The simulated patient methodology (SPM), a form of participant observation, is generally recommended in the international literature. SPM studies investigating community pharmacy (CP) practice have been conducted in at least 52 countries from all regions of the world, with the number of publications per year increasing. Not only ‘traditional’ visits, but also calls are used in SPM studies. Accordingly, in addition to reviews of visits, reviews of calls are planned. The interest in the SPM is already so great that not only worldwide reviews, but also reviews on specific regions and individual countries, have been published. Finally, a checklist called CRiSPHe is available to help researchers report their studies using the simulated patient method. It was developed through a Delphi study focused on pharmacy and has since been refined. SPM is now considered the ‘gold standard’ in the international literature for investigating CP practice.