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Background Integrated knowledge translation (IKT) is a model of research co-production, whereby researchers partner with knowledge users throughout the research process and who can use the research recommendations in practice or policy. IKT approaches are used to improve the relevance and impact of research. As an emerging field, however, the evidence underpinning IKT is in active development. The Integrated Knowledge Translation Research Network represents a collaborative interdisciplinary team that aims to advance the state of IKT science. Methods In 2017, the Integrated Knowledge Translation Research Network issued a call to its members for concept papers to further define IKT, outline an IKT research agenda, and inform the Integrated Knowledge Translation Research Network’s special meeting entitled, Integrated Knowledge Translation State of the Science Colloquium, in Ottawa, Canada (2018). At the colloquium, authors presented concept papers and discussed knowledge-gaps for a research agenda and implications for advancing the IKT field. We took detailed field notes, audio-recorded the meeting and analysed the data using qualitative content analysis. Results Twenty-four participants attended the meeting, including researchers ( n  = 11), trainees ( n  = 6) and knowledge users ( n  = 7). Seven overarching categories emerged from these proceedings – IKT theory, IKT methods, IKT process, promoting partnership, definitions and distinctions of key IKT terms, capacity-building, and role of funders. Within these categories, priorities identified for future IKT research included: (1) improving clarity about research co-production/IKT theories and frameworks; (2) describing the process for engaging knowledge users; and (3) identifying research co-production/IKT outcomes and methods for evaluation. Conclusion The Integrated Knowledge Translation State of the Science Colloquium initiated a research agenda to advance IKT science and practice. Next steps will focus on building a theoretical and evidence base for IKT.

The pressing global health crises highlight the need for professional health promotion (HP). Debates on the professionalization of HP are still overlaid by questions regarding the conceptualization of HP, yet literature is scarce regarding this point. Therefore, this article aims to (a) provide an overview of the current state of professionalism in HP with a focus on the Swiss context, and (b) identify facilitators, gaps and barriers of professionalism in HP. By investigating these aims, we contribute to specifying the conceptualization of the specialist HP professional profile. To analyse professionalism in HP, we examined individual and institutional aspects of sociological theories on professions. We selected seven aspects as a theoretical foundation for the analysis: (1) specific knowledge base, (2) specific field of action, (3) specific education, (4) professional association, (5) specific competencies, (6) professional identity, and (7) professional practice. Analysing each aspect of professionalism in HP, we see a clear progression within the last decades internationally as well as in Switzerland. The development of a Core Competency Framework – the CompHP – is a milestone in the professionalization of HP. Some major gaps and barriers are identifiable, which should be proactively faced by the specialist HP professionals. To further flourish as HP professionals, a unity regarding contents and levels of education needs to be discussed. Therefore, an investment in professional identity formation of the specialist HP workforce is likely to promote their engagement, competencies and shared values, which are essential promotors of professionalism in HP.

Hopf discusses the constructivist challenge to neorealism and neoliberal institutionalism and offers a constructivist research agenda that seeks a middle ground between mainstream international relations and critical theory.

Background The Collaboration for Evidence-based Healthcare and Public Health in Africa (CEBHA+) is an NCD research consortium that seeks to engage policy-makers and practitioners throughout the research process in order to build lasting relationships, enhance evidence uptake and build long-term capacity among partner institutions in Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda. This integrated knowledge translation (IKT) approach includes the formal development and implementation of country-specific engagement strategies. Methods An early-stage evaluation is taking place in Mid-2020. Online surveys and qualitative interviews with researchers and policy-and-practice partners will inform adaptation of country-specific strategies, advance the initial programme theory and contribute to the science of IKT. Results We present three pertinent observations based on the development and implementation of an overarching CEBHA+ IKT approach and five country-specific strategies over the last two years: Despite being informed by an overarching IKT programme theory, the site-specific strategies and resulting partnerships vary markedly, representing the whole continuum of integrated knowledge translation.The diversity of approaches is due to different understandings of IKT, discontinuity of staff, lack of IKT training, and perceptions of usefulness (compared to ongoing research activities) among CEBHA+ researchers.The individual, dynamic and often pre-existing relationships of researchers and partners from policy and practice are central to IKT, but capturing these within the programme theory and monitoring them remains challenging. Conclusions These observations are useful to guide further evaluation and cross-country comparison. Close examination of relationships and conceptualisation of IKT as a continuum may provide valuable insights into the circumstances that make IKT efforts worthwhile. Key messages Translating evidence into policy and practice is reliant on partnerships between researchers and policy-and-practice partners. These can be formalised but the relationships remain complex and dynamic.

