Norton WE, Lungeanu A, Chambers DA, Contractor N. (2017). Mapping the growing discipline of dissemination and implementation science in health. Scientometrics. 112: 1367-1390. doi: 10.1007/s11192-017-2455-2
Researchers distributed a link to a survey in the Dissemination and Implementation in Health e-Newsletter and analyzed responses from 421 dissemination and implementation (D&I) researchers completed at least most of the survey. Researchers asked participants how many papers they had published in the past three years, how many grants they submitted and had funded in the past three years, which journals they used to find articles, which conferences they attended, with whom they collaborated, and from whom they sought advice. Researchers completed network analyses on participants’ advice seeking and collaboration to develop two networks that visualized advice seeking and collaboration among D&I researchers. The most popular journal among participants was Implementation Science and, after the conference affiliated with the newsletter used for recruitment (NIH Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health), the second most popular conference was the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting. Collaboration and advice networks were sparse with relatively few ties compared to the number of members. Many members had no connections to other members. Seeking advice from researchers who often sought advice from other researchers, and collaborating with a greater number of researchers were positively related to having published a D&I article in the past three years. Seeking advice from researchers who sought advice from other researchers, collaborating with a greater number of researchers, and collaborating with researchers who do not collaborate with other researchers were positively related to have a D&I grant funded.