Contributions and recognition of patient partners in pediatric health research: a rapid scoping review protocol

Objective: The objective of this rapid scoping review is to: 1) assess the prevalence of acknowledgement and authorship of patient partners in pediatric health research; 2) understand how patient partners contribute through the research process; and 3) assess how patient engagement is identified in publications.Introduction: Patient-Oriented Research (POR) is an increasingly common approach that actively engages patients and families in the research process. Despite their significant contributions, patient-partners are rarely credited in academic publications through formal acknowledgment or authorship, and the lack of standardized documentation of their participation makes it difficult to locate patient-engaging studies. There is a limited understanding of how patient-partners are currently being engaged particularly within pediatric health research, and whether their involvement is adequately recognized. Clarifying these processes will strengthen POR in pediatrics to foster more meaningful collaboration and ultimately help improve health outcomes for children and their families.Inclusion criteria: This rapid scoping review will consider evidence sources that investigate topics related to pediatric patients aged (0-19 years) and that acknowledge or describe contributions from one or more patient partner(s) contributions in one or more studies. We will exclude sources that involve non-pediatric patients, are not in English, and are not published in full in a journal (e.g. conference abstracts).Methods: We will search MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid) and CINAHL (EBSCOhost). In addition, we will search key sources of POR literature. To increase the rapidity of this review, only 25% of sources will be reviewed and extracted by two team members, while the remaining sources will be screened and extracted by a single reviewer. Data will be extracted using a data extraction tool developed by the reviewers. Findings will be presented in a tabular/and/or charted format and accompanied by a narrative summary linking results to the review objectives and questions.