Endorsement of non-ERS documents

Other international scientific societies which develop clinical practice guidelines, statements and technical standard may contact ERS should they want to receive a formal endorsement of one of their documents. Preferably, ERS should be involved from the beginning so that there is an opportunity to contribute to the manuscript. If such situation is not possible, then ERS may be contacted for endorsement of the completed document, provided that the following rules and criteria are met:

Required criteria:

• The document is developed by an international scientific society and the request is made by that society.
• The topic is an area of interest for ERS.
• The methodology used is approved by ERS methodologists.
• There are no similar recent ERS documents.
• There are no similar ERS documents under preparation.
• Panel members’ potential Conflict of Interests (COI) have been disclosed and managed.

Preferable criteria:

• There is a significant representation of ERS members in the list of authors or contributors.
• The proposal comes from a society of a similar kind and/or relevance to the ERS.

If the document fulfils the criteria, a scientific reviewing process will take place. The document will then be presented to the ERS Science Council and Executive Committee. The full decision process last between 4 and 6 weeks.

Endorsed manuscripts are not considered as official ERS documents since they are not ERS initiatives and thus do not follow the selection and development processes, rules and standards. As a result, the ERS name cannot appear in the title of the document (e.g., ERS Clinical Practice Guidelines on ….) but can be acknowledged in the publication.