Knowledge Translation Practice Research Articles

MOOC-based blended learning for knowledge translation capacity-building: A qualitative evaluative study.

This qualitative study investigated the effectiveness of blended learning using MOOCs (massive open online courses) for capacity-building in knowledge translation (KT). The evaluation followed Kirkpatrick's updated model. A total of 23 semi-directed interviews were conducted with participants working at a research centre in Côte d'Ivoire, with a first wave of interviews immediately post-training and a second wave after five months. Results showed that the training met learners' needs, with both the content and teaching format being deemed appropriate. Learners reacted positively to face-to-face activities and affirmed the importance of coaching for putting learning into practice. Specific KT skills and principles appeared to have been acquired, such as a procedure for structuring the KT process and improved skills for communicating and presenting scientific knowledge. Five months after the training, encouraging changes were reported, but the sustainability of the new KT practices remained uncertain. KT capacity-building initiatives in low- and middle-income countries struggle to meet demand. Little is known about effective KT training in that context, and even less in non-anglophone countries. The study presented here contributes to the understanding of success factors from the learners' standpoint.

What makes knowledge translation work in practice? Lessons from a demand-driven and locally led project in Cameroon, Jordan and Nigeria

BackgroundOver the years, the knowledge translation (KT) field has moved from promoting linearized models to embracing the importance of interaction and learning. Likewise, there is now increased attention on the transfer of KT approaches to new environments. Some scholars, however, have warned that ideas about transferability still hinge on linear thinking and doing. In the current study, we therefore sought to use a more reflexive approach to KT and to study how actors align KT approaches with their local environments.MethodsOur (auto) ethnographic study took place in a wider KT project. This project intended to combine three components: (1) co-organizing demand-driven, locally led and embedded KT cycles in Cameroon, Jordan, and Nigeria, (2) building upon established KT methods and (3) equipping and empowering local teams. We conducted 63 semi-structured interviews with key KT actors, observed 472 h of KT practices, and collected a paper trail of documents. At the same time, we also compiled project exchanges, such as project documents, plans, protocols, field notes, meeting notes and an archive of (email) correspondence between project members. We analysed all data abductively.ResultsWe show that there were numerous moments where the design of our project indeed enabled us to align with local practices and needs. Yet this often did not suffice, and the project design sometimes conflicted with other logics and values. By analysing these tensions, we want to show that doing KT work which acts upon different values and knowledges and is sensitive towards the different effects that it produces demands both structuring projects in a specific way and requires significant alignment work of KT actors in practice.ConclusionsWe show that practising KT more reflexively relies on two important conditions. First, KT projects have to be structured with sufficient discretionary space. Second, even though the structure of a project is important, there will be continuous need for alignment work. It is important to facilitate such alignment work and to further support it. In the discussion of this paper, we therefore articulate three design principles and three sensitivities. These elements can be used to make future KT projects more reflexive and sensitive to (social) complexity.

Creation of a theoretically rooted workbook to support implementers in the practice of knowledge translation.

Few training opportunities or resources for non-expert implementers focus on the "practice" as opposed to the "science" of knowledge translation (KT). As a guide for novice implementers, we present an open-access, fillable workbook combining KT theories, models, and frameworks (TMFs) that are commonly used to support the implementation of evidence-based practices. We describe the process of creating and operationalizing our workbook. Our team has supported more than 1000 KT projects and 300 teams globally to implement evidence-based interventions. Our stakeholders have consistently highlighted their need for guidance on how to operationalize various KT TMFs to support novice implementers in "practising" KT. In direct response to these requests, we created a pragmatic, fillable KT workbook. The workbook was designed by KT scientists and experts in the fields of adult education, graphic design, and usability and was piloted with novice implementers. It is rooted in an integrated KT approach and applies an intersectionality lens, which prompts implementers to consider user needs in the design of implementation efforts. The workbook is framed according to the knowledge-to-action model and operationalizes each stage of the model using appropriate theories or frameworks. This approach removes guesswork in selecting appropriate TMFs to support implementation efforts. Implementers are prompted to complete fillable worksheets that are informed by the Theoretical Domains Framework, the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, the Behaviour Change Wheel, the Effective Practice and Organization of Care framework, Proctor's operationalization framework, the Durlak and DuPre process indicators, and the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework. As they complete the worksheets, users are guided to apply theoretically rooted approaches in planning the implementation and evaluation of their evidence-based practice. This workbook aims to support non-expert implementers to use KT TMFs to select and operationalize implementation strategies to facilitate the implementation of evidence-based practices. It provides an accessible option for novice implementers who wish to use KT methods to guide their work.

