title: Framing of scientific knowledge as a new category of health care research.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The new area of health system research requires a revision of the taxonomy of scientific knowledge that may facilitate a better understanding and representation of complex health phenomena in research discovery, corroboration and implementation.
  
  
  METHODS
  A position paper by an expert group following and iterative approach.
  
  
  RESULTS
  'Scientific evidence' should be differentiated from 'elicited knowledge' of experts and users, and this latter typology should be described beyond the traditional qualitative framework. Within this context 'framing of scientific knowledge' (FSK) is defined as a group of studies of prior expert knowledge specifically aimed at generating formal scientific frames. To be distinguished from other unstructured frames, FSK must be explicit, standardized, based on the available evidence, agreed by a group of experts and subdued to the principles of commensurability, transparency for corroboration and transferability that characterize scientific research. A preliminary typology of scientific framing studies is presented. This typology includes, among others, health declarations, position papers, expert-based clinical guides, conceptual maps, classifications, expert-driven health atlases and expert-driven studies of costs and burden of illness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This grouping of expert-based studies constitutes a different kind of scientific knowledge and should be clearly differentiated from 'evidence' gathered from experimental and observational studies in health system research.
authors.affiliation: Mental Health Policy Unit, Brain and Mind Research Institute, Centre for Disability Research Policy, Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Salvador-Carulla
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fernandez
authors.forename: Rosamond
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Madden
authors.forename: Sue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lukersmith
authors.forename: Ruth
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Colagiuri
authors.forename: Ghazal
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Torkfar
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sturmberg
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D019359:Knowledge; D008297:Male; D011786:Quality Control; D012586:Science
keywords: epistemology; evidence-based medicine; framing; practical reasoning; typology of scientific studies