The research process involves the following processes:

1. Priority and evidence gap mapping: Policymakers, funding agencies, and researchers set priorities for research areas that should be targeted.
2. Topic identification: Funding agencies and researchers select specific topics for investigation.
3. Funding application: Researchers apply for funding from funding agencies.
4. Funding application evaluation: Funding agencies evaluate research applications, often through a formal peer review process.
5. Funding decision-making: Funding agencies decide what research applications to fund.
6. Study protocol finalisation: Researchers develop detailed protocols for their studies.
7. Study execution, including data analysis: Researchers implement their research protocols, gather data, and analyse the data.
8. Study reporting: Researchers prepare study reports and usually submit them for publication
9. Study reporting evaluation: Journals evaluate research reports and decide whether or not to publish and make recommendations for improvements
10. Evidence synthesis: Researchers identify studies relevant to research questions and combine evidence from those studies to answer the questions.
11. Evidence synthesis evaluation: Journals evaluate reports of evidence synthesis and decide whether or not to publish and make recommendations for improvements
12. Model and theory building: Researchers combine evidence from studies to develop and evaluate models and theories
13. Intervention development and implementation: Researchers, practitioners and policymakers develop and implement interventions based

The diagram below illustrates how these processes work together in the 'research ecosystem'. To get a full-size version of the diagram click here

Key processes that the BCIO can be used currently are writing study protocols, study reports, evidence synthesis, and intervention development where researchers can reference BCIO entities to make clear what key constructs they are referring to; and, in the case of smoking cessation, outcome prediction, where the BCIO is used to specify the features of the intervention, target population, setting and methodology that can be used to obtain a prediction from the HBCP prediction tool.