Our Dissemination Toolkits page offers a variety of free, publicly available resources designed to aid in the development and implementation of effective dissemination plans. These toolkits include guidelines, strategies, checklists, worksheets, templates, examples, and case studies.
Creating a comprehensive dissemination plan is essential for ensuring that research findings are effectively translated into practice. A well-crafted plan will guide you through the dissemination process, helping you to identify what information will be shared, the target audience, the most effective channels for communication, and how to measure success. It also includes developing a detailed work plan to achieve these goals.
-
ACL NIDILRR Toolkit —AHRQ—Advances in Patient Safety; Dissemination Planning Tool: Exhibit A from Vol. 4 —Developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, this tool includes step-by-step guidance and tools for developing a dissemination plan.
This toolkit's purpose is to “tell the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) story,” including NIDILRR’s history, role, framework, work, publications, and resources in a summary format. It also contains helpful information on dissemination.
-
Beyond Scientific Publication: Strategies for Disseminating Research Findings (Yale CARE) provides guidance on developing a dissemination plan and key strategies for dissemination. It includes a dissemination planning worksheet and examples of dissemination products.
Communicating Your Research – A Toolkit (The Health Foundation, UK) – Online module that provides step-by-step dissemination and communication planning, dissemination, and implementation; Includes dissemination planning templates and examples.
-
Exchanging Knowledge: A Research Dissemination Toolkit (Univ. of Regina CRU) Provides guidance on creating a dissemination plan, including a dissemination plan worksheet and brief descriptions of some dissemination strategies.
MRCT Center of BWH and Harvard Return of Aggregate Results to Participants—Includes Principles, Guidance Document, and Toolkit (see “Project Resources”). The toolkit includes hands-on tools for creating summaries for aggregate study findings, including helpful templates, checklists, and examples of plain-language summaries.
-
MRCT Center of BWH and Harvard Return of Individual Results to Participants – Includes Principles, Recommendations Document, and Toolkit (see “Deliverables”). The toolkit includes hands-on tools for returning individual study results to research participants; it Includes dissemination planning figures for determining which individual findings should be returned and when, as well as planning tools and case studies.
-
NASEM – Returning Individual Results to Research Participants: Full Book – Reviews the current evidence on the benefits, harms, and costs of returning individual research results while considering the ethical, social, operational, and regulatory aspects of the practice. The recommendations document can be found here.
PCORI Dissemination & Implementation Toolkit—This toolkit includes D&I best practices in dissemination guidelines and strategies, including worksheets for dissemination planning and study “spotlights” to provide users with real-world examples of dissemination planning.
-
KTTDR Tip Sheet: Conceptualizing Infographics and Data Visualizations
Global Health focus:
Toolkits for Developing Dissemination Products:
This section contains toolkits for summarizing research findings and developing dissemination products, such as Plain Language Summaries, Policy Briefs, Reports, Infographics, and Press Releases.
-
Beyond Scientific Publication: Strategies for Disseminating Research Findings (Yale CARE)– Provides guidance on developing a dissemination plan and key strategies for dissemination; Includes a dissemination planning worksheet and examples of dissemination products.
Dissemination of Rural Health Research: A Toolkit (Rural Health Research Gateway)—This toolkit applies more broadly to the dissemination of all clinical and translational research. It is a rich resource for various dissemination products with examples of each.
-
Health Bucks Program Evaluation Toolkit (NYC/CDC Div. of Nutrition, Physical Activity & Obesity): This toolkit includes brief dissemination strategy tools, such as a dissemination checklist and a few examples of dissemination products.
MRCT Center of BWH and Harvard Return of Aggregate Results to Participants—Includes Principles, Guidance Document, and Toolkit (see “Project Resources”). The toolkit includes hands-on tools for creating summaries for aggregate study findings, including helpful templates, checklists, and examples of plain-language summaries.
-
MRCT Center of BWH and Harvard Return of Individual Results to Participants – Includes Principles, Recommendations Document, and Toolkit (see “Deliverables”). The toolkit includes hands-on tools for returning individual study results to research participants; it Includes dissemination planning figures for determining which individual findings should be returned and when, as well as planning tools and case studies.
-
NASEM – Returning Individual Results to Research Participants: Full Book – Comprehensive consensus study reports that review the current evidence on the benefits, harms, and costs of returning individual research results while considering the ethical, social, operational, and regulatory aspects of the practice. The recommendations document can be found here.