Responsible dissemination of health and medical research: some guidance points

ABSTRACT

Dissemination has been defined as ‘the targeted distribution of information and intervention materials to a specific public health or clinical practice audience’,1 and as being ‘simply about getting the findings of your research to the people who can make use of them, to maximise the benefit of the research without delay’.2 Ethics guidelines concur that research stakeholders have ethical obligations to disseminate positive, inconclusive or negative results,3 in an accurate, comprehensive and transparent way4—even more so during public health emergencies.5