Accelerating knowledge translation to improve cardiovascular outcomes and health services: Opportunities for bridging science and clinical practice.

Knowledge translation (KT) is the exchange between knowledge producers and users to understand, synthesise, share and apply evidence to accelerate the benefits of research to improve health and health systems. The practice of KT (activities/strategies to move evidence into practice) and the science of KT (study of the methods to promote the uptake of research) benefit from the use of conceptual thinking, the meaningful inclusion of patients, and the application of intersectionality. In spite of multiple barriers, there are opportunities to develop strong partnerships and evidence to drive an impactful research agenda and increase the uptake of cardiovascular research.

Survey of academic staff and higher degree research students in a university school of health and rehabilitation sciences about practices, attitudes, knowledge and confidence in knowledge translation and communicating impact

Background: Universities are major producers of research evidence, and timely translation and uptake of evidence to sectors such as healthcare is imperative to inform best practice. Knowledge translation (KT) is complex and there is increasing awareness of the need for KT to facilitate evidence-informed changes, with grant funders increasingly requiring researchers to demonstrate KT and research impact. Despite this, there is little research about KT in university settings related to healthcare research. Aims and objectives: To evaluate the practice, attitudes, knowledge, confidence and perceived support needs in KT and communicating impact of university staff and higher degree research (HDR) students. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 42 staff and 19 HDR students in a Health and Rehabilitation Sciences School in an Australian University setting. Descriptive and correlational quantitative analyses and qualitative content analysis of responses to open-ended questions was carried out. Findings: Participants regarded skills in KT and communicating impact as necessary for their work, and wanted support to build their capacity. Despite previous training for staff in some areas of KT and high levels of research experience of the staff in this sample, the level of knowledge, confidence and frequency of their KT practices was relatively low. Discussion and conclusion: There is a need to design and evaluate initiatives which aim to improve knowledge and skills, such as training and resources, as well as organisational structures that facilitate staff to plan and carry out KT activities concurrently with research production.

Why Is It So Hard to Evaluate Knowledge Exchange? Comment on "Sustaining Knowledge Translation Practices: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis".

Despite a growth in knowledge translation (KT) or exchange activities, and a smaller growth in their evaluations, it remains challenging to identify evidence of efficacy. This could be due to well-documented political and logistical difficulties involved in evaluating knowledge exchange interventions. By bringing in theory from science and technology studies (STS), Borst et al1 offer a new way of thinking about this problem. Most KT evaluations draw on health research traditions; centralising comparability, efficacy, and so on. Borst et al propose focusing on the work it takes to move knowledge over boundaries between these communities, seeing relationships as interactions, not just conduits for evidence. They show how 'context' can be understood as a mutual creation, not a static environment; and that institutions shape behaviours, rather than merely being sites or platforms for evidence mobilisation. Seeing KT as a creative, active practice opens new ways to design and evaluate KT mechanisms.

Translating, Contexting, and Institutionalising Knowledge Translation Practices in Northern Australia: Some Reflections Comment on "Sustaining Knowledge Translation Practices: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis".

