Table 1 Description of studies used to inform this paper

Study title

Core outcome sets for use in effectiveness trials involving people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in a community-based setting

CONSENSUS – squamous cell CarcinOma of the oropharyNx: late phaSE cliNical trialS; core oUtcomeS

mOMEnt – management of Otitis Media with Effusion in cleft palate: protocol for a systematic review of the literature and identification of a core outcome set using a Delphi survey

Qualitative data collection method

Focus groups and one-to-one semi-structured interviews, with prompts to cover key discussion points. Topic guide used as an aide memoire and iteratively updated

One-to-one or three-way semi-structured interviews with patients and their carers. The topic guide comprised prompts to ensure key topics were explored and was iteratively developed

Conversational style interviews with parents including prompts to discuss topics identified from relevant literature. Developmentally appropriate interviews with children

Participants

Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia service user and their carers and healthcare and research professionals working in this area

UK and US patients treated for oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (a type of head and neck cancer) and their carers

Parents of children with non-syndromic cleft palate (including cleft lip and palate) between 0 and 11 years of age, who had a current or past diagnosis of OME, and children themselves aged 6–11 years

Ethical approval

Ethical approval for the study has been sought and granted from the National Research Ethics Service (NRES) West Midlands – Edgbaston (reference number 14/WM/0052)

Ethical approval for this study was sought and granted in the UK by the Liverpool Central Research Ethics Committee (reference 12/NW/0708). Approval at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX, USA) was provided by the Institutional Review Board (protocol number 2013–0285)

Ethical approval for the qualitative interviews with parents and children was sought and granted by the National Research Ethics Service – NRES North East Committee – Greater Manchester East (reference 11/NW/0586)