This week ResearchGate notified us that our methods paper ‘The Importance of Pilot Studies‘ [1], published 22 years ago in The Nursing Standard,
has now been read 170,000 times! Prof. Vanora Hundley and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen wrote this more elementary paper after publishing an in-depth academic paper on a pilot study into assessing maternity care in Scotland [2]. The latter paper described their learning from a pilot study which we conducted prior to a cross-national study of births in Scotland.
The methods paper in the Nursing Standard is also their most highly cited paper. Today Google Scholar lists it with 2,035 citations, interestingly this is not the case on SCOPUS as The Nursing Standard is not listed on SCOPUS. Researchers seem to be quoting this paper in their research methods section when they have done pilot or feasibility study for a larger-scale study.
References:
- van Teijlingen E, Hundley, V. (2002) The importance of pilot studies, The Nursing Standard 16(40): 33-36. Web: nursing-standard.co.uk/archives/vol16-40/pdfs/vol16w40p3336.pdf
- van Teijlingen E, Rennie, AM., Hundley, V, Graham, W. (2001) The importance of conducting & reporting pilot studies: example of Scottish Births Survey, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 34: 289-95.











3C Online Social: Thursday 26 March 1–2pm – Research Culture, Community & Can you Guess Who?
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INRC book roundtable/presentation by Drs Jonathan Cole and Catherine Talbot, Wednesday 22/04/2026, 13:00h, P426
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ERC Advanced Grant 2025 Webinar
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