Peer review for Cochrane protocols and reviews

In accordance with the Cochrane peer review policy, all Cochrane Lung Cancer Group protocols and reviews are commented on by external peer reviewers prior to publication.

We invite at least one clinical or topic specialist, a statistician and/or methodologist, and a consumer (healthcare service user) to provide feedback on each draft protocol and review. These peer reviewers must declare any potential conflicts of interest every time they undertake peer review of a Cochrane Review.

The Cochrane Lung Cancer Group Managing Editor is responsible for managing the peer review process, which is overseen by the two Coordinating Editors.

Our reviewers may be experts in a particular field, or healthcare users - both provide a valuable contribution and help to ensure that our reviews are useful and usable. 

External reviewers are not always expected to have expertise in systematic review methodology, the Cochrane Lung Cancer Group has its own experts for that. Clinicians or healthcare users are asked to comment on:

• the healthcare issue and the interventions under review
• the planned parameters for studies to be included in the systematic review (inclusion criteria - populations, interventions, comparison and outcomes)
• general quality of the protocol and review

We ask peer reviewers to return their feedback on a protocol within 15 days and on a review within 21 days.