About Implementation Science

What is Implementation Science?

Implementation Science is an open access, peer-reviewed online journal that aims to publish research relevant to the scientific study of methods to promote the uptake of research findings into routine healthcare in both clinical and policy contexts.

Biomedical research constantly produces new findings - but often these are not routinely translated into health care practice. Implementation research is the scientific study of methods to promote the systematic uptake of clinical research findings and other evidence-based practices into routine practice, and hence to improve the quality and effectiveness of health care. It includes the study of influences on healthcare professional and organisational behaviour.

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

Implementation science is an inherently interdisciplinary research area and the journal is not constrained by any particular research method. Implementation Science wishes to publish articles of high scientific rigour using the most appropriate methods to produce generalisable answers to study questions. As well as hosting papers describing the effectiveness of interventions Implementation Science provides a unique home for articles describing intervention development, evaluations of the process by which effects are achieved and the role of theory in the area of implementation research. The journal is also interested in publishing Debate/Discussion articles that present novel methods (particularly those that have a theoretical basis) of addressing current problems.

Content overview

Implementation Science considers the following types of articles:

• Research: reports of data from original research.
• Debate articles: present an argument that is not essentially based on practical research. Debate articles can report on all aspects of the subject including sociological and ethical aspects.
• Meeting report: a short description of a conference that the author has attended. It is usually best for the article to be published as soon after the meeting as possible, and should focus on the key developments presented and discussed at the meeting. These articles are usually commissioned but reports and suggestions may also be submitted for the editors' consideration.
• Methodology articles: present a new experimental method, test or procedure. The method described may either be completely new, or may offer a better version of an existing method.
• Short reports: brief reports of data from original research.
• Study protocols: describe proposed or ongoing research, providing a detailed account of the hypothesis, rationale, and methodology of the study.
• Systematic reviews: Title the article in the style "The effectiveness of audit and feedback: a systematic review". State background to the area, what is already known and why a systematic review is needed. Then describe the search strategy, the databases searched, inclusion and exclusion criteria, the data extraction methods and the proposed methods of data aggregation and analysis. Present the results and discuss their interpretation and implications.

Peer review policies

Two or more experts will review submitted articles. Peer reviewers will have four possible options: accept; accept after minor revision; ask author(s) to make revisions and resubmit; reject because scientifically unsound. When asking for revisions, reviewers have three possible goals: to tighten the arguments based on existing data, to identify where more data are needed and to improve the clarity and coherence of the paper.

Edited by Martin Eccles and Brian Mittman, Implementation Science is supported by an international Editorial Board.

Publishing in Implementation Science

All articles will be listed in PubMed immediately upon acceptance (after peer review), and will be covered by PubMed Central and Scopus.

Articles in Implementation Science should be cited in the same way as articles in a traditional journal. However, because articles in this journal are not printed, they do not have page numbers. Instead, they have a unique article number.

The following citation:

Implementation Sci 2004, 2:1

refers to article 1 from volume 2 of the journal.

As an online journal, Implementation Science does not have issue numbers. Each volume corresponds to a calendar year.

To keep up to date with the latest articles from Implementation Science, why not register to receive alerts? Registration also enables you to customise your subject areas of interest, store your searches, and submit your manuscripts.

Submission of manuscripts

Manuscripts should be submitted electronically to Implementation Science using the online submission system. Full details of how to submit a manuscript are given in the instructions for authors.

General journal policies

Implementation Science is published by BioMed Central, an independent publisher committed to ensuring peer-reviewed biomedical research is Open Access. That means it is freely and universally accessible online, it is archived in at least one internationally recognised free access repository, and its authors retain copyright, allowing anyone to reproduce or disseminate articles, according to the BioMed Central copyright and licence agreement. Implementation Science however, has taken this further by making all its content Open Access.

Implementation Science's articles are archived in PubMed Central, the US National Library of Medicine's full-text repository of life science literature, and also in repositories at the University of Potsdam in Germany, at INIST in France and in e-Depot, the National Library of the Netherlands' digital archive of all electronic publications. The journal is also participating in the British Library's e-journals pilot project, and plans to deposit copies of all articles with the British Library.

BioMed Central is working closely with the Thomson Reuters (ISI) to ensure that citation analysis of articles published in Implementation Science will be available.

Implementation Science is able to deliver summaries of frequently updated content via Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds. These are accessible via the orange "XML" button at the top of the list of recent articles or the list of most accessed articles. For more information about RSS feeds see our publisher's website.

For further information about general policies please see the instructions for authors.