From Participants to Partners: A Rapid Scoping Review on the Involvement of Survivors/Victims of Intimate Partner Violence in Research

Involving people with lived experience as research partners is becoming more common in other fields (e.g., healthcare), but it is unclear whether this is also the case in intimate partner violence (IPV) research. This rapid scoping review aimed to characterize the extent to which IPV survivors/victims have been involved as research partners in the existing literature. We systematically searched five databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Gender Studies, plus a final search in Google Scholar) for empirical studies published between 2014 and 2024 that involved IPV survivors/victims as more than "study participants" (e.g., involvement in the development of research questions, study design, data collection, data analysis, knowledge translation). A total of 2,596 records were identified, and 27 records met the inclusion criteria. Studies often did not report co-researcher demographic characteristics, making it difficult to fully determine the level of involvement of equity-deserving groups in IPV research teams. The most common participatory models used to guide the involvement of survivors/victims were community-based participatory research and participatory action research. Survivor/victim co-researchers were most commonly involved in research design, developing study materials, data analysis, and knowledge translation/dissemination. There was limited evidence of IPV survivors/victims being engaged as full and equal partners, rather than as collaborators or consultants. The review identified barriers, facilitators, diversity issues, and recommendations for IPV co-research, which can inform the development of guidelines for involving survivors/victims as full and equal members of the research team.