Translating critical appraisal of a manuscript into meaningful peer review

Critical appraisal of biomedical literature is an important skill for systematic review authors. Cochrane Protocols and Reviews are also a part of biomedical literature and as such are subject to scrutiny of peer reviewers.

This resource is an online course developed by the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Group for health professionals who are serving or wish to serve as peer reviewers of the biomedical literature. The course consists of two didactic modules comprising a total of 12 lectures. It is oriented primarily to ophthalmologists, optometrists, and other vision practitioners, but the course is applicable and useful to health professionals from all specialties.

The course is hosted by TRAMS, public health workforce training management system for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. To access this course, you need to register and select from the list of the available courses.

After using this resource, you should be able to...
  • Critically appraise manuscripts submitted for peer review
  • Provide meaningful feedback to authors and editors that they can use to improve manuscript quality
Acknowledgements: 

This course was funded in part by The National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, USA (Contract N-01-EY-2-1003 and Grant 1 U01 EY020522-01) and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.