Critical appraisal, reviewing and synthetizing the injury prevention and control literature: time to revisit peer-reviewing and systematic reviews?

To contribute to the global objectives of the WHO’ Injuries and Violence Programme1 of ‘developing and disseminating guidance for countries on evidence-based policy’ and ‘documenting and disseminating successful injury prevention approaches, policies and programmes’, Injury Prevention ‘publishes original research, opinion, debate and special features on the prevention’ (and control) ‘of unintentional and intentional (violence-related) injuries from a public health perspective’.2 Among submissions considered by the journal are systematic reviews, ‘syntheses of the state of knowledge in a field, from which future research priorities can be identified’; (these syntheses) ‘generate’ […] ‘knowledge for different users of reviews (such as patients, healthcare providers, researchers and policy-makers)’.3 Systematic reviews are also the basis for developing clinical guidelines or policy recommendations.4

The process leading from the emergence of new research ideas to the implementation of injury prevention and control interventions is characterised by the key role of…

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