Our peer-review process starts with study investigators writing a Draft Final Research Report (DFRR) once their study analyses are complete. This report should include a complete account of all of the aims, methods, outcomes and results from the PCORI-funded study. The study investigators submit the DFRR into our secure online peer-review system, ReView, where it will be checked to ensure the submission is complete. The online system, associate editors and reviewers are provided by our peer-review contractor. The DFRR will then enter pre-review where it will be checked for clarity by an experienced editor and completeness by the project’s Science Program team. The DFRR is then sent to peer reviewers for their comments and an associate editor writes a synthesis of reviewers’ comments for the investigators. The investigators will be asked to revise the report at least once but often twice to address the peer reviewer’s comments. Once the associate editor is satisfied with the DFRR revisions, the report will be sent to Marina Broitman, Ph.D., PCORI Director for Peer Review, to complete final acceptance by PCORI. There will never be more than three revisions in the peer review of a final report.
An Introduction to PCORI's Peer-Review Process
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This recording includes closed captioning. |
Peer-Review Process and Timeline
The peer-review process, from submission to acceptance, takes an average of seven to eight months. This timeline shows what happens in each phase of peer review in more detail:
| Step 1: Write Your DFRR |
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| Step 2: Pre-Review & Programmatic Check |
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| Step 3: External Peer Review |
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| Step 4: PCORI's Final Review |
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| Step 5: Results Disseminated |
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Preparing and Submitting the DFRR
About four to six months before the DFRR is due, the principal investigator and their research team will meet with the peer-review contractor’s Author Services team to learn what to expect from the peer-review process and receive advice about the organization of the DFRR. Principal investigators can contact the Author Services team after this meeting for advice or feedback on their DFFRs.
The Author Services team will again reach out to the authors about a week before the submission due date to provide them with an invitation and link to submit their DFRR and accompanying materials into the ReView system. The Author Services team is also responsible for the first readthrough of the DFRR, known as pre-review, to help make sure that the DFRR is clear, complete and ready to send to reviewers. The authors will receive comments from the team in about two weeks and will be asked to revise and resubmit their report in two weeks. Once the authors revise the report adequately, the DFRR will move on to external peer review.
The External Peer-Review Process
When the DFRR enters external peer review, the assigned associate editor will recruit subject matter experts, methodologists, and patients or stakeholder reviewers, three to four in total, to carefully review the report. A statistician will also review the DFRR. The goal of external peer review is to assess the report’s scientific integrity; adherence to PCORI Methodology Standards; and relevance and usefulness to patients, clinicians and other stakeholders as described in the 2015 guidance on the peer-review process.
Scientific integrity. Scientific integrity refers to transparency, completeness and candor as applied to presentations of the scientific work. From experience with journal peer review, we know that some authors communicate only the findings that present their research in the most positive light and underplay the importance of shortcomings in the conduct of the research. Selective reporting of study results and study limitations might lead a reader to overestimate the benefits of certain interventions, or to have more confidence in the conclusions than the results warrant. Consumers of research need to know the whole story. We ask research teams to provide a full report on the research, including a full account of any cautions about interpreting the study results.
Adherence to PCORI’s Methodology Standards. The PCORI Methodology Standards is a comprehensive list developed in 2013 by the PCORI Methodology Committee and subsequently expanded to cover additional topics. These include both broad “cross-cutting” standards—those that should be followed by all patient-centered outcomes research studies—and specific standards that apply only to certain types of studies. Our peer-review process will evaluate how well the investigators met our methodology standards, and it will encourage investigators to report information needed to assess their adherence to PCORI’s standards.
Relevance and usefulness. Scientific integrity and methodological rigor are specific goals in our authorizing legislation. Our Board of Governors added a third goal when it approved our peer-review process in 2015. The Board wanted to ensure that the FRRs address real problems faced by patients, caregivers, clinicians, and others. In our peer-review process, we ask patients and other stakeholders serving as reviewers whether the research findings will help people like them make informed healthcare decisions.
Posted: March 8, 2019; Updated: November 3, 2023
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