Call for Papers: Global Health: Science and Practice
A special issue on Adaptive Interventions to Promote Change in the 21st Century:
The Responsive Feedback Approach
Guest Co-Editors:
K. Viswanath, Harvard University and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Sohail Agha, PhD, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Richard Wright, PhD, Unilever
Christina Synowiec, Results for Development
Global Health: Science and Practice, in collaboration with guest editors, announces a call for papers for a special issue on adaptive interventions that have used the responsive feedback (RF) approach to improve social change programs.
The RF approach is part of a family of intervention designs that aim to collect timely data to serve as feedback to planners and implementers and make appropriate changes to the interventions to enhance their success while the intervention is still in progress. There are other similar approaches, such as adaptive management, feedback loops/mechanisms, and rapid cycle innovations, which have been developed out of dissatisfaction with traditional intervention designs. The RF approach is similar to but also builds on these approaches to offer an integrated, systematic, and systemic method to improve outcomes. In brief, it:
- Calls for engaging all stakeholders in the design, execution, and maintenance of an intervention.
- Eschews silos between monitoring, learning and evaluation, and implementation personnel to facilitate seamless communication.
- Argues for inputs from employees and beneficiaries on how the innovation is working
- Has an explicit theory of change that continuously questions and tests assumptions driving the interventions.
- Recommends built-in data collection methods to test assumptions and adapt changes based on the data.
- Advocates periodic pause and reflect sessions to engage all stakeholders on the intervention.
In sum, the RF approach is a culmination of a movement of experimentation aimed at improving social change programs building on the strengths of different intervention practices. Several initiatives are already using elements of the RF approach with varying degrees of success. An overview of the RF approach may be found here:
Viswanath K, Synowiec C, Agha S. Responsive feedback: Towards a new paradigm to enhance intervention effectiveness. Gates Open Res. 2019 Mar 8;3:781.
The goal of the special issue is to document the work being done under the rubric of RF and share lessons learned. Specifically, the supplement aims to describe:
- The RF approach and discuss similarities and differences with other approaches such as continuous quality improvement
- Major challenges in designing and implementing an RF effort
- Theoretical, interventional, and methodological considerations in adopting and adapting RF
- Challenges in introducing and establishing “test and learn” cultures within organizations
- Exemplar cases using an RF approach in different variations.
The guest editors welcome submissions of papers covering any of these areas. While all types of submissions are welcome, we particularly encourage papers that have empirical (qualitative and quantitative) documentation of the design, execution, and impact of RF-informed interventions.
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
Potential authors should visit the GHSP website and follow the Instructions for Authors for specific guidelines on length, format, and style of manuscripts. The submission and review process will involve several steps:
September 1, 2021: Authors should submit a 300-word abstract with a working title and a list of authors to megan_chau@dfci.harvard.edu. Authors will be informed if their abstract has been selected for submission as a full manuscript by September 15, 2021.
December 1, 2021: Submit the first round full manuscript to megan_chau@dfci.harvard.edu for initial review by the corresponding editor, K. Viswanath, and guest editors. Guest editors will complete the initial review for selection for final review by the journal by January 15, 2022.
February 15, 2022: Once selected, authors will receive instructions on how and when to submit their manuscripts online.
Final decisions will be made by May 15, 2022. The issue is scheduled for publication in the middle of 2022.
All selected submissions will undergo peer review by 2-3 reviewers and must adhere to GHSP guidelines and policies.
If you have questions, please email the corresponding guest co-Editor: K. Viswanath, PhD