Study design and setting

We used a cross-sectional design with mixed methods approach of concurrent data collection and analysis. The study was conducted in Uganda between March and October 2020 covering 19 research institutions that were conducting clinical trials according to the National Drug Authority (NDA) database [14]. We randomly selected 26 clinical trials out of the 74 that existed in the database including both completed (not more than one year) and ongoing trials. We randomly selected 1 clinical trial per institution conducting 1 to 4 trials, 2 clinical trials per institution conducting 5–9 trials, 3 clinical trials from each institution conducting 10–14 trials, and 4 clinical trials from institutions conducting 15 or more trials. This resulted into a total of 26 clinical trials from the 19 research institutions. All CABs attached to the selected clinical trials were included in the study. The study participants included CAB members, CAB chairpersons, trial investigators, and community liaison officers. A community liaison officer is a person based at the research institution and his/her role is to link the research institution or investigators to the communities where they wish to conduct the study.