0202609100433
STARDIT ID:
0202609100433State ongoing
Start 2026-09-09
Form updated 2026-09-10
Inputs
Dominic Ledinger
Task: Conceptualization | Methodology | Formal Analysis | Investigation | Data Curation | Writing - Original Draft | Writing - Review and Editing | Visualization | Project Administration | Funding Acquisition | Extracted all data | Performed the initial allocation of studies to the top 20 prioritized topics | Refined the extraction form iteratively with a second reviewer during extraction of the first three studies
Declared interests: Board member of the Cochrane Co-production Methods Group
Department for Evidence-based Medicine and Evaluation, University for Continuing Education Krems, Krems, Austria. Corresponding author. The manuscript states that the PhD studentship of Dominic Ledinger is funded by the Lower Austrian Science Fund, project number FTI23-D-042.
Alex Todhunter-Brown
Task: Conceptualization | Methodology | Investigation | Writing - Review and Editing | Supervision | Funding Acquisition | Led the prior scoping review on methods of engaging interest-holders in healthcare evidence syntheses on which this review builds
Declared interests: Board member of the Cochrane Co-production Methods Group | Co-convenor of the Cochrane Co-production Methods Group
Research Centre for Health (ReaCH), Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Camilla Neubauer-Bruckner
Task: Methodology | Investigation | Writing - Review and Editing
Declared interests: Declared no conflicts of interest
Department for Evidence-based Medicine and Evaluation, University for Continuing Education Krems, Krems, Austria.
Amin Sharifan
Task: Methodology | Investigation | Writing - Review and Editing
Declared interests: Declared no conflicts of interest
Department for Evidence-based Medicine and Evaluation, University for Continuing Education Krems, Krems, Austria.
Anna Mengl
Task: Methodology | Investigation | Writing - Review and Editing
Declared interests: Declared no conflicts of interest
Department for Evidence-based Medicine and Evaluation, University for Continuing Education Krems, Krems, Austria.
Jack Nunn (link)
ID: 0000-0003-0316-3254
Task: Methodology | Investigation | Writing - Review and Editing
Declared interests: Board member of the Cochrane Co-production Methods Group | Director of the charity Science for All, which hosts the co-design of STARDIT
Director, Science For All, Melbourne, Australia.
Susan Banda
Task: Methodology | Investigation | Writing - Review and Editing
Declared interests: Declared no conflicts of interest
Department for Evidence-based Medicine and Evaluation, University for Continuing Education Krems, Krems, Austria.
Stella Goeschl
Task: Methodology | Investigation | Writing - Review and Editing
Declared interests: Declared no conflicts of interest
Department for Evidence-based Medicine and Evaluation, University for Continuing Education Krems, Krems, Austria.
Christopher Cooper
Task: Methodology | Writing - Review and Editing
Declared interests: Declared no conflicts of interest
Department for Evidence-based Medicine and Evaluation, University for Continuing Education Krems, Krems, Austria, and independent researcher, London, United Kingdom.
Gerald Gartlehner
Task: Conceptualization | Methodology | Writing - Review and Editing | Supervision | Funding Acquisition
Declared interests: Declared no conflicts of interest
Department for Evidence-based Medicine and Evaluation, University for Continuing Education Krems, Krems, Austria, and Center for Health Economics, Methods and Evidence Synthesis, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, United States of America.
Barbara Nussbaumer-Streit
Task: Conceptualization | Methodology | Formal Analysis | Investigation | Writing - Review and Editing | Supervision | Funding Acquisition | Independently verified the completed data extraction forms for accuracy and comprehensiveness | Independently verified the allocation of studies to the top 20 prioritized topics | Refined the extraction form iteratively with the first reviewer during extraction of the first three studies
Declared interests: Board member of the Cochrane Co-production Methods Group
Department for Evidence-based Medicine and Evaluation, University for Continuing Education Krems, Krems, Austria.
