Table 1 CIS principles as modified and applied to the current study

Purpose

• To investigate whether theory used to change behaviour differentiates conceptually between increasing and decreasing frequency of behaviour.

Process

• More closely followed traditional systematic review, but sampling, critique, and analysis were conducted concurrently.

Search strategy

• Stage 1 formal bibliographic search was foundation of the search strategy.

• Research team identified key articles not identified in search.

• Stage 2, theory papers were identified through those articles retrieved in Stage 1.

Sampling

• Inclusion/exclusion criteria for stage 1 were more structured and defined prior to search.

• Purposive sampling of articles and other resources for stage 2 identified theory papers by the articles in the formal search, to better understand the theories and constructs.

Quality appraisal

• Not a component of this study because this was not an investigation of the effectiveness of theory use, but whether theories distinguish between increasing and decreasing behaviour.

Data analysis

• Analysis involved interrogation of the theoretical concepts that the articles reportedly used to change behaviour and the articles that reported theory development.

Findings and results

• Synthesising argument that linked theories applied to increasing and/or decreasing frequency of behaviour.

• Relationship between theoretical constructs and direction of behaviour change was scrutinised.

• No new constructs were generated, but new distinctions were made (between increasing and decreasing behaviour frequency).

Discussion

• Offered a theoretically sound and useful account of whether behavioural theories distinguish between increasing and decreasing frequency of behaviour.

• The review was grounded in the evidence but acknowledges the ‘authorial voice’.

• Some aspects of its production may not be auditable or reproducible.