Follow-Up

Follow-up procedures are an important component of all research. They are most often conducted during the actual research but can also be conducted afterward. Follow-up is generally done to increase the overall effectiveness of the research effort. It can be conducted for a number of reasons, namely, to further an end in a particular study, review new developments, fulfill a research promise, comply with institutional review board protocol for research exceeding a year, ensure that targeted project milestones are being met, thank participants or informants for their time, debrief stakeholders, and so on. Follow-up may also be conducted as a normal component of the research design. Or, it could even be conducted subsequent to the original research to ascertain if an intervention has [Page 502]changed ...