In this commentary, we reflect on how the three processes of translating, contexting, and institutionalising knowledge translation (KT) practices, as introduced in a critical interpretive synthesis on sustaining KT, might be drawn on to improve KT sustainability in the northern Australian health system, and some likely challenges. The synthesis provides a useful reminder that health systems are social systems and offers an analytical framework against which to map approaches that aim to align knowledge production and utilisation. By positioning "places" of knowledge utilisation and actor roles and networks as key to KT sustainability, the framework also offers the potential to draw attention to non-clinical settings, actors, and relationships that are central to improving health, but that may be historically neglected in KT research and scholarship.

Internationalized knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) for servitization: a microfoundation perspective

PurposeA paucity of studies has used a microfoundation lens to examine servitization processes in internationalized knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) companies. The research aims to bridge this gap by considering knowledge sharing as a form of both codified knowledge and informal feedback knowledge; it also assesses whether the adoption of knowledge transfer and translation practices in a servitization process positively moderates the effect of knowledge transformation on knowledge sharing for internationalized KIBS companies.Design/methodology/approachBy adopting a microfoundation lens, the research offers an empirical analysis to identify the relations between codified and tacit knowledge in servitization processes within internationalized KIBS companies. The study is based on 326 respondents from 30 KIBS companies. A multiple regression analysis was used for hypotheses testing.FindingsThe authors found significant relations among the use of electronic documents in the servitization process (formal codified knowledge), personal advice in servitization (informal feedback knowledge) and knowledge sharing in internationalized KIBS companies. Findings also support the indirect effect assumed in the hypothesis between knowledge transformation and knowledge sharing in internationalized KIBS companies, which is positively moderated by the adoption of cross-cultural knowledge practices in the servitization process.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research provides the first conceptual model of the use of a microfoundation lens to examine knowledge sharing in internationalized KIBS companies. The micro level features individual knowledge sharing in the servitization process, while the meso level focuses on knowledge transformation in KIBS companies and the adoption of knowledge transfer and translation practices in the servitization process.

Routinizing the Use of Evidence in Policy - What Is Needed? Comment on "Sustaining Knowledge Translation Practices: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis".

In their study of sustaining knowledge translation (KT) practices, Borst et al found that this process is an interplay of: (i) constructing and extending networks, (ii) creating contexts that support KT practices, and (iii) understanding how actors create, maintain, and disrupt institutions. Their article is an important contribution to the body of research promoting KT. In this commentary we reflect on the convergences and differences between the concepts of 'sustaining' and 'institutionalizing' KT, highlighting domains and processes related to the institutionalization, providing an analysis of KT landscape in Brazil and making a case for the need to increase countries' routine use of evidence.

Knowledge Translation as Cultural and Epistemic Translation Comment on "Sustaining Knowledge Translation Practices: A Critical Interpretative Synthesis".

This commentary examines the claim made by Borst et al that knowledge translation (KT) should look to Science and Technology Studies (STS), the sociology of translation, and constructionist views on knowledge, and begin to think of the sustainability of a certain practice as construction work in continuous progress, and not as states to be reached once and for all. While endorsing this claim, the present commentary also argues that what it calls the "epistemic reframing" behind the new construal of KT in Borst must be supplemented with approaches that goes beyond the sociology of translation. The commentary claims that this epistemic shift hinges upon a shift in the narrative framing of KT, and that we need to consider the broader narrative and historical ideology of knowledge dissemination behind KT, and that a failure to do so, leaves us with KT seen as a linear transmission of "true" knowledge to peoples and places lacking such knowledge.

Unpacking Contexting and Institutionalizing as Complex Sustaining Practices Comment on "Sustaining Knowledge Translation Practices: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis".

This article discusses the work of Borst et al in which they suggest 'sustaining work' as a term that covers the efforts of actors to sustain the use of health research in policy and practice through three practices. I suggest that two of these, contexting and institutionalizing, need to be further unpacked to understand how and why they are important for sustaining work in knowledge translation (KT). To contribute here, I discuss KT as processes of organizational change that occurs within and across organizations, often involving actors with different views on and approaches to the use of health research in policy and practice. These actors will likely have very different understandings of what the context for using research is and they are likely be members of competing or conflicting institutions. Future research needs to take such elements into account to improve our understanding and practice of sustaining work.

