Guidelines for the Editorial Board on preparing a commentary

Please read the accompanying article and summary and prepare a brief (no longer than 2 pages) critique and commentary discussing the article. Please consider the following questions when preparing your commentary.

1) Are the objectives of the study stated clearly?
2) Is the study designed to meet the objectives?
3) Is the selection of participants clearly described? And is it appropriate?
4) Are the methods well described and appropriate?
5) Is the sample size adequate?
6) Are the data completely presented; are appropriate statistical tests used; if discrepancy analysis is used, is it used appropriately; are test performance results presented correctly, and interpreted correctly?
7) What are the limitations of the study?
8) Is the discussion appropriate with respect to other publications; how does the method under evaluation compare to conventional or existing diagnostic methods?
9) Are the conclusions valid?
10) What is the applicability of the findings to end users and/or test developers?
11) What are the implications of the study, especially for resource-limited settings?

If you present views about conflicting or ancillary evidence, they must be backed up by references.
Please refer to relevant articles of interest.
You may contact the authors of the article to ask questions of fact or opinion.
You may ask for a statistical review of the article by one of the statistical experts on the Editorial Board.

Please send your completed commentary to Dr. Milt Tam at mtam@path.org as soon as possible and not later than one month after you receive the article.