Systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy (DTA) are now being published in the Cochrane Library. As with Cochrane intervention reviews, in general the process follows the same basic steps:

Step one: submit the title of a potential review to the Managing Editor of Cochrane Back and Neck (CBN), indicating that you and your colleagues would like to complete a systematic review.

Step two: submit the protocol for your review, outlining in detail the clinical problem, populations to be included and excluded, standard diagnostic practice, and the diagnostic test or tests under evaluation, how you plan to search the literature, select and appraise the methodological quality of relevant articles, and extract and analyze the data.

Step three: submit the completed review.

Step four: update the review.

However, the process for publishing DTA reviews with the Back Review Group  differs slightly than for intervention reviews. To help prospective authors understand the process for DTA reviews, we encourage you to view the DTA review Editorial Process and flowchart.

For the most comprehensive information on publishing Cochrane DTA reviews, please visit the Cochrane Diagnostic Test Accuracy Working Group website.