Practice Paper Information

Practice Paper Information

What is a practice paper?
Practice papers are evaluative summaries of scientific and evidence-based information that address member-identified practice topics. They are meant to provide key opportunities for critical reasoning and quality improvement in dietetics practice and to include peer-reviewed perspectives from content experts, employers and alliance groups of the American Dietetic Association. Practice papers are often done in the emerging areas of dietetics, areas that might not have sound scientific data yet. 

To see practice papers that ADA published:   www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/advocacy_509_ENU_HTML.htm.  

How are practice papers developed?

  1. An individual or organizational unit (Affiliate dietetic association, dietetic practice group, etc.) completes the Topic Identification Proposal (TIP[C1] ) and forwards it to staff at ADA Headquarters.
  2. The Association Position Committee reviews the TIP and votes to accept or reject the proposal.
  3. If APC accepts the TIP, the House of Delegates is notified regarding the approval to develop the proposal. If not accepted, the originators of the proposal are notified of APC's decision not to proceed with the proposal.
  4. If approved, a call for nominations of author or editor, content practitioners and reviewers is released via HOD, DPG and Affiliate EML.
  5. APC assigns the proposal to a workgroup (consisting of one or two APC members and a Professional Issues Delegate) for selection of an author or editor, content practitioners and reviewers.
  6. The panel of content practitioners and author or editor complete an initial review that will address the key questions and issues identified in the proposal.
  7. The author or editor, with input from the content practitioners, develops the report through a deliberated process that includes critical review of scientific and consumer literature along with evidence-based practice information.
  8. The selected reviewers review the draft report. Based on reviewers' input, the paper is revised. The workgroup reviews and approves the final draft.
  9. After approval of the workgroup, the practice paper is sent to the Journal of the American Dietetic Association for publication.
  10. HOD, DPGs and Affiliates are notified of the date of publication.

How can I obtain further information on practice papers?
Contact Donna L. Wickstrom at ADA Headquarters (800/877-1600, ext 4835 or dwickstrom@eatright.org)