ReviewBMJ open2026
Practical guide for determining whether healthcare providers are research participants in cluster randomised trials.
Review in BMJ open, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionIn cluster randomised trials (CRT), groups (rather than individuals) are randomised to intervention and control conditions. Since the publication of the
objectiveIn this article, we focus on CRTs involving healthcare providers and provide a practical framework for applying FRAMEWORK: Study procedures should be analysed in relation to the study objective. A study intervention confers research participant status on healthcare providers if the study objective is to evaluate its effect and it is delivered to or targeted at healthcare providers. A data collection procedure confers research participant status on healthcare providers if it informs a study outcome used to achieve the study objective and it involves interactions between researchers and healthcare providers to collect their data, or the collection of healthcare providers' identifiable private information. KEY LESSONS: In CRTs, healthcare providers may be research participants because of study interventions, data collection procedures, or both; conversely, they may simply be research collaborators. Some study interventions confer research participant status on both healthcare providers and patients. Collecting data on healthcare provider behaviour may confer research participant status on healthcare providers.
conclusionsAccurately identifying research participants in CRTs is essential to their ethical conduct. When healthcare providers are research participants, their rights and welfare should be protected in accordance with research ethics guidelines.
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What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.