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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 More information about Impact Factor CiteScore 3.5 More information about CiteScore

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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Development and Evaluation of Research Methods, Instruments and Tools

People who are incarcerated face significantly higher health risks than the general population, yet deaths in custody remain underreported and poorly monitored by public health systems. Although the federal Death in Custody Reporting Act requires reporting of all deaths in correctional facilities to the US Department of Justice, reporting has been inconsistent, delayed, and often publicly inaccessible. Consequently, researchers have turned to press releases issued by correctional agencies as one of the few timely sources of information on deaths in custody. However, these press releases vary widely in content and structure, making standardized data extraction difficult. Crowdsourcing platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) may offer a faster, low-cost method for gathering data, but their utility in this setting remains untested.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

There is a need for scalable and simple interventions for trauma-exposed people. In this case series, we built on our previous case study and case series findings and further explored the use and potential effectiveness of a brief novel intervention to reduce the number of past intrusive memories of trauma. The imagery competing task intervention consists of a memory reminder and the visuospatial task Tetris played with mental rotation, targeting 1 intrusive memory at a time. Here, we test remote delivery of the intervention, including guidance from researchers without specialist mental health training, in a sample of women in Iceland with current intrusive memories from trauma.

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Development and Evaluation of Research Methods, Instruments and Tools

Complication risks in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D) can lead to serious health outcomes if not detected early. Despite the availability of clinical data, there remains a gap in interpretable tools that support risk stratification in this age group, particularly in alignment with local clinical guidelines.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

Cardiac auscultation is an essential component of clinical examination but is often challenging to achieve proficiency in. Self-contained, multisensory learning resources that incorporate simultaneous visual and haptic stimuli offer a unique approach to supporting learners in acquiring this core skill.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

Youth experiencing homelessness face heightened vulnerability to HIV infection and substance use due to complex structural, psychosocial, and behavioral factors. Despite increased mobile phone access among youth experiencing homelessness, few mobile health interventions have been tailored to their unique needs, and even fewer have applied behavioral theory to inform message development.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

Difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments is a primary challenge of hearing impairment, inadequately addressed by hearing aids alone. While auditory training can enhance selective attention and speech perception, current digital programs face poor user adherence and lack realistic 3D spatial audio.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

US Latine and Hispanic communities face a 1.5 times greater risk of developing Alzheimer disease and related dementia (ADRD) with limited access to culturally and linguistically congruent primary prevention education. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the digital divide, highlighting a need to focus on alternative digital methods for delivering brain health and ADRD primary prevention education. Social media emerged as a promising tool.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

Tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use continue to pose substantial public health challenges in China. Although public service announcements (PSAs) are widely used for prevention, little is known about how these messages are constructed or the extent to which they draw on established health communication theories.

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Development and Evaluation of Research Methods, Instruments and Tools

Patients and their families without medical knowledge may find professional health care information difficult to understand. The use of large language models (LLMs) to simplify and translate complex medical content holds promise for improving comprehension while reducing the burden on health care providers tasked with delivering explanations.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is strongly influenced by persistent misconceptions that delay help-seeking and limit engagement with effective care. Patient-centered digital strategies, including generative artificial intelligence (AI) microlearning, may improve sexual-health knowledge; however, real-world evidence in urological practice remains sparse.

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Formative Evaluation of Digital Health Interventions

Due to demographic changes, the number of older people is increasing, often accompanied by limitations in mobility, nutrition, and independence. Preventive monitoring is rare, as care systems struggle with staff shortages and limited resources. Technical assistance systems can support older people in self-assessing their health and maintaining independence. We developed the AS-Tra system, which combines an application with a measurement and training station (MuTS), to enable early detection of nutrition and mobility-related deficits and risks.

Preprints Open for Peer Review

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