WHO Optimizing Immunization Schedules Project
Request For Proposals for the WHO Optimizing Immunization Schedules Project, 2012
Deliverables
A Final Report will be due upon an agreed date, ideally within 12 months after the project commencement date. The final product will be a systematic review Report including the following elements:
- Executive summary, including objectives and main findings
- Background, including information on the indications and use of the vaccine
- Research question(s) and study objectives
- Search strategy for sources of evidence, including information on the databases and resources used
- Selection criteria for quality of evidence (inclusion and exclusion criteria)
- Data collection and analysis (critical assessment), including statistical pooling or meta-analysis of data, if applicable
- Tables including GRADEing of the evidence for previously agreed critical outcomes.
- Main results and/or main conclusions of the review in answering the initial research question(s)
- Authors’ conclusions and perceived immunization policy implications for immunization schedules in different epidemiological settings
- Implications of findings for further research
- Citations and access to the key extracted data (to be posted in a publicly available searchable data base)
The analysis must include interpretative commentary with respect to sources of error, bias and confounders in the reviewed studies. The Report may also identify key limitations in the data and note where the quality of the data compromises the ability to make inferences about efficacy, effectiveness or safety of one or more vaccination schedules. The Report may also make suggestions for future work and methodologies to address any shortcomings of existing evidence on immunization schedules. A representative of the research team will be expected to attend at least two WHO expert consultations and present information about their work.
A comment period will commence following the submission of the Draft and Final Reports to IVR. Within a reasonable amount of time following its submission, IVR will initiate a peer review of each Report and submit questions and comments. Teams are expected to provide a written response to IVR. Public release of the Final Report will occur after the review process is completed. While a draft manuscript is not a requirement or deliverable of this project, research teams are encouraged to publish the content of the Final Report in an appropriate peer reviewed journal.