Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A clinical pharmacologist named in acknowledgements as 'we thank Dr X for clinical advice on dosing'
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A casual hallway conversation that did not materially shape the work is not a domain-expert-advisor contribution
Editorial commentary
A domain expert advisor is a subject-matter specialist — clinical, technical, regulatory, statistical, or lived-experience — consulted on questions within their expertise, typically through a formal advisory board, steering committee, or a bounded, one-off consultation. The relationship is advisory rather than operational: the advisor is not usually a named investigator on the study and does not carry day-to-day responsibility for its conduct.
How it differs from related terms: A methodology consultant advises specifically on study design and analytic strategy, and a statistical consultant narrower still, on quantitative methods; a domain expert advisor’s brief can be substantive but non-methodological, such as clinical plausibility, regulatory feasibility, or community acceptability. Where advisory input materially shapes study design or interpretation — enough to satisfy CRediT’s Conceptualization or Methodology roles and all four ICMJE criteria — authorship, not acknowledgement, is the appropriate credit.
Standing advisory boards on funded studies are also frequently named in the funder’s own project reporting, independent of how the study’s resulting papers credit them.
References
- NIHR Guidance on Trial Steering Committees (2018)
- ICMJE Recommendations (2024)
Also known as
Expert advisor · Steering committee member
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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