Aims and scope

Implementation Science publishes research relevant to the scientific study of methods to promote the uptake of research findings into routine healthcare in clinical, organizational, or policy contexts.

Applied health related research constantly produces new findings but often these are not routinely translated into healthcare practice. Implementation research is the scientific study of methods to promote the systematic uptake of proven clinical treatments, practices, organizational, and management interventions into routine practice, and hence to improve health. This also encompasses the de-implementation of interventions demonstrated to be of low or no clinical benefit and the study of influences on patient, healthcare professional, and organizational behavior in either healthcare or population settings.

The lack of routine uptake of research findings is strategically important for the development of healthcare because it clearly places an invisible ceiling on the potential for research to enhance health. Further, it is scientifically important because it identifies the behavior of healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations as key sources of variance requiring improved empirical and theoretical understanding before effective uptake can be reliably achieved.

Implementation science is an inherently interdisciplinary research area, and the journal is not constrained by any particular research tradition. Implementation Science publishes articles of high scientific rigor using the most appropriate methods to produce valid, generalizable answers to research questions. As well as hosting papers describing the effectiveness of implementation interventions, Implementation Science provides a unique home for rigorous and large-scale intervention development, evaluations of the process by which effects are achieved, economic evaluations of implementation, and the role of theory relevant to implementation research. The journal is also interested in publishing articles that present novel methods (particularly those that have a theoretical basis) for studying implementation processes and interventions. We are also interested in receiving articles that address methodologically robust study of the de-implementation of ineffective clinical and organizational practices.

We welcome study protocols of large and innovative research, but these will only be considered if the study is received within 12 months of ethics approval and been approved for funding through external peer review via an established funding body at the national level in the respective country. We do not consider protocols for systematic reviews.