In Australia at the moment Translational Research is very popular, if poorly defined. Being captured under this banner at the moment are a range of projects including those that replicate existing research, "Me too studies", or studies that seem to pose the question "Does implementing best practice work for us too?".
I have always taken translation research to mean taking theoretical research (e.g. research undertaken in highly specialised and controlled conditions), applying that in a real-world context, and seeing what happens.
Is this a realistic interpretation? Where are the boundaries of translational research?
Working in the biomedical field, I think of the term as referring to research directed towards applying the results of laboratory-based basic and preclinical research to clinical testing and medical practice. See this Wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translational_research
Dear David,
Maybe you can use the following publications…
Woolf SH. The meaning of translational research and why it matters. JAMA. 2008 Jan 9;299(2):211-3.
Parks MR, Disis ML. Conflicts of interest in translational research. Journal of Translational Medicine 2004,2:28.
Obeid JS, Johnson LM, Stallings S, Eichmann D. Research Networking Systems: The State of Adoption at Institutions Aiming to Augment Translational Research Infrastructure. J Transl Med Epidemiol. 2014;2(2):1026.
Kemp SP, Nurius PS. Preparing Emerging Doctoral Scholars for Transdisciplinary Research: A Developmental Approach. J Teach Soc Work. 2015;35(1-2):131-150.
Best wishes from Germany
Martin
David, I like the answers you've gotten to date. I think it is useful to consider the spectrum of research from basic/bench to program effectiveness. I'm attaching a couple of files. One has a presentation by Brian Mittman. I like the graphic he uses to show the spectrum, which includes translation and also implementation. I'm also attaching a file with a publication that is still available online. It comes from the mental health field; and I think it is useful in thinking about implementation and implementation research, which for those like me who feel that the term "translation research" should be reserved for the work that takes basic evidence and literally translates or adapts it to something that can be implemented or adopted.
That said, while one could wish that people who use terms precisely, formal definitions do tend to be corrupted over time. Examples are the confusion of benefit-cost and cost-effectiveness analysis or research related to efficacy (translation, I believe) vs. research on effectiveness (implementation). I don't think there is much one can do about this. I think that so long as you know what you are doing, and know the benefits and pitfalls of various types of research, what others might choose to name or misname their studies shouldn't matter too much. In short, the issue of others" precisely using a term doesn't feel like sort of thing worth losing sleep over.
Steve
Thank you all for your thoughts and readings.
I'll read up and come back if I have further questions.
Regards
David
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