Identifying candidate quality indicators of tools that support the practice of knowledge translation: a scoping review protocol.

The objective of this scoping review is to identify and characterize relevant knowledge translation methods tools (those that provide guidance for optimized knowledge translation practice) to uncover candidate quality indicators to inform a future quality assessment tool for knowledge translation strategies. Knowledge translation strategies (defined as including knowledge translation interventions, tools, and products) target various knowledge users, including patients, clinicians, researchers, and policy-makers. The development and use of strategies that support knowledge translation practice have been rapidly increasing, making it difficult for knowledge users to decide which to use. There is limited evidence-based guidance or measures to help assess the overall quality of knowledge translation strategies. Empirical and non-empirical documents will be considered if they explicitly describe a knowledge translation methods tool and its development, evaluation or validation, methodological strengths or limitations, and/or use over time. The review will consider a knowledge translation methods tool if it falls within at least one knowledge translation domain (ie, implementation, dissemination, sustainability, scalability, integrated knowledge translation) in the health field. We will conduct a systematic search of relevant electronic databases and gray literature. The search strategy will be developed iteratively by an experienced medical information specialist and peer-reviewed with the PRESS checklist. The search will be limited to English-only documents published from 2005 onward. Documents will be independently screened, selected, and extracted by 2 researchers. Data will be analyzed and summarized descriptively, including the characteristics of the included documents, knowledge translation methods tools, and candidate quality indicators. Open Science Framework ( https://osf.io/chxvq ).

Funding change: An environmental scan of research funders’ knowledge translation strategic plans and initiatives across 10 high-income countries/regions

Knowledge translation (KT) is the science and practice of dissemination and implementation of evidence. We describe how research funders operationalize and evaluate KT initiatives, identify challenges and opportunities, and suggest strategic considerations for KT support. We conducted an environmental scan, which included a systematic search of published and grey literature and a focus group with Canadian funders. A total of 130 published articles and 2415 grey literature sources were screened; 212 unique data sources were included. Published literature commonly described KT initiatives related to “KT practice and science funding.” These initiatives commonly provided funds for infrastructure development (e.g., clinical technologies, database subscriptions) to facilitate translational or applied research to address regional health priorities. Of the articles, 44% outlined an evaluation plan; few provided validated KT metrics. In the grey literature, 364 initiatives were described; the most commonly described initiatives related to “exchange and integrated KT.” Focus group participants hoped to see increased resources to support KT, exchange opportunities with policy/decision-makers, and evaluate KT initiatives. Funders completed various KT initiatives, which tended to engage stakeholders to set research priorities, collaborate with a range of stakeholders, build KT capacity, and mandate KT requirements. We provide six considerations for funders to support KT.

ARCHAEOLOGY AS A SPECIALIZED FIELD OF TRANSLATION: A PRELIMINARY LESSON PLAN IN TERMINOLOGY TRANSLATION PRACTICE

This study focuses on relations between archaeology as a specialized field of translation and Translation Studies as an interdisciplinary area and draws a framework for a preliminary lesson plan in terminology translation practice through a text that will allow Translation Studies students to get acquainted with term translation strategies in a specialized translation course on archaeology. This study consists of three parts. In the first part, interdisciplinary aspects of translation studies are analyzed from the perspective of different turns in translation research. In the second part, approaches to archaeology texts in translation studies and thoughts on translation practice in this field are brought forward, while the potential uses of a text in archaeology for a specialized translation course are evaluated in the third part. In the study, it has been concluded that background knowledge and terminology translation practice in archaeology texts have the potentials to improve students’ awareness with regards to translation of other specialized texts and to enhance their perspectives on other cultures in the world.

