Implementation Science Costing Guidebook 

Contact John Cronin, Russ Glasgow 

On this page, you will find the latest draft of our Costing Guidebook for Implementation Scientists. This resource is free for use and intended for Implementation Scientists who are attempting to conduct a cost assessment on their own projects. The Guidebook and the below-listed supplemental resources are not yet finished products, but we hope you will find them useful and provide any feedback in the survey below.

Supplemental Resources for our Costing Guidebook

Downloadable PDF, Excel, Word, and Visio Documents

Below are a list of our downloadable, supplemental resources, which are available for public use. These resources are not yet finished products and will require modification to fit the needs of your projects, keeping in mind the principles of cost assessments described in our Guidebook.

1. Alternative Costing Template, Adapted from Saldana et al. (2014)

COINS stands for the Cost of Implementing New Strategies, and it was developed by Saldana et al. (2014). This downloadable template is intended as an alternative approach to the costing methods described in our Guidebook – for projects where process-mapping might not make sense.

2. Cost Interview Guide

One approach to collecting cost-data is via interviews. This generic Interview Guide is intended as a starting point to developing your own interview materials.

3. Downloadable Cost-Collection Questionnaire

This downloadable Cost-Collection Questionnaire is written as a survey to distribute to your implementation sites and partners.

4. Fillable Cost-Collection Template

This Excel Workbook can help you track, assess, and analyze the costs in your project. It is recommended that you collect costs separate from this, and then translate the data into this template.

5. Fillable Process Map (PDF)

If you do not have Visio or other comparable software, this PDF version of a blank process map may be for you. Just print it off and develop your process maps by hand.

6. Fillable Process Map (Visio)

Visio is an application specifically designed to develop workflows, such as those for cost analyses. This blank map is downloadable, allowing you fill it in via this application, assuming you have Visio installed on your personal device.

7. Fillable Replication Costs Template

One important consideration for readers and decision-makers is: how much will this cost in my context? Replication costs attempt to answer that, and this downloadable resource is a starting point to report your results so readers can make informed decisions about future implementation projects.

8. Fillable Workflow Outline

We find that developing a workflow outline is highly beneficial to understanding the workflow and developing tools to collect all costs. This downloadable outline can serve as a starting point for developing process maps, questionnaires, interview guides, etc. All the same, this downloadable outline will help break your intervention or program down into discrete activities, capturing: who, what, when, and with what resources.

9. Getting to Know Your Project Questionnaire

For implementation scientists who are considering which cost-collection methods they want to use on their project, this questionnaire is designed for you to answer as respondents. As you work through it, consider factors that can influence your decisions (e.g., project constraints). Ultimately, this questionnaire should help you start thinking about how a cost-assessment fits into your project to determine which cost-collection methods you can feasibly employ.

10. Replication Cost Calculator

 A companion piece to the Replication Costs Template above, this Replication Cost Calculator is designed to help you estimate costs across different implementation settings, visualizing how costs change with different staff, time, and inputs. Like the rest of our resources, we anticipate you will need to modify this to meet the needs of your project.