The North American Quitline Consortium (NAQC) encourages its members to engage in research that will provide answers to important research questions such as how quitlines may better reach high prevalence and underserved populations, how service offerings can best meet the needs of current smokers, what type of service offerings are most cost-effective and how quitlines may best integrate new technologies into their service offerings. To facilitate quitline research NAQC and the Research and Infrastructure for Quitlines workgroup have developed a Guide on Quitlines and Research. The purpose of this Guide is to expedite the relationship-development process between quitlines and researchers, and to assure that issues likely to arise within the context of conducting research studies are anticipated by all parties. The Guide is available on the NAQC website.

To engage in studies with quitlines, researchers, quitline funders and quitline service providers will need to develop both an understanding of the context in which each works as well as working relationships that may anticipate and address issues likely to arise. The Guide is geared towards all parties associated with quitlines such as funders, service providers, and evaluators, as well as researchers who currently work with or are interested in working with quitlines. It aims to educate the quitline community about the research process and practices, and to educate researchers about the complex nature of quitlines.

Additional resources have been created to serve as companion pieces to this Guide. These resources are provided online at NAQC’s website.

• Appendix A provides a glossary of terms often used by researchers and/or quitlines.
• Appendix B includes sample text and paragraphs that were gathered from existing quitline data use agreements and contracts. It was developed to provide additional assistance with quitline research.
• A one-page checklist, The Basics for Quitlines: Questions to Ask of Researchers who Request Data, was developed as a guide for quitlines when they are asked to provide quitline data. The checklist is intended as a guide for initiating and continuing discussions with researchers who are interested in quitline data. This one-page checklist is also included in Section III.