3.2.2.11 The Feedback Editor

The electronic format of The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews means that it is possible to respond to and incorporate feedback from users. This will help to increase the quality of Cochrane reviews, but also allow users of the reviews to be brought into the process. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews enables users to make their criticisms in a structured fashion (and submit them electronically, by fax or by electronic mail), and there is a system for enabling the Feedback Editor to coordinate responses from the authors to these criticisms.

Each Cochrane Review Group must select a Feedback Editor to handle post-publication criticism. The Feedback Editor should be selected from outside the members of the editorial team (i.e. should not be one of the editorial team’s existing editors or the Managing Editor). The Feedback Editor should be knowledgeable in the relevant subject area of the Cochrane Review Group. In the early days of a Group or in small Groups this ideal may not be achievable because any individual with all the skills needed to be a Feedback Editor will be one of the most valuable and talented members of the Group. Very often the Feedback Editor may have to be recruited from the editorial board or be an active author. In this situation, the Feedback Editor must not handle criticisms of reviews that they have produced or edited. On such occasions, this duty should fall to another member of the Group, but this individual should be neither the Managing Editor nor the Co-ordinating Editor.

The Feedback Editor organizes and summarizes post-publication criticism of reviews from users, provides guidance to authors about how to respond to the comments from users, and will assist authors in responding to the criticisms, including suggesting changes to be made in the reviews. In the near future the Feedback Editor will automatically receive the criticisms in a structured form. Currently, the Feedback Editor is notified by e-mail when a new criticism is received and then retrieves the criticism from a password-protected website. The Feedback Editor should collate the criticisms and combine those that are duplicative. The Feedback Editor’s summary of comments will be inserted in the ‘Editorial Notes’ section of each review. This section will appear on a screen to identify for the author those criticisms that are of major importance and those that are of minor importance. The Feedback Editor will send the raw criticisms and the editorial notes to the authors. S/he is responsible for ensuring that the responses are timely, and should feed back responses to the editorial team for final approval.