Table 7 Definition of “extra benefits”

Extra benefits are positive outcomes that clearly do not meet the specific participatory research project change objective(s).

• Outcomes are changes that occur as a result of the participatory research project. These changes may affect the university researchers, organization members, patients or family members/carers, or the organization as a whole.

• Outcomes of interest are those associated with the participatory process.

Regarding sustainability of outcomes:

• Should the change objective be met and authors indicate that this change was maintained, this is an anticipated outcome, not an “extra” benefit of the OPR process. (The assumption is that no change process would have been undertaken had the objective not been for the change to be permanent.)

• Should the change objective be met and then transferred to another department/organization, this is an extra benefit (unless transfer was part of the change objective).

• Should the change process be maintained (e.g., action research group decides to continue their monthly meetings; organization members decide to do additional research), this is an extra benefit (unless the change objective was to implement regular meetings or a research culture).

Regarding a change in the study focus:

• In some studies, the aim of the project changes during the initial stages of the participatory process. Such changes are expected in participatory research, thus, for our purposes, the new aim will be the one we use to determine if subsequent outcomes are extra benefits or not.