Welcome - Research Methods (Mesh Literature)

Systematic review of community engagement approach in research: describing partnership approaches, challenges and benefits

A systematic review of community engagement with health research.

Resource Guide: Stakeholder Engagement in Global Health Research

Community engagement and the centrality of ‘working relationships’ in health research

School students take a Virtual Reality tour of the KEMRI-Wellcome Research Programme laboratories

Evaluating and Engaging: Using Participatory Video With Kenyan Secondary School Students to Explore Engagement With Health Research

This article explores the use of participatory video for evaluating engagement between researchers and school students in Kenya.  The method revealed several challenges and benefits to school engagement. Published online 2022 Mar 17. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.797290

Webinar: Taking relationships seriously: Findings from a realist review of community engagement

This webinar held in May 2022 on the REAL Community Engagement Realist Review shared some fascinating findings which give more conceptual clarity around how community engagement works in practice. It highlighted some key relationships and power dynamics at the heart of engagement work.

Guides and Tools: LGB Patient and Public involvement and Engagement in Research - a "How to" Guide for Researchers

The ‘How to’ Guide for Researchers was co-developed by different stakeholders coordinated by the LBG Open Innovation in Science Center to support the implementation of public and patient involvement (PPIE) in research.

Guides & Tools: LBG Research Priority Setting Project Database

An available database developed by the LBG Open Innovation in Science Center for you to explore research priority setting projects worldwide and a research tool for unanswered research questions and under-researched topics.

Published Literature: Rumours, Riots and the rejection of mass drug administration for the treatment of schistosomiasis in Morogoro, Tanzania

This article from 2016 in the Journal of Biosocial Science outlines the case of a mass drug administration programme in Tanzania which had to be suspened after community riots

Published Literature: Involving young people in health research

This study published by Wellcome in 2021 explores the role, benefits and potential of young people’s involvement in health research, with a focus on mental health, infectious diseases and global heating. It provides recommendations on how to meaningfully involve young people in research, and what it means to do that well.

Published Literature: Science Communication Research: an Empirical Field Analysis

This in-depth empirical analysis of the research field in science communication published in 2020 looks both at strengths and weaknesses of research in the field, and a reflects on its future needs and perspectives. 

Guide: Global Code of Conduct for Research in Resource-Poor Settings

The Global Code of Conduct for Research in Resource-Poor Settings aims to stop the export of unethical research practices to low and middle income countries.

News: International Network on Patient and Public Involvement (PPI)

The International Network for Public Involvement and Engagement in Health and Social Care Research was launched in London on 27th November 2017. Our vision is for a world where patient and public involvement is an integral part of health research.

Literature: Planning for the social and economic impacts emerging from school-university engagement with research

In this article from the Journal of Science Communication (2015) the authors reflect on their work with teachers and students at a local school in Milton Keynes in the UK. They propose a flexible and adaptive metric to support all stakeholders with planning school engagement.

Literature: Who should decide about children’s and adolescents’ participation in health research?

This paper from BMC Medical Ethics explores how researchers and research centres can activtly involve children and young people in health research activities and in the development of research proposals. They used group discussions with community members and schools students in rural Kenya to explore views on the topic.

Literature: Developing a finer grained analysis of research impact: Can we assess the wider effects of public engagement?

This article, published with a creative commons licence on the LSE Impact Blog, suggests a more comprehensive and balanced approach for the evaluation of public engagement, drawing on evaluation criteria commonly used in aid evaluation.

Academic literature: Community engagement: Leadership tool for catastrophic health events

Literature: From ‘Trial Community’ to ‘Experimental Publics’: How Clinical Research Shapes Public Participation

This article argues for a conceptual shift away from the static, singular term ‘trial community’ towards ‘experimental publics’. The authors observe that the term ‘community’ is often employed uncritically and assumes that ‘communities’ pre-exist research; that they are timeless and undifferentiated wholes. ‘Experimental publics’, by contrast, are dynamic, multiple, and impermanent in nature.

Literature: Public Attitudes to Research Governance: A qualitative study in a deliberative context

This report, commissioned by the Wellcome Trust in 2006, presents the results of qualitative research exploring public attitudes towards the governance of biomedical research.

Published Literature: Public Attitudes to Personal Data and Linking Personal Data (2013)

The Wellcome Trust commissioned report from 2013 on the general public’s attitudes to different types of personal data and data linking. The research looked at whether health data are viewed differently from other types of data, and what are the perceived risks and benefits, to self and society, of linking different kinds of data for research and other purposes.

Published Literature: Introducing participatory visual methods to develop local knowledge on HIV in rural south africa

This paper reports a study into the insights and perspectives of rural South African communities on HIV- related mortality. The aim of the study was to elicit local knowledge in order to identify priorities for service organisations to improve health.

Arts in Health: Book Review

A useful and comprehensive overview of how to undertake research and practice in arts in health. Contains practical advice for the management of a collaborative arts and health project (including how to manage a tender process, plan and evaluation and write a research protocol).   

Published Literature: Photovoice Ethics: Critical Reflections from Men’s Mental Health Research

Photovoice Ethics is a report and ethical guide for researchers who want to explore sensitive topics with their audiences.   

Digital Storytelling in Research: A Systematic Review

The Digital storytelling in research is a qualitative report published in February 2017. The paper includes a review of the history and value of digital story telling as an arts based research method for generating data about important issues.

Ecological Validity and the Study of Publics: The Case for Organic Public Engagement Methods

Summary of academic paper critiquing experimental approaches to public engagement advocating instead an 'organic engagement' approach with 'ecological validation' which explores the context and mechanisms in which public's deliberations and opinions are formed. The paper is not open access however a comprehensive summary is given here. 

Using Co-Inquiry to Study Co-Inquiry: Community-University Perspectives on Research

Banks, S. et al (2014). Using co-inquiry to study co-inquiry: community-university perspectives on research collaboration. Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship 7(1).

Literature: People’s Knowledge and Participatory Action Research Book

Organisations that undertake research, engagement and policy work are dominated by white middle-class men. The basic question the book attempts to answer is: "what happens when these institutions attempt working with the rest of the world, which is different and diverse?”