Being a PEN Reviewer plays a vital role in contributing to and building the dynamic PEN System, providing essential feedback to the content author regarding the relevance, currency and acceptability of the content in the PEN System. It is also a valuable CPD opportunity for our members.
What review opportunities are there?
There are two primary ways you can get involved as a reviewer for PEN:
- Provide input on scoping a PEN Knowledge Pathway:
- When developing new or updating existing PEN content, we look for input on the practice questions that make up a knowledge pathway. This means that you’ll have an opportunity to review current questions for dietetic practice relevance while identifying any missing practice questions that should be considered.
- Review PEN Content:
- Once content has been authored, reviewers will determine the acceptability of the content based on the quality of evidence, accuracy of synthesis and relevance for practice. PEN Content review requests can be for Backgrounds, Practice Questions or Tools/Resources.
How to become a reviewer
If you would like to become a reviewer for PEN, please let us know by emailing [email protected]. You will be added to the BDA Reviewers Forum, this forum has been designed to bring together BDA members who have all registered an interest in reviewing for PEN, NICE or SIGN and have a keen interest in supporting the evidence base.
We will add review opportunities to the forum as they become available.
Recognising Our Reviewers
We value the support and contributions our members make to the PEN system, and we want to recognise you for this. There are a number of ways the BDA and PEN do this:
- Each month, within our Evidence and Expertise newsletter, we say thank you to individual reviewers who have completed a review in that month.
- If you provide permission, you will be acknowledged for your role as a reviewer once the content is published on the PEN website. Your name will be listed at the end of the content, alongside the author.
- A letter of contribution, signed by PEN's Director of Knowledge Translation, acknowledging your contributions to the PEN System will become available to you to download once the content has been published on the PEN website. This can be added to your CPD portfolio.
Supporting Resources
- Take a look at The PEN Reviewer Guidelines which provide an overview of the role of a PEN reviewer and a handy checklist to help complete a content review.
- Familiarise yourself with the 'Reviewers Guide to the PEN Content Management System', this is the system that reviewers use to communicate with PEN during the review.