The EMERGe project has just launched its online Delphi Study on 09 August 2016. A number of expert academics, professional users of meta-ethnography and lay participants have agreed to take part in the three rounds of online questionnaires to last a month each. The Delphi study is due to complete in November 2016. Delphi is a group consensus-reaching method, originally developed by the RAND Corporation in the 1950s, which presents questionnaires in a series of rounds, each one based on feedback from respondents’ responses to the previous version of the questionnaire. The Delphi study method has been used extensively in health care research and in guideline development to help reach consensus.

With regards to the EMERGe project, the Delphi studies will determine which items are the most important to include in a reporting guideline for meta-ethnography conduct.

The eMERGe project will use a web-based platform (The Stirling eDelphi Platform©) developed at the University of Stirling specifically for eDelphi studies which has been piloted for acceptability and usability and successfully used in previous eDelphi studies. More information on this platform can be obtained from Kevin Swingler