Evaluating and Improving the Quality of Exposure Assessment in Environmental Epidemiology: The Role of Peer Review and Journal Standards

摘要

Peer reviewers and journal editors can improve the quality of environmental epidemiology by critically evaluating methods and demanding clear and complete reporting, but may lack the specific expertise needed to critique exposure assessment. Use of standardized instruments to evaluate the quality of exposure assessment could improve the quality of peer review, but strict adherence to generic standards that may not be valid or appropriate for all study designs, exposures, and outcomes could have a negative impact by preventing the publication of informative research. I will discuss approaches that might be used by reviewers and editors to improve the quality of exposure assessment in environmental epidemiology, and potential limitations and barriers that would need to be addressed to implement them successfully.