It is best practice to contact new potential peer reviewers at an institutional email address rather than a generic email address (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo) to reduce the risk of fraud. This can occur when someone other than a legitimate is able to complete a peer review report by intercepting an invitation email. Of course, there are circumstances when this might not be possible and, in such cases, the CRG editorial team should be aware of the risk and proceed with common sense. Peer reviewers' contact details should be stored in Archie, not in external spreadsheets. A link to the academic/professional profile of potential can be added to a Note on the review's Properties sheet. Please encourage new peer reviewers to create a Cochrane Account so that they can be added to a workflow. If you create an Archie person record for a new peer reviewer, this will automatically create a linked Cochrane Account, and they will be sent an email with instructions to activate the account and choose a password. If they choose not to activate their account, their details will remain in Archie (the activation email informs them of this).
The invitation email to the should contain the following:
- The title , and abstract and plain language summary of the Cochrane Review (or title only if a protocol);
- Deadline for return of comments;
- A statement that all of the information shared is confidential; and
- A link to the Cochrane conflict of interest policy.
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