Table 1 Definitions used for coding extracted research references

International:

Document not Australian in origin. Research not conducted in Australia (for single studies) or none of the authors have Australian affiliations (for research synthesis and other)

Other Australian:

Document Australian in origin but not from a NSW source. Research conducted in Australia but not NSW (for singles studies) or any authors have Australian affiliations but not NSW affiliations (for research synthesis and other)

NSW:

Document from NSW source. Research conducted in NSW (for single studies) or any authors have NSW affiliations (for research synthesis and other)

Research:

Publications reporting analyses of quantitative or qualitative data, development or application of theory [19], or discussions/commentaries about research and research methods. Including:

Internal/external statistics: Statistical data from internal (e.g. NSW Health Survey) or external (e.g. Australian Bureau of Statistics) sources

Non-peer-reviewed research: Research reported in technical monographs or in the grey literature

Peer-reviewed research: Research reported in peer-reviewed journals

Policy documents:

Documents (report, discussion paper, draft or final policy, formal directive, programme plan, strategic plan, budget bid, service agreement, implementation plan, guideline or protocol with a focus on health service or programme design, delivery or resourcing [19]) authored by government agencies, non-government organisations or professional bodies where the purpose of the document was not to report research findings

Other information sources:

Cited information other than policy documents or research, e.g. media releases, information on websites, reference books, expert testimony

Single study:

Publication reports the findings of a research study

Research synthesis:

Meta-analyses, systematic reviews, literature reviews

Other:

Commentaries, editorials, case reports, conference reports, conceptual models, health programme descriptions

Descriptive research:

Describes the nature, scope and correlates of the problem

Intervention research:

Evaluates the impact of an intervention, implementation under real world conditions, or the wide scale use of an intervention

Measurement studies:

Development of measures or testing the reliability, acceptability or validity of measurement instruments