Transforming the Process of Scientific Manuscript Development and Review at CDC: An Interim Report

Details

• Personal Author:
  Zhu, Bao-Ping ; Ortega, Joy ; Parker, Emily M. ; Beltrami, Elise ; Kaufmann, Rachel ; Reynolds, Mary G. ; Swain, Robert ; Cono, Joanne ; Houry, Debra ; Bunnell, Rebecca
• Corporate Authors:
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.). Office of Science ; National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (U.S.) ; National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (U.S.) ; National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (U.S.) ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.). Immediate Office of the Director ; CDC Scientific Clearance Transformation Initiative Workgroups
• Description:
  Objectives: Describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of the initial phase of Scientific Clearance Transformation Initiative (SCTI) at CDC.
  
  Methods: CDC’s scientific review and clearance process (“clearance”) supports the relevance and quality of CDC’s scientific publications. In 2022, CDC launched an agency-wide effort to prioritize strategic science, ensure scientific quality, and improve clearance timeliness. We analyzed data on the time for completing CDC clearance between August 1, 2020 and July 31, 2021 to inform SCTI development. CDC science leaders met monthly throughout 2022 to identify ways to ensure science quality and improve the scientific development and clearance processes. We evaluated the progress by analyzing clearance timeliness data and process indicators (e.g., adoptions of clearance system enhancements) for peer-review journal manuscripts, and qualitative feedbacks about SCTI implementation.
  
  Results: During August 2020 to July 2021, median clearance time was 22 business days for 2519 journal manuscripts (interquartile range: 10-45), and month-by-month median clearance times were similar to overall median time. During 2022, the SCTI implementation year, median clearance time was 16 business days for 2440 manuscripts (interquartile range: 8-30 days); clearance time steadily declined from 25 business days in January to 12 business days in December, representing a 52% reduction. Qualitative feedback highlighted a need to strengthen pre-clearance processes.
  
  Conclusion: SCTI, an ongoing CDC effort, appears to have reduced clearance time during its first year. CDC is committed to further improving processes and systems to facilitate efficient and timely production, dissemination, and communication of high-quality scientific information.
  
  
• Content Notes:
  Publication Date taken from document properties: No date on resource.
• Subjects:
  Editorial Policies Information Dissemination Peer Review, Research Publications Public Health
• Keywords:
  Moving Forward Initiative Process Assessment Publications/Standards Scientific Clearance Transformation Initiative
• Document Type:
  Report
• Name as Subject:
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.)
• Genre:
  Manuscript
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Pages in Document:
  15
• Contributor:
  Anugwom, Chidera ; Bigman, Elizabeth ; Branum, Amy ; Carter, Marion ; Chen, Bin ; Cyril, Juliana ; Dawson, Patrick ; Fields, Patricia ; Foster, Stephine ; Greenspan, Arlene ; Hawkins, Jasmine ; Kools, John ; Li, Zheng ; Lor, Aun ; Mekonnen, Mahider ; Penman-Aguilar, Ana ; Puddy, Richard ; Scott, Colleen ; Shapira, Stuart ; Shapiro-Mendoza, Carrie ; Warner, Lee ; Funk Wolkin, Amy ; Young, Andrea
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7445e8bed22761ff7c9e17218963b145401f3db0e05ed5f4b386b50ce479da1d1278adbec9bd5321393bee3949f99f530451eb84bd132f71ce848e6d61cc0ded
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/174551/cdc_174551_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 311.04 KB ]