The contributions of the different authors were as follows:

Sionnadh McLean (Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy), co-principal investigator and project manager, was responsible for the strategic and day-to-day management of the research project. She was involved in all stages of the review, particularly in relation to developing conceptual frameworks, data extraction and synthesis, and managed steering groups and the patient group. She also provided expert topic advice and contributed to the development of practice guidelines and was involved in drafting, revising and editing the report.

Melanie Gee (Information Scientist) developed and conducted the literature searches, document delivery and reference management. She was involved in all stages of the review, including development of conceptual frameworks and data extraction, and provided input to the steering groups. She was also involved in drafting, revising and editing the report.

Andrew Booth (Reader in Evidence-based Information Practice) designed the original review stages. He provided expert methodological advice on the systematic review and the review informed by realist principles. He provided expert input to ensure the delivery of the searches and was involved in all stages of the review, particularly in relation to developing conceptual frameworks, data extraction and synthesis. He provided input to the steering groups and was involved in drafting, revising and editing the report.

Sarah Salway (Senior Research Fellow), co-principal investigator, was involved in all stages of the review, particularly in relation to development of conceptual frameworks, data extraction and synthesis. She provided input to steering groups and was involved in drafting, revising and editing the report.

Susan Nancarrow (Professor of Health Sciences) conceived the idea for the original project. She was involved in all stages of the review, particularly in relation to developing data extraction, synthesis. She provided expert topic advice and contributed to the development of practice guidelines. She was also involved in drafting, revising and editing of the report.

Mark Cobb (Director of Clinical Service at Sheffield Teaching Hospital Foundation Trust) provided contextual ideas at all stages of the project to ensure the clinical relevance and local application of the project. He was involved in managing the patient representative group and in editing the report.

Sadiq Bhanbhro (Researcher) was involved in screening of articles, data extraction, and drafting and editing the report.

We are grateful for the involvement of Joanne Greenhalgh, Mark Pearson and Peter Allmark for their involvement in the Project Steering Group and for six patient representatives from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals for their contribution to the development of the Practice Guidelines.