Government Social Research
Last Updated: 16/9/2008
As with other types of research the advantages of contracting out the REA to external researchers relate to the specialist skills that can be bought in and the staff time that is saved.
There are also economy of scale advantages to contracting out work as specialist review researchers are already likely to have relevant software and access to journals and databases. Review software, in particular, may be costly and time consuming for government researchers to purchase.
REAs need not be commissioned out entirely and it may be possible to just use external researchers to carry out stages such as searching. This usually involves the main REA team in specifying the scope of the REA and writing the protocol. The searches might then be conducted by a separate organisation in communication with the REA team. This allows the review team to utilise specialists with experience of searching databases and inputting search terms and saves their time in finding and logging thousands of search results.
The retrieval of references is also a task that does not need to be undertaken by the core team. Once a list of citations has been arrived at, a library – or other information specialists – can retrieve the documents.
The REA team may have a choice of contracting out the work to specialist reviewers or to subject specialists. The advantage in commissioning specialist reviewers is there familiarity with managing REAs. While REAs are conceptually simple, they are difficult projects to manage successfully. They are also less likely to have vested interest in advancing a particular approach or cause bias because of preconceptions about authors or studies in the area.
However, specialist reviewers can lack subject specialists’ knowledge of the area being studied and the broader context that it sits within. Having this understanding is particularly important when formulating the question, unpacking the assumptions behind the question to develop the conceptual framework and setting inclusion/exclusion criteria. Specialist knowledge can be introduced through an advisory group to work with review specialists. These groups can provide invaluable advice at each key stage of the REA.
Contracting out an REA: key risks