also identified predominantly qualitative data-collection processes when assessing and reporting stakeholder engagement (Goodman et al, 2017(Goodman et al, , 2019Martínez et al, 2019bMartínez et al, , 2019c, and that little is known about systematic or data-driven best practices (Goodman et al, 2020). To this end, future evaluations of stakeholder engagement must be reliable and valid, scalable, and applicable to project characteristics, easily implemented by researchers, and equitable for all stakeholders.…”