King, G., Servais, M., Kertoy, M, Specht, J., Currie, M., Rosenbaum, P., Law, M., Forchuk, C., Chalmers, H. & Willoughby, T. (2009) A measure of community members’ perceptions of the impacts of research partnerships in health and social services. Evaluation and Program Planning, 32(3), 289-299. doi:10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2009.02.002
Description
The tool to measure Community Impacts of Research Oriented Partnerships (CIROP) is a 33-item, generic measure of community members' perceptions of the impact of research partnerships addressing social and health issues. The CIROP tool can be used along with companion tools to capture background information about respondents, their interactions and partnerships.
The CIROP tool is based on a model of the impacts of research partnerships in health and social services (Currie et al., 2005). The tool measures how a research partnership has influenced individuals, organizations and communities, and is designed to be:
- applicable to different groups of stakeholders through use of generic impact indicators;
- modular so that groups can administer relevant sections of the tool specific to their needs; and
- used with companion tools to provide contextual information on the partnership (i.e., CIROP Respondent Form, Research Contact Checklist, Background Information Form for Research Partnerships).
The CIROP tool assesses impacts of research partnerships on their target audiences in four identified domains:
- Personal Knowledge Development
- Personal Research Skill Development
- Organizational/Group Access to and Use of Information
- Community and Organizational Development
The CIROP tool has been translated in French, which will be available on the website shortly, www.impactmeasure.org.
Steps for Using Method/Tool
The CIROP tool is a measure of the mid-term impact of research. Some uses of the tool are to:
- measure and improve research impact through a research partnership;
- determine which structural or operational aspects of partnerships are most highly associated with different types of impacts;
- examine the effectiveness of knowledge translation strategies; and
- examine relationships between characteristics of community members and their perceptions of research impact.
Evaluation
The CIROP tool displayed excellent internal consistency, but only acceptable test-retest reliability due to insufficient sample size. The CIROP tool has been used to describe the features and impacts of five research partnerships addressing health or social service issues in Ontario (to learn more, see King et al. 2010).
Validity
Internal consistency, measured using Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the four domains of the CIROP tool, ranged from 0.92 to 0.95. Construct validity was assessed by determining the CIROP's ability to discriminate among respondents based on their roles with the partnership, as well as variable assessing components of the research transfer, use and uptake process.
Reliability
While test-retest reliability was deemed to be acceptable (though with an insufficient sample size), further test-retest reliability is required. The authors also recommend further investigation to determine the responsiveness of the CIROP to change over time.
These summaries are written by the NCCMT to condense and to provide an overview of the resources listed in the Registry of Methods and Tools and to give suggestions for their use in a public health context. For more information on individual methods and tools included in the review, please consult the authors/developers of the original resources.
We have provided the resources and links as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not constitute an endorsement or an approval by McMaster University of any of the products, services or opinions of the external organizations, nor have the external organizations endorsed their resources and links as provided by McMaster University. McMaster University bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality or content of the external sites.
