It was constructed incorporating feedback and experience in the region, using the methodological expertise of an instructional designer.
It can reflect the methodological expertise of the authors, and the transparency, reproducibility and, ultimately, the quality of the study that has been produced.
A proper consideration of these issues was beyond the scope of this project and outside the methodological expertise of the Working Party.
The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6963/13/26/prepub The authors thank Drs. Kevin Stroupe and Margaret Browning for sharing their methodological expertise and Ms. Lynn Van Scoyoc for excellent data programming.
The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Yuanyuan Liang, PhD for statistical consultation, Donna Dryden, PhD, and Lisa Hartling, PhD for methodological expertise.
The outside experts are selected by medical journal editors and grant funding agencies for their methodological expertise and their independence from the investigators.
This iterative process ensured that the development of FORM was responsive to the needs of its core user group - guideline developers - and was as clear and comprehensible as possible, even for developers with limited methodological expertise.
Part of the NIHR aim is to support health professionals who may have excellent ideas for research but lack the methodological expertise or access to the requisite partners to design and carry out high quality research.
The simplest way to conduct replication studies is via fee-for-service technical providers because of their pre-existing methodological expertise and neutral academic involvement (i.e. they are motivated by an operational or a monetary incentive, and thus do not fear retribution from their peers or have the need to accumulate high impact 'novel' publications).
Unlike current QI reviews (which are often internal) [ 15], ethical oversight reviews including those for QI should be independent and should reflect bioethical and methodological expertise, and perspectives from administrators, clinicians and patients.