The Interactive Systems Framework (ISF) for Dissemination and Implementation (Wandersman et al. 2008 ) elaborates the functions and structures that move evidence-based programs (EBPs) from research to practice. Inherent in that process is the tension between implementing programs with fidelity and the need to tailor programs to fit the target population. We propose Planned Adaptation as one approach to resolve this tension, with the goal of guiding practitioners in adapting EBPs so that they maintain core components of program theory while taking into account the needs of particular populations. Planned Adaptation is a form of capacity building within the Prevention Support System that provides a framework to guide practitioners in adapting programs while encouraging researchers to provide information relevant to adaptation as a critical aspect of dissemination research, with the goal of promoting wider dissemination and better implementation of EBPs. We illustrate Planned Adaptation using the JOBS Program (Caplan et al. 1989 ), which was developed for recently laid-off, working- and middle-class workers and subsequently implemented with welfare recipients.

Social constructivism in international relations has come into its own during the past decade, not only as a metatheoretical critique of currently dominant neo-utilitarian approaches (neo-realism and neoliberal institutionalism) but increasingly in the form of detailed empirical findings and theoretical insights. Constructivism addresses many of the same issues addressed by neo-utilitarianism, though from a different vantage and, therefore, with different effect. It also concerns itself with issues that neo-utilitarianism treats by assumption, discounts, ignores, or simply cannot apprehend within its characteristic ontology and/or epistemology. The constructivist project has sought to open up the relatively narrow theoretical confines of conventional approaches—by pushing them back to problematize the interests and identities of actors; deeper to incorporate the intersubjective bases of social action and social order; and into the dimensions of space and time to establish international structure as contingent practice, constraining social action but also being (re)created and, therefore, potentially transformed by it.

A key to the success of public organizations is their ability to identify and build capacity, particularly their distinctive competencies, in order to produce the greatest value for key stakeholders. This article grounds this proposition in the resource-based view of organizations and presents a method for identifying and making use of distinctive competencies in the form of a \"livelihood scheme\"-a business model appropriate for the public sector-that links distinctive competencies to organizational aspirations and goals. The case of a major public sector training and consultancy unit that is part of the United Kingdom's National Health Service is used as illustration. A number of conclusions are offered in the form of a set of propositions tied to the resource-based view and related research issues. The results contribute to both public strategic management theory and practice.

Legro and Moravsik argue that realist scholars of international relations no longer embrace realism's core principles. Realism has become little more than a generic commitment to the assumption of rational state behavior.

Ecological systems can switch between alternative dynamic states. For example, the species composition of the community can change or nutrient dynamics can shift, even if there is little or no change in underlying environmental conditions. Such switches can be abrupt or more gradual, and a growing number of studies examine the transient dynamics between one state and another—particularly in the context of anthropogenic global change. Hastings et al. review current knowledge of transient dynamics, showing that hitherto idiosyncratic and individual patterns can be classified into a coherent framework, with important general lessons and directions for future study. Science , this issue p. eaat6412 The importance of transient dynamics in ecological systems and in the models that describe them has become increasingly recognized. However, previous work has typically treated each instance of these dynamics separately. We review both empirical examples and model systems, and outline a classification of transient dynamics based on ideas and concepts from dynamical systems theory. This classification provides ways to understand the likelihood of transients for particular systems, and to guide investigations to determine the timing of sudden switches in dynamics and other characteristics of transients. Implications for both management and underlying ecological theories emerge.