Background There is a gap between evaluating injury prevention interventions and use in practice. Implementation research aims to transfer interventions beyond research.

Objective The aim of this study was to find out whether what implementation processes took place during effectiveness studies targeting injury prevention programs, what factors hindered or facilitated this process and what activities and support were provided to promote implementation during the trial.

Design We conducted a systematic review and sent out an online survey targeting authors of included studies.

Setting Papers investigating all levels of sports (amateur, general sporting population, recreational, university, youth, and professional) were included.

Patients (or Participants) Authors of studies included in the review reporting effectiveness evaluations of injury prevention programs were contacted. Papers eligible for the survey were depicted from the review from Vriend et al. (2017) (n = 81) and updated papers (n = 31), which resulted in 112 included papers, describing 105 injury prevention programs.

Interventions (or Assessment of Risk Factors) The survey took 15 minutes to complete and could be taken only once. Participants were contacted by email and received a reminder twice.

Main Outcome Measurements The survey asked what materials or activities were used during the trial to improve the delivery, use in practice, compliance and/or adherence, monitoring of this process (i.e. compliance, adherence, exposure) and what hindered or facilitated this implementation process.

Results In total, 33 participants completed the survey. Personal face to face education and the providence of supportive material were the most used materials and activities for implementation. Compliance to the program was a key factor for implementation, and could be both, facilitator or barrier.

Conclusions This study provides initial insight into implementation activities and processes conducted during a trial. To ensure a greater impact, future studies should document their activities more detailed and formally.