A New Perspective on Emerging Knowledge Translation Practices Comment on "Sustaining Knowledge Translation Practices: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis".

The critical interpretive synthesis by Borst and colleagues offered a new perspective on knowledge translation (KT) sustainability from the perspective of Science and Technology Studies. From our applied health services perspective, we found several interesting ideas to bring forward. First, the idea that KT sustainability includes the ongoing activation of networks led to several future research questions. Second, while not entirely a new concept, understanding how KT actors work strategically and continuously with institutional rules and regulations to sustain KT practice was noteworthy. We add to the discussion by emphasizing the importance of non-researcher voices (clinicians, administrators, policy-makers, patients, carers, public) in sustaining KT practice. We also remind readers that the health ecosystem is dynamic and interdependent, where one system level influences and is influenced by another, and that these constant adaptations suggest that understanding KT practices cannot be a one-off event but represent repeated moments for transformative learning.

Recognition of knowledge translation practice in Canadian health sciences tenure and promotion: A content analysis of institutional policy documents.

There has been growing emphasis on increasing impacts of academic health research by integrating research findings in healthcare. The concept of knowledge translation (KT) has been widely adopted in Canada to guide this work, although lack of recognition in tenure and promotion (T&P) structures have been identified as barrier to researchers undertaking KT. Our objective was to explore how KT is considered in institutional T&P documentation in Canadian academic health sciences. We conducted content analysis of T&P documents acquired from 19 purposively sampled research-intensive or largest regional Canadian institutions in 2020-2021. We coded text for four components of KT (synthesis, dissemination, exchange, application). We identified clusters of related groups of documents interpreted together within the same institution. We summarized manifest KT content with descriptive statistics and identified latent categories related to how KT is considered in T&P documentation. We acquired 89 unique documents from 17 institutions that formed 48 document clusters. Most of the 1057 text segments were categorized as dissemination (n = 851, 81%), which was included in 47 document clusters (98%). 15 document clusters (31%) included all four KT categories, while one (2%) did not have any KT categories identified. We identified two latent categories: primarily implicit recognition of KT; and an overall lack of clarity on KT. Our analysis of T&P documents from primarily research-intensive Canadian universities showed a lack of formal recognition for a comprehensive approach to KT and emphasis on traditional dissemination. We recommend that institutions explicitly and comprehensively consider KT in T&P and align documentation and procedures to reflect these values.

Knowledge Translation and Implementation Planning to Promote Research Governance in Nongovernment Organizations in the Torres Strait: Descriptive Study.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia have participated in Western research for decades. When done well, research has resulted in significant benefits and positive impacts on society. However, the primary benefactor of this research has and continues to be researchers, with limited or no research knowledge mobilized for uptake and beneficial use by end users, such as individuals and communities. In 2021, the Torres Strait Islanders Research to Policy and Practice Hub (the Hub) at James Cook University designed and implemented several strategies, including a games-based interactive workshop with representatives from nongovernment organizations (NGOs). Feedback suggests the workshop and associated activities were a success. We describe knowledge translation (KT) and implementation planning to design and implement strategies to increase awareness and understanding of NGOs in research governance. This descriptive study involved representatives from NGOs on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait. We collected data from a literature review and informal discussions. We used several models and frameworks to guide our approach and underpin data collection and analysis. Designing and implementing strategies to increase awareness and understanding of NGOs in the Torres Strait to govern research involved several key steps: (1) identifying and defining what needed to change and who needed to change, (2) identifying and mapping barriers and facilitators, (3) selecting the most appropriate strategies to support change, (4) implementing activities, and (5) monitoring and evaluating our approach. We developed a program logic to understand and communicate to others how we would implement activities and what resources would be required to support this process. We drew on several evidence-based KT and implementation models and frameworks to do this. First, a KT planning template was used to inform what evidence we wanted to mobilize, to whom, and for what purpose. Based on this step, we recognized we wanted to bring about change with the target audience, and as such, we drew on the previously mentioned implementation planning models and frameworks. We collated the outcomes from these initial steps. Our KT and implementation practice experience were successful. Encouraging researchers and end users to adopt similar practices requires investment in training and development of KT and implementation practice. This also entails modifying research standards and guidelines to include KT and implementation practice when working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other vulnerable groups, creating incentives for researchers and end users to embed KT and implementation practice in research, and recognizing and rewarding the benefits and impact beyond publication and presentation.

