• Laura Esmail, Emily Moore, and Alison Rein.
• Academy Health, 1150 17th Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036, USA.
• J Comp Eff Res. 2015 Mar 1; 4 (2): 133-45.

AbstractDespite the growing demand for research that engages stakeholders, there is limited evidence in the literature to demonstrate its value - or return on investment. This gap indicates a general lack of evaluation of engagement activities. To adequately inform engagement activities, we need to further investigate the dividends of engaged research, and how to evaluate these effects. This paper synthesizes the literature on hypothesized impacts of engagement, shares what has been evaluated and identifies steps needed to reduce the gap between engagement's promises and the underlying evidence supporting its practice. This assessment provides explicit guidance for better alignment of engagement's promised benefits with evaluation efforts and identifies specific areas for development of evaluative measures and better reporting processes.

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