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 2.0 CiteScore 3.5

JMIR Formative Research (JFR, ISSN 2561-326X, Journal Impact Factor™ 2.0 (Clarivate, 2024)) 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).

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

Recent advancements in sports medicine have been fueled by innovative technologies, particularly consumer-grade wearable devices like Fitbit, Apple Watch, and Garmin. These devices offer physiological and biomechanical data and hold promise for personalized, real-time, and remote assessment of athlete recovery. However, few studies have been conducted with these devices in adolescent student athletes.

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Pilot studies (non-ehealth)

Many studies find associations between hepatitis B and stigma, but studies from the Western European context are lacking. Based on available studies, we hypothesized that younger age, higher education, male gender, higher privacy needs, and non-German mother tongue were positively associated with perceived hepatitis B-related stigma.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

Diabetic retinopathy (DR), a leading cause of preventable blindness among working-aged adults. Black, Latine, and low-income individuals are screened less for DR, diagnosed later, treated less often, and go blind more than white individuals.

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Reviews on Usage or other Formative Evaluation Metrics

Professional medical organizations publish policy statements that are used to impact legislation or address societal issues. Many organizations are nonpartisan, yet it is uncertain whether their policy statements balance liberal and conservative values.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

The adoption of telemonitoring in patients with heart failure (HF) is influenced by technology-related skills and self-efficacy, as well as psychological, clinical and demographic factors. However, the relative importance of these factors with regard to willingness to use telemonitoring is insufficiently understood.

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Development and Evaluation of Research Methods, Instruments and Tools

Simulated electronic health records (EHRs) are used in structured teaching for healthcare students. In part, this addresses inconsistent student exposure to, and participation with EHRs whilst on clinical placements. However, simulated records are poor replacements for the complexity and volume of data encountered in real EHRs. Whilst routinely collected healthcare data is often used for research, secondary use does not extend to education. Within our project we are exploring the perceptions, governance and ethics required to support the use of donated real patient records within teaching.

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Research Letter

Through a co-design and community-based participatory approach with Latino and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander communities, we identified key themes for an initial beta version of a mobile health app, including priorities regarding mental health, access to resources, and chronic disease prevention. Social and cultural connectedness and generational approaches emerged as important strategies for successful intervention design and long-term adoption.

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Pilot studies (non-ehealth)

Hair cortisol is an emerging biomarker of chronic stress. However, the psychological and physiological aspects of chronic stress that are reflected in hair cortisol concentration (HCC) have not been fully determined. Since physiological responses to stress do not always align with how stress is perceived, we conducted this study to evaluate whether HCC correlates with neuroendocrine stress indicators or stress perceptions

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Pilot studies (ehealth)

Family functioning is associated with several adolescent health outcomes, and many family-based interventions (FBIs) exist to improve family functioning. However, most FBIs assess family functioning retrospectively at baseline and post-intervention, for example, overlooking the daily fluctuations of family functioning throughout the intervention. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is a method involving a high frequency of assessments and has been underutilized to assess family functioning across parent and adolescent dyads. Further, limited research exists on the use of EMA in bilingual populations.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

During the COVID-19 pandemic, both physical and psychological health were at risk. Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (ICBT) is a psychological treatment alternative that does not inherently increase the risk of virus transmission because face-to-face interactions are not required. ICBT has been found to be effective for a variety of mental health problems, both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the experiences of undergoing ICBT have been investigated in previous studies, the specific experiences of participating in ICBT during the COVID-19 pandemic have been less examined.

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Pilot studies (ehealth)

Undergraduate students frequently experience negative emotional states and sleep quality, which is believed to have worsened following the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Pilot studies (ehealth)

Adolescent depression is a significant public health concern. The presentation of depressive symptoms varies widely among individuals, fluctuating in intensity over time. EMA offers a unique advantage by enhancing ecological validity and reducing recall bias, allowing for a more accurate and nuanced understanding of MDD symptoms. This methodology provides valuable insights into the fluctuating nature of depression, which could inform more personalized and timely interventions.

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