Read this somewhere before? A critical perspective on mobilizing evidence for improvement via communities of practice in urgent contexts.

This article critically examines the role of communities of practice (CoPs)—informal professional networks—in the rapid mobilization of health research knowledge during the Covid-19 pandemic. While CoPs facilitated urgent knowledge sharing through mechanisms of urgency, engagement, and technology, the article highlights challenges including institutional tensions, unequal stakeholder power, and technostress that affected research quality and collaboration. It also addresses concerns about accelerated academic publishing during the pandemic, noting increased rates of plagiarism, variable peer review standards, and methodological weaknesses in Covid-19 studies, which complicate the credibility of evidence used for health service decision-making. The author argues for more inclusive stakeholder engagement, careful validation of emergent knowledge, and renewed attention to research ethics and leadership to support sustainable and rigorous knowledge mobilization in future health emergencies.