JMIR Formative Research

Process evaluations, early results, and feasibility/pilot studies of digital and non-digital interventions

Editor-in-Chief:

Amaryllis Mavragani, PhD, Scientific Editor at JMIR Publications, Canada


Impact Factor 2.1 CiteScore 3.5

JMIR Formative Research (JFR, ISSN 2561-326X) publishes peer-reviewed, openly accessible papers containing results from process evaluations, feasibility/pilot studies and other kinds of formative research and preliminary results. While the original focus was on the design of medical- and health-related research and technology innovations, JMIR Formative Research publishes studies from all areas of medical and health research.

Formative research is research that occurs before a program is designed and implemented, or while a program is being conducted. Formative research can help

  • define and understand populations in need of an intervention or public health program
  • create programs that are specific to the needs of those populations
  • ensure programs are acceptable and feasible to users before launching
  • improve the relationship between users and agencies/research groups
  • demonstrate the feasibility, use, satisfaction with, or problems with a program before large-scale summative evaluation (looking at health outcomes)

Many funding agencies will expect some sort of pilot/feasibility/process evaluation before funding a larger study such as a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT).

Formative research should be an integral part of developing or adapting programs and should be used while the program is ongoing to help refine and improve program activities. Thus, formative evaluation can and should also occur in the form of a process evaluation alongside a summative evaluation such as an RCT.

JMIR Formative Research fills an important gap in the academic journals landscape, as it publishes sound and peer-reviewed formative research that is critical for investigators to apply for further funding, but that is usually not published in outcomes-focused medical journals aiming for impact and generalizability.

Summative evaluations of programs and apps/software that have undergone a thorough formative evaluation before launch have a better chance to be published in high-impact flagship journals; thus, we encourage authors to submit - as a first step - their formative evaluations in JMIR Formative Research (and their evaluation protocols to JMIR Research Protocols). 

JMIR Formative Research is indexed in MEDLINEPubMed, PubMed CentralDOAJ, Scopus, Sherpa/Romeo, EBSCO/EBSCO Essentials, and the Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI).

JMIR Formative Research received a Journal Impact Factor of 2.1 according to the latest release of the Journal Citation Reports from Clarivate, 2025.

With a CiteScore of 3.5 (2024) JMIR Formative Research is a Q2 journal in the field of Medicine (miscellaneous), according to Scopus data.

Recent Articles

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

The negative consequences of caregiving can be mitigated by providing caregivers with support programs that increase their dementia care skills and provide emotional and tangible support. Web-based technology can increase the availability of evidence-based caregiver interventions. GamePlan4Care (GP4C) is a web-based adaptation of the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer’s Caregiver Health II (REACH II) intervention, redesigned and reformatted for web-based delivery.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ+) individuals faced greater mental health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic than binary-gender heterosexual (non-LGBTQ+) adults. The Together for Wellness/Juntos por Nuestro Bienestar website with free well-being resources, developed during the COVID-19 pandemic with partner input, included LGBTQ+ resources. A pilot evaluation among adults (aged ≥18 years) found engagement with and use of the website 4 to 6 weeks before follow-up was associated with reduced (pretest-posttest) depression. Results for LGBTQ+ participants were not reported.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

Digital support for adolescent and young adult cancer survivors is fragmented and results in lacking a reliable overview of support services available to them. Collaborative design promises to integrate perspectives of diverse stakeholders and could help to develop an online platform, which increases access and has a long-term perspective. However, it has not yet been explored how collaborative design can be used more strategically to develop an online platform with these aims.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

Football is the most widely played sport globally but carries a high risk of lower limb injuries, particularly among youth athletes. Real-time biomechanical monitoring can play a critical role in injury prevention. However, traditional lab-based systems are often complex and impractical for field use. Recent advances in wearable technology, such as inertial sensors and smart socks, provide more accessible solutions for movement analysis. The DAid® smart sock system is a promising tool, but further evidence is needed to support its use in lower extremity functional assessments.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

Wearable self-tracking technologies are increasingly used in mental health care to enhance engagement and personalize treatment. However, most existing instruments focus on passive data collection or predefined symptom monitoring. Less attention has been given to tools that enable patients to actively track personally meaningful, self-defined mental health experiences as part of psychotherapy, particularly in vulnerable populations such as refugees with Complex PTSD (CPTSD).

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

Unhealthy lifestyle behaviors have been identified as a major cause of numerous health issues, with a steady global increase in their prevalence. Addressing this challenge requires comprehensive behavioral changes to promote the adoption of a sustainable healthier lifestyle. However, despite the prevalent need, cost-effective and successful digital coaching for health-related behavior change remains scarce.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

Despite the known psychosocial challenges associated with supporting a loved one using alcohol and other drugs (AOD), there is a scarcity of mental health and wellbeing interventions for affected family members and friends (AFFMs). Stigma has also been shown to discourage help-seeking among AFFMs. Online interventions may facilitate help-seeking by ensuring privacy and anonymity.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

Qualitative research appraisal is crucial for ensuring credible findings but faces challenges due to human variability. Artificial intelligence (AI) models have the potential to enhance the efficiency and consistency of qualitative research assessments.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

To promote informed decision-making and maternal pertussis vaccination (MPV) uptake, we systematically developed an interactive, web-based decision aid for pregnant users. Intervention reach (the percentage of participants in the intervention group who used the intervention), use (how much and how long those participants used the intervention), and acceptability (how positively they evaluated the intervention) are essential for it to be effective and should be reported to assess which intervention components may have been effective.

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Development and Evaluation of Research Methods, Instruments and Tools

The synthesis of evidence in healthcare is essential for informed decision-making and policy development. This study aims to validate The Umbrella Collaboration (TU), an innovative, semi-automatic tertiary evidence synthesis methodology, by comparing it with Traditional Umbrella Reviews (TUR), which are currently the gold standard.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

Inadequate sleep is prevalent among athletes, affecting adaption to training and performance. While education on factors influencing sleep can improve sleep behaviors, Large Language Models (LLMs) may offer a scalable approach to provide sleep education to athletes.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

Physiotherapy treatments frequently incorporate a combination of hands-on, therapist-led exercises and hands-off, home-based exercises, whereby patients perform exercises independently. A key challenge in home-based rehabilitation is providing patients with effective feedback to guide their movements. A range of strategies are being reviewed to address this issue and a starting point for developing effective and implementable strategies to gather feedback requirements from the end-users.

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Preprints Open for Peer-Review

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