Systemic Reflections on Knowledge Transfer Comment on "Sustaining Knowledge Translation Practices: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis".

The systemic failure of organisational learning should not come as a surprise - after all every system delivers exactly what it is designed for. Knowledge management/transfer is a property of the organisational system rather than a particular technique. Hence, knowledge management/transfer is about the contextual framing in which learning focused on understanding can occur. Looking through a system lens any research field can be defined as a complex adaptive organisation, and its culture determines if and how learning and knowledge transfer (or shared learning) can occur. Creating and maintain a learning culture requires leadership that perpetuates continuous dialogues to achieve tacit and explicit knowledge exchange.

When the messenger is more important than the message: an experimental study of evidence use in francophone Africa

BackgroundEpistemic injustices are increasingly decried in global health. This study aims to investigate whether the source of knowledge influences the perception of that knowledge and the willingness to use it in francophone African health policy-making context. MethodsThe study followed a randomized experimental design in which participants were randomly assigned to one of seven policy briefs that were designed with the same scientific content but with different organizations presented as authors. Each organization was representative of financial, scientific or moral authority. For each type of authority, two organizations were proposed: one North American or European, and the other African. ResultsThe initial models showed that there was no significant association between the type of authority or the location of the authoring organization and the two outcomes (perceived quality and reported instrumental use). Stratified analyses highlighted that policy briefs signed by the African donor organization (financial authority) were perceived to be of higher quality than policy briefs signed by the North American/European donor organization. For both perceived quality and reported instrumental use, these analyses found that policy briefs signed by the African university (scientific authority) were associated with lower scores than policy briefs signed by the North American/European university. ConclusionsThe results confirm the significant influence of sources on perceived global health knowledge and the intersectionality of sources of influence. This analysis allows us to learn more about organizations in global health leadership, and to reflect on the implications for knowledge translation practices.

Sustaining Knowledge Translation Practices: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis.

The health policy and systems research literature increasingly observes that knowledge translation (KT) practices are difficult to sustain. An important issue is that it remains unclear what sustainability of KT practices means and how it can be improved. The aim of this study was thus to identify and explain those processes, activities, and efforts in the literature that facilitate the sustaining of KT practices in health policy-making processes. We used a critical interpretive synthesis (CIS) to review the health policy and systems research and Science and Technology Studies (STS) literature. The STS literature was included as to enrich the review with constructivist social scientific perspectives on sustainability and KT. The CIS methodology allowed for creating new theory by critically combining both literatures. We searched the literature by using PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and qualitative sampling. Searches were guided by pre-set eligibility criteria and all entries were iteratively analysed using thematic synthesis. Eighty documents were included. Our synthesis suggests a shift from sustainability as an end-goal towards sustaining as actors' relatively mundane work aimed at making and keeping KT practices productive. This 'sustaining work' is an interplay of three processes: (i) translating, (ii) contexting, and (iii) institutionalising. Translating refers to activities aimed at constructing and extending networks. Contexting emphasises the activities needed to create contexts that support KT practices. Institutionalising addresses how actors create, maintain, and disrupt institutions with the aim of sustaining KT practices. The 'sustaining work' perspective of our CIS emphasises KT actors' ongoing work directed at sustaining KT practices. We suggest that this perspective can guide empirical study of sustaining work and that these empirical insights, combined with this CIS, can inform training programmes for KT actors, and thereby improve the sustainability of KT practices.