Table 2 Examples of unconventional source materials

• Descriptions of ‘real-world’ (i.e. not part of experimental studies) health, welfare or other programmes or interventions or policies or system reforms, including how they were developed

• Descriptions of the implementation of programmes or interventions or policies in the field, including pilot programmes

• Descriptions of policy processes and system reforms. This could include descriptions of how the processes or reforms were planned; contextual determinants of policy or programme implementation; and how system settings (e.g. welfare system, health system) influence the impacts of programmes, interventions or policies

• Sources that report information from routine health management and information system (HMIS) data managed by departments of health; other service delivery organizations; or sentinel sites

• Sources that report people’s views and experiences of a health or social issue, programme or policy, and that appear to be based on qualitative methods of data collection (such as interviews), but do not describe any explicit research methods and is not clear whether any formal analysis was undertaken

• Sources that report information on the basis of data from projects, including pilot projects, but without any comparative evaluation data and/or without a description of the methods used