Elfeky A, Treweek S, Hannes K, et al. Using qualitative methods in pilot and feasibility trials to inform recruitment and retention processes in full-scale randomised trials: a qualitative evidence synthesis. BMJ Open 2022;12:e055521. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055521
The authors and the journal have issued a further correction to this paper. An individual raised queries about the nature of the first correction to this paper. These included (1) the way in which two omitted references were dealt with in the correction and (2) that the addition of new data and its analysis were insufficiently clear and prominent.
BMJ Open has undertaken a post-publication review of this paper to address these issues. We sought advice from two independent methodological experts who had not reviewed the paper previously. The reviewers’ comments were then reviewed by the Handling Editor, Editor-in-Chief and the Publication Ethics and Content Integrity Editor. The authors then addressed the comments from the reviewers and the editors and revised their paper further. The authors made the following revisions:
The omitted articles, Donovan et al (2003) and Stein et al (2016) are more clearly referred to within the body of the main paper and referenced accordingly. It was also made clearer that findings from these articles are handled within the online supplemental material, not integrated directly into the qualitative evidence synthesis presented in the main results. The data from the Donovan et al (2003) paper were previously indirectly referenced from Audrey et al (2011).
The authors have added further detail about the addition of new data and its analysis to the methods section and the online supplemental material. The authors more prominently refer the reader to the results in online supplemental files 1–9. The authors have edited the Discussion in the main paper to give more prominence to the additional analyses in online supplemental file 9.
The authors and journal extend their gratitude to the independent methodological experts who helped us with our post publication review.
The previous version of this article and previous versions of its supplemental files are now displayed in the online supplemental file 10. These files are watermarked with ‘old version’.