Task: Co-produced and co-authored the study as a public contributor | Shared perspectives on plain language and inclusion criteria | Screened studies | Reviewed the protocol and the manuscript | Authored the implications for future research
Recruitment: International research networks were targeted to recruit a member of the public who possessed existing expertise in research methodology
Communication: Occasional online sessions | A dedicated introductory meeting | An open and blame-free communication channel
Reported enablers: Occasional online sessions, which mitigated the difficulty of coordinating across time zones | A dedicated introductory meeting, which was vital for setting clear roles and discussing expectations | An open and blame-free communication channel, which allowed the contributor to openly discuss capacity limits without guilt
Reported barriers: Coordinating meetings across vastly different time zones | Engaging a voluntary public contributor without study funding or formal remuneration made it challenging to align availability with a tight research timeline | Recruiting for meta-research is uniquely difficult due to its abstract nature | Operating without dedicated funding created an ethical dilemma, as distributing research tasks to an uncompensated volunteer under tight deadlines risked causing stress
Compensation: volunteer
Impact: Successfully shifted the focus and terminology of the protocol to make it more accessible to a lay audience | Provided critical contextual insights during the pilot and initial screening phases that resolved conflicting study selection decisions | Deepened the understanding of the topic within the research team | Fundamentally shaped how the team conceptualized the study content, influencing subsequent screening decisions and potentially preventing relevant studies from being overlooked | Shifted the content and focus of the discussion section | Directly shaped how involvement was reported within the manuscript
Involvement ranged from contributing, through influencing, to controlling, and that while the contributor did not lead project components, involvement moved well beyond passive information receiving. The manuscript states that the public contributor co-authored the study but does not state which of the named authors this was, so this contributor block is not linked to a name.
End 2025-11-27
Task: Updated the database searches
Described in the manuscript as an experienced information specialist. Not named in the source. Database searches were updated on 26 September 2025 for MEDLINE (Ovid) and on 27 November 2025 for CINAHL (Ebsco), Embase, PsycInfo and Scopus.
Cochrane Co-production Methods Group
Task: Provided advice to the review team throughout the project | Hosts the interactive evidence map
The interactive, searchable version of the map is to be hosted online by the Cochrane Co-production Methods Group. The manuscript also records the Cochrane Co-production Methods Group online catalog as one of the repositories searched.
Authors of the prior scoping review and the MuSE consortium
Task: Allowed the review team to use and update their search | Allowed the review team to use their included methodological research studies as the basis of this work
The prior scoping review concerned methods of engaging interest-holders in healthcare evidence syntheses and was led by Alex Todhunter-Brown. Records published before 2024 were carried forward from the included set of that scoping review rather than re-screened, and the review team relied on that team eligibility assessment.
Time of PhD studentship of Dominic Ledinger is funded by the Lower Austrian Science Fund under project number FTI23-D-042, and that there was no separate funding for this study.
Outputs and impacts
Manuscript prepared for the journal BMC Research Involvement and Engagement, recorded in the manuscript as version 3 with a word count of 5390 and an abstract word count of 349 excluding the plain language summary. Not published at the date this STARDIT report was created. The manuscript reports that the review provides the first systematic baseline of research addressing methodological priorities for co-production in evidence synthesis, and concludes that despite substantial growth the literature remains skewed and largely descriptive, with priorities such as quality appraisal and conflicts of interest neglected.
Built using EPPI-Mapper. Allows users to dynamically filter studies by priority area, evidence synthesis type and interest-holder group. The manuscript states that the map will be permanently hosted and maintained on the Cochrane Co-production Methods Group website upon publication. The manuscript records the link to the map as a placeholder, so no URL is available at the date this STARDIT report was created. The manuscript recommends maintaining the map as a living resource so that it continues to reflect the current state of the evidence.
The review protocol was registered with the Open Science Framework. The manuscript records one deviation from the protocol, being that a separate formal pilot phase for data extraction was replaced by two reviewers iteratively refining the extraction form during extraction of the first three studies.
Appendix A, PRISMA-ScR checklist. Appendix B, GRIPP2 checklist. Appendix C, list of prioritized topics for co-production in evidence synthesis. Appendix D, search strategy. Appendix E, included studies from the prior scoping review. Appendix F, data extraction form. Appendix G, list of ongoing studies. Appendix H, list of excluded studies. Appendix I, study characteristics and findings. Appendix J, list of tools, frameworks or guidance.
STARDIT report information
0000-0003-0316-3254
Created this STARDIT report from the manuscript version 3 and supporting information version 3 supplied by the author team