We are indebted to the following members of the Study Steering Committee for their advice and guidance throughout the project: Professor Stephen Sutton (chairperson), Dr Christopher Chiswell, Reverend Dr Barry Clark, Professor Jeremy Grimshaw, Professor Timothy Hofer, Mr Tim Sacks, Professor Kaveh Shojania and Professor James Thomas.
We thank the McMaster University and McMaster Health Forum for their permission for us to use records from the Health Systems Evidence database for our WP 2, and Dr Kaelan Moat for his assistance in this process. We thank the HSDR programme-funded High Intensity Specialist Led Acute Care (HiSLAC) project for permission to use the data set from the systematic review of the weekend effect on which case study 1, described in Chapter 5, was based. We thank Dr Ruth Pullen for providing data on projects funded by the NIHR SDO, Health Service Research and HSDR programmes, and Daniel Camero for supplying the abstracts of past HSRUK conferences for our WP 4. We also wish to thank Alice Davis for her help in data checking for WP 2.
We are grateful to all HSDR investigators who responded to our requests for further information concerning their research, and all participants in the interviews and the focus group discussion of this project.
We thank the following delegates who attended our project dissemination meeting in June 2019 and provided invaluable advice on the interpretation of the project findings and formulation of recommendations for research practice and future research: Dr Andrew Booth, Professor Dawn Craig, Professor Graham Martin, Helen Crisp, Professor James Raftery, Professor James Thomas, Professor Nick Mays, Tara Lamont and Professor Timothy Hofer.
Magdalena Skrybant and Richard J Lilford are also supported by the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration West Midlands.
Contributions of authors
Abimbola A Ayorinde (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4915-5092) (Research Fellow, Evidence Synthesis) was the main researcher on the project and maintained day-to-day running of the project, involved in all stages of the work and drafted the report.
Iestyn Williams (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9462-9488) (Reader, Health Policy Management) was the lead for WP 5 of the project, planned and carried out the interviews and led the focus group discussion, analysed the data and drafted WP 5-related sections.
Russell Mannion (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0680-8049) (Professor, Health Systems) was a member of the Project Management Group and provided senior advice on health services research.
Fujian Song (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4039-1531) (Professor, Research Synthesis) was a member of the Project Management Group and provided advice on statistics and publication bias-related issues.
Magdalena Skrybant (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7119-2482) (PPI and Engagement Lead) was a member of the Project Management Group, provided advice and was involved in all aspects of PPI-related activities, and facilitated the focus group discussion.
Richard J Lilford (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0634-984X) (Professor, Public Health) was a member of the Study Steering Committee and provided senior advice on methodology.
Yen-Fu Chen (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9446-2761) (Associate Professor, Evidence Synthesis) was the principal investigator of the project, was involved in all stages of the work and drafted the report.
All authors commented on multiple drafts of report sections, helped to revise the report and approved its submission.
Publications
Williams I, Ayorinde AA, Mannion R, Song F, Skrybant M, Lilford RJ, Chen YF. Stakeholder views on publication bias in health services research. J Health Serv Res Pol 2020;25:162–71. https://doi.org/10.1177/1355819620902185
Ayorinde AA, Williams I, Mannion R, Song F, Skrybant M, Lilford RJ, Chen YF. Assessment of publication bias and outcome reporting bias in systematic reviews of health services and delivery research: a meta-epidemiological study. PLOS ONE 2020;15:e0227580. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227580
Ayorinde AA, Williams I, Mannion R, Song F, Skrybant M, Lilford RJ, Chen YF. Publication and related biases in health services research: a systematic review of empirical evidence. BMC Med Res Methodol 2020;20:137. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-020-01010-1
Data-sharing statement
Most data collected in this project have been presented in this report. All data requests should be submitted to the corresponding author for consideration. Access to available anonymised data may be granted following review.
Disclaimers
This report presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The views and opinions expressed by authors in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NHS, the NIHR, NETSCC, the HS&DR programme or the Department of Health and Social Care. If there are verbatim quotations included in this publication the views and opinions expressed by the interviewees are those of the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect those of the authors, those of the NHS, the NIHR, NETSCC, the HS&DR programme or the Department of Health and Social Care.
