Handrails through the Swamp? A Pilot to Test the Integration and Implementation Science Framework in Complex Real-World Research

Abstract

The socio-environmental challenges the world faces are ‘swamps’: situations that are messy, complex, and uncertain. The aim of this paper is to help disciplinary scientists navigate these swamps. To achieve this, the paper evaluates an integrative framework designed for researching complex real-world problems, the Integration and Implementation Science (i2S) framework. As a pilot study, we examine seven inter and transdisciplinary agri-environmental case studies against the concepts presented in the i2S framework, and we hypothesise that considering concepts in the i2S framework during the planning and delivery of agri-environmental research will increase the usefulness of the research for next users. We found that for the types of complex, real-world research done in the case studies, increasing attention to the i2S dimensions correlated with increased usefulness for the end users. We conclude that using the i2S framework could provide handrails for researchers, to help them navigate the swamps when engaging with the complexity of socio-environmental problems.

A comparative study of the work–life balance experiences and coping mechanisms of Nigerian and British single student-working mothers

“…Following the recruitment of the participants, we organised the participants into three focus groups of 30 total participants. Robson (2002) suggests a focus group should have between 8 and 12 participants. Thus, the first focus group comprised ten British participants, there were ten Nigerian participants in the second focus group, and there were ten participants (five British and five Nigerian participants) in the third focus group.…”

Challenges of implementing management accounting innovations: Evidence from the field

“…Internal validity was achieved by adopting and adapting existing scales used in prior studies to measure variables (Robson, 2002). An additional measurement scale was also developed by the researchers, guided by a review of literature.…”

Systematic construction of goal-oriented COTS taxonomies

“…The action-research qualitative research selected involves using the researcher himself as the instrument for the research. A short discussion of the effects of the main researchers involved is therefore appropriate [Rob02].…”

“…To reduce the threats to validity of this research, we performed different strategies based on the threats to validity and corresponding strategies proposed by Robson [Rob02] and summarized in Table 3.2. The table defines six strategies which address three types of threats to validity, namely reactivity, researcher bias, and participant bias.…”