Patient and public involvement in research reporting

Patient and public involvement (PPI) has become a key part of health and social care research in many countries with a focus on working with or by patients rather than to, about, or for them, aiming to coproduce knowledge that is relevant, appropriate, and acceptable for patients.12 Patient and public contributors can and should be included at all stages of research, including identifying key questions, designing, recruiting, selecting outcomes, and implementing findings.1

Patient involvement in a study should be reported within a paper to ensure that this knowledge contributes to building the PPI evidence base for practice. While reporting PPI might seem obvious, the reporting of PPI in research remains more elusive than we might expect. Past studies have identified poor and inconsistent reporting,34 which resulted in development of the GRIPP2 reporting guidance specifically for PPI.56 GRIPP2 is supported by journals that request authors to report PPI, including The BMJ and BMC Research Involvement …