Publishing, reviewing and appraising

Theory and practice of peer review.

This is a self-paced course, available for self-enrolment, which will cover the following issues

  • Understand the ways in which peer review underpins the academic publication process
  • Reflect on the challenges of the peer review process
  • Appreciate the characteristics of a good peer review and be able to access guidelines
  • Post a good peer review using a standard format
  • Reflect on the issues of AI in the review process
A certificate will be issued to those who complete the course.

Critical appraisal is the foundation of assessing evidence. Critical appraisal does not mean being critical, but taking a critical approach to information. Here, we are applying this to public health research methods

  • Anatomy of a research paper
  • Critical appraisal tools from CASP
  • A very simple generic checklist
  • A public health critical appraisal checklist
  • Critical appraisal for evaluations
See a (7-minute) summary for a general audience (lay summary) .

This site has been prepared by PublicHealth.Africa to provide resources about Open Science to the editors of journals that might publish articles on public health as well as to researchers who might want to publish their research in an open format. This is aimed in particular at journals and researchers in the Global South, but will have general relevance.

  • Understand the concepts, advantages and disadvantages of Open Science in relation to public health research
  • For journal editors to know how to set up your journal for open publishing
  • For researchers to know how to submit your research paper and the underlying data so that they are freely available for open access
  • Consider how to explore, develop and advocate for new approaches to the open publication of research and the underlying data