Improving the quality of toxicology and environmental health systematic reviews: What journal editors can do

Paul Whaley^{1

2}, Bas J Blaauboer³, Jan Brozek⁴, Elaine A Cohen Hubal⁵, Kaitlyn Hair⁶, Sam Kacew⁷, Thomas B Knudsen⁸, Carol F Kwiatkowski⁹, David T Mellor¹⁰, Andrew F Olshan¹¹, Matthew J Page¹², Andrew A Rooney¹³, Elizabeth G Radke¹⁴, Larissa Shamseer¹⁵, Katya Tsaioun¹⁶, Peter Tugwell¹⁷, Daniele Wikoff¹⁸, Tracey J Woodruff¹⁹

Affiliations

¹ Evidence-based Toxicology Collaboration at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA
² Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, United Kingdom.
³ Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, div. of Toxicology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University Health Sciences Centre, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
⁵ US EPA, Office of Research and Development, Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
⁶ CAMARADES, University of Edinburgh, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
⁷ McLaughlin Centre for Risk Assessment, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
⁸ US EPA, Office of Research and Development, Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
⁹ The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, Eckert, CO, USA.
¹⁰ Center for Open Science, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
¹¹ Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
¹² School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
¹³ Division of the National Toxicology Program, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
¹⁴ Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, USA.
¹⁵ Knowledge Translation Program, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹⁶ Evidence-based Toxicology Collaboration at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Medicine and School of Epidemiology University of Ottawa, ON, Canada.
¹⁸ ToxStrategies, Inc., Asheville, NC, USA.
¹⁹ Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.

PMID: 34164697
PMCID: PMC9472299
DOI: 10.14573/altex.2106111

Editorial

Improving the quality of toxicology and environmental health systematic reviews: What journal editors can do

Paul Whaley et al. ALTEX. 2021.

. 2021;38(3):513-522.

doi: 10.14573/altex.2106111. Epub 2021 Jun 22.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Evidence-based Toxicology Collaboration at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA
² Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, United Kingdom.
³ Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, div. of Toxicology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University Health Sciences Centre, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
⁵ US EPA, Office of Research and Development, Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
⁶ CAMARADES, University of Edinburgh, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
⁷ McLaughlin Centre for Risk Assessment, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
⁸ US EPA, Office of Research and Development, Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
⁹ The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, Eckert, CO, USA.
¹⁰ Center for Open Science, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
¹¹ Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
¹² School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
¹³ Division of the National Toxicology Program, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
¹⁴ Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, USA.
¹⁵ Knowledge Translation Program, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, Unity Health Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹⁶ Evidence-based Toxicology Collaboration at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Medicine and School of Epidemiology University of Ottawa, ON, Canada.
¹⁸ ToxStrategies, Inc., Asheville, NC, USA.
¹⁹ Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.

PMID: 34164697
PMCID: PMC9472299
DOI: 10.14573/altex.2106111

Abstract

Systematic reviews are fast increasing in prevalence in the toxicology and environmental health literature. However, how well these complex research projects are being conducted and reported is unclear. Since editors have an essential role in ensuring the scientific quality of manuscripts being published in their journals, a workshop was convened where editors, systematic review practitioners, and research quality control experts could discuss what editors can do to ensure the systematic reviews they publish are of sufficient scientific quality. Interventions were explored along four themes: setting standards; reviewing protocols; optimizing editorial workflows; and measuring the effectiveness of editorial interventions. In total, 58 editorial interventions were proposed. Of these, 26 were shortlisted for being potentially effective, and 5 were prioritized as short-term actions that editors could relatively easily take to improve the quality of published systematic reviews. Recent progress in improving systematic reviews is summarized, and outstanding challenges to further progress are highlighted.

Keywords: environmental health; epidemiology; research standards; systematic review; toxicology.

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Figures

**Fig. 1:. Estimated annual frequency of environmental health and toxicology systematic reviews indexed in Web of Science**
Results of search string as follows: TITLE: (“systematic review”). Refined by: [excluding] DOCUMENT TYPES: ( MEETING ABSTRACT ) AND WEB OF SCIENCE CATEGORIES: ( PUBLIC ENVIRONMENTAL OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH OR TOXICOLOGY ) AND [excluding] WEB OF SCIENCE CATEGORIES: ( PHARMACOLOGY PHARMACY ). Timespan: All years. Indexes: SCI-EXPANDED, SSCI, A&HCI, CPCI-S, CPCI-SSH, BKCI-S, BKCI-SSH, ESCI, CCR-EXPANDED, IC.

**Fig. 2:. Illustration of the procedure for breakout discussion of each thematic issue covered by the workshop**

**Photograph 1:. The prioritization exercise conducted as the fifth breakout session**
Each post-it note describes an intervention proposed during the previous day’s breakout sessions. Participants were given 10 stickers (red for editors, blue for other participants) to indicate their 10 favored interventions. The results of the voting exercise fed into the subsequent consensus-building breakouts (sixth breakout) and final plenary session (seventh breakout). Credit: Paul Whaley

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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Improving the quality of toxicology and environmental health systematic reviews: What journal editors can do

Affiliations

Improving the quality of toxicology and environmental health systematic reviews: What journal editors can do

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Figures

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Medical