Spreading the word: practical guidelines for research dissemination strategies. Phase II literature review

A review of the literature on the different dissemination pathways and dissemination impact indicators from both development-related and other disciplines. For dissemination to be interactive, efforts should be made to facilitate a cyclical model of communication that reaches as many stakeholders as possible. Outlines the debate surrounding the use and promotion of ICT in low and middle-income countries and explores the potential of more traditional methods of dissemination. Decisions about which pathways to use should be informed by what can be known about users‟ information use environments, based on a checklist of questions about the users, the source, the content and the medium. Provides examples of factors that indicate dissemination impact and the methods that have been used to assess the impact of dissemination pathways. Concludes that the results of such monitoring activities should themselves be disseminated and used to modify and improve current dissemination projects, to complete the cycle of communication flow.