Generally, there is not one right TMF for a project. Instead, multiple factors should be considered to decide what are some possible TMFs that fit your project well and what are the considerations you need take into account to decide the pros and cons of each TMF. It also needs to be acknowledged that “fit” is a somewhat subjective concept and in practice is often decided based on precedent or in other words whether a TMF has been used in the past for a similar project or context.

In some cases, one TMF will not be sufficient to meet your needs and you decide to pick two or more TMFs. The Combine section of this webtool can guide you when and how you might choose to combine multiple TMFs.

A TMF you choose might not be a perfect fit for your study and adaptations to the TMF are needed. The Adapt section of the webtool can guide you through adaptations and provide you with examples on how TMFs can be adapted to the context of your project.

A number of factors can help you decide whether a TMF will be a good fit for your project. These factors include what key constructs of your project are included in the TMF, what levels of the socio-ecological framework are considered by the TMF, what is the D&I purpose of the TMF (i.e. dissemination, implementation, or both), and whether the TMF has been used in the content area and/or context of your project.

Ensuring that there is a match between the key constructs of your D&I project and the constructs in a TMF is probably the single, most important issue in selecting a TMF. While it is unusual to have a TMF to address all your key constructs, the more key constructs from your project are covered by a TMF, the more likely it is to serve your needs.

The Search function of this webtool allows you to identify TMFs that include certain constructs. To make your search most useful, WE RECOMMEND that you initially limit the number of constructs you enter to 5 or fewer. Otherwise, the number of TMFs returned can be overwhelming. The results from the search will be organized by the degree of fit with TMFs that matched on the most constructs you selected will be listed on the top and those with less construct matched further down. The results populate dynamically as you make selections.

While finding TMF that include the key constructs of your project is very important, the overall focus of the TMF on the issues you are most concerned about should also be considered during TMF selection. TMFs vary tremendously in their scope and focus and some of them contain many constructs (some over 20). So even if a TMF addresses the top five key constructs from your project, if there are 20 other constructs in the TMF on factors less relevant to your work, that TMF might not be the best ‘fit’ or will not be easy to operationalize fully.

D&I projects vary widely across different levels of context and focus (e.g., individual level participants (or patients); delivery staff who deliver an intervention of program; a supervisor or manager responsible for a project; the organization within which a program is conducted; and the community within which your research occurs). D&I projects commonly address multiple socio-ecologic levels. TMFs will vary on how many and which levels of the socio-ecological framework they address. The Search section of this webtool allows you to select all or some of the levels depending on how broad you need your TMF to be.

D&I TMF vary in their emphasis on dissemination (packaging, transporting, and scaling up evidence-based interventions to many sites or national or global levels) versus focus on the implementation on an evidence-based interventions within specific settings. The Search section of this webtool will help you select a model that best meets your needs in this area. A word of caution – it is tricky to classify a TMF according to its emphasis on dissemination versus implementation and over time applications change across these categories. Use this option more as guidance rather than a constraint.

Another factor to consider, but not to overemphasize is the extent to which a TMF has been used in the published literature and if it has been used in your topic area. Some TMFs can be considered tried and true. The advantage of using TMFs that have been used in the past especially in a context and/or for a project similar to yours is that they can provide you with examples on how the TMF can be adapted and operationalized in a project. Furthermore, a TMF that has been used frequently is more likely to have a set of measures to consider for your study. When using TMFs that have been used before in your context and/or topic area, you can also contribute to the D&I literature by helping refine these TMFs. On the other hand, there is certainly room for innovation, especially for application of TMFs from other disciplines that can provide novel insights.

Results from your search of D&I TMFs will provide you with the number of citations for the key publications of a TMF since 2016. Results within each ‘degree of fit’ (number of constructs matches – see more under Which of the key constructs from your project are covered by the TMF?) are listed by number of citations. For each TMF, field of origin is also provided as well as example applications of the TMF.

There are a few tools that are available to help you compare TMFs that seem like good candidates:

1. ) In this webtool, on the View All D&I TMFs page you can select a sub-set of models and compare them on key characteristics.
2. ) Another tool that can guide you with identifying and comparing multiple TMFs for D&I is T-CaST: an implementation theory comparison and selection tool.