Editorial process of the Cochrane Airways Group

For new reviews, the editorial process of the CAG involves three stages: 

1. Title: Submission of a title registration form to the CAG editorial base, and the approval of the title by the editorial board. The Trial Search Coordinator (TSC) will make contact with authors at this stage to discuss search strategies.  
2. Protocol: Once a title is registered, the review protocol (eligibility criteria and methods) will be developed by the authors before being verified for editorial review by the Review Group Coordinator (RGC). It will then be edited and signed off by a contact editor. The TSC will review planned searches and referencing before the co-ordinating editor (Co-ed) of the CAG finalises a draft for peer review. Once comments from peers have been satisfactorily addressed, and signed licence for publication forms have been received, the protocol will be released for publication on the Cochrane Library during the following module submission. Electronic literature searches for studies relevant to the review will then be run.    
3. Full review: When the draft full review has been submitted, the RGC will initially verify that it is fit for editorial review by the contact editor. Once the contact editor has signed off the review, the TSC will review the seach strategies and referencing before the Co-ed finalises a draft prior to peer review. When comments from peers have been satisfactorily addressed, we will send the review on for copyediting. Authors will then be asked to sign off the version of the review that will be published, and to submit a signed licence for publication form.

For updates of the review, the process is largely restricted to the third stage outlined above. However, we encourage authors to involve us in discussing possible changes to the scope of their review (such as amending eligibility criteria, search methods, and analysis) prior to the re-running of search strategies and revision of the review. If necessary a new protocol may be required, particularly if new authors are involved in updating the review.