Bridging from research to practice.(From the Editor's Desk)

This topic has arisen repeatedly over the past 10 years and with good reason. It is one of the great unresolved issues, not just for injury prevention researchers but for almost everyone in applied research. I will not, therefore, apologize for raising the question again: what needs to be done to ensure that solid research findings are put into practice? In a guest editorial Moller (p 2) suggests that one step is for journals such as this one to become more flexible in its interpretation of scientific standards so that more community based interventions, flawed though they may be, can be published. He makes some important points and in fairness to ourselves, we have moved far in the direction in which Moller is trying to push us. We certainly agree that one of the reasons why it is so difficult to cross the bridge is because essential planks are missing. What works in the artificial settings where efficacy studies are conducted will not necessarily work equally well, if at all, in the real world were effectiveness studies are performed. Moller's point is that those studies, especially if the unit of intervention is a community, are likely to be so flawed that reviewers will object strongly to their publication. This is what makes being an editor so much fun!

These issues aside, there are other matters to consider. I mentioned previously a set of papers in the American Journal of Public Health that caught my attention and admiration. One of these is highly pertinent to the question of "translational research" (a term used differently by investigators in different fields). This paper, by Glasgow, Lichtenstein, and Marcus asks: Why don't we see more translation of health promotion research to practice? Rethinking the efficacy-to-effectiveness transition. (1) I urge readers concerned with this topic (and most should be), to read the original because my precis will fail to do justice to the authors' ideas.

In brief, they make some of the same points as Moller, but add others that they believe lie at the heart of the matter: "the logic and assumptions behind the design of efficacy and effectiveness research trials". They note that the widely held belief that it is the products of successful efficacy studies that are the best candidates for effectiveness and dissemination studies may be entirely wrong. Their argument is ...