Table 1 Search strategy and selection procedure

Stage 1 (Initial search in MEDLINE and EMBASE

(“mental health” OR mental health service OR “psychiatric services” OR mental disorders OR mental illness) AND (“methods” or “research designs” or “data collection” or “data analysis” OR “sampling” or “sample size” OR “mixed methods”) AND (“quality assurance” OR “reliability” OR “validity” OR “techniques” OR “strategies” OR research design OR “informed consent”)

Stage 2 (search across CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus, and PsycINFO)

(“psychiatry” OR “mental health” OR “mental disorders” OR “mental patient” OR “mental illness” OR “mental treatment” OR “consumer”) AND (“research methods” OR “methodology” OR “research designs” OR “qualitative research” OR “quantitative research” OR “mixed methods” OR “biomedical research” OR “health service research” OR “epidemiologic methods” OR “behavioural research” OR “process design”) AND (“sampling” OR “sample size” OR “patient selection” OR “surveys” OR “questionnaires” OR “interviews” OR “data analysis” OR “content analysis” OR “thematic analysis” OR “reporting”) AND (“informed consent” “reliability” OR “quality assurance” OR “validity” OR “techniques” OR “strategies” OR “process”)

Stage 3

Hand searching of the reference lists