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Submit Guidelines


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Download the Guideline Submission Kit now!
ZIP FILE (321 KB)

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Why Consider Submitting? Some things you should know

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About NGC

Benefits of Participation

Your Role as a Developer

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Submission Guidance

To facilitate submission of your/your organization's guidelines, we offer this guidance:

  1. Download the Guidelines Submission Kit below. This Kit includes various documents to assist you in the submission process. See Submission FAQs for examples of guideline documentation submitted to NGC from participating guideline developers.

  2. Include the following in your Guideline Submission:

    • The guideline document and any supporting guideline documentation.
    • The name, address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of an appropriate contact person.
    • A completed Copyright Agreement Form.

  3. Prepare your submission using the following guides:

    • Review the NGC Inclusion Criteria (available in the Guideline Submission Kit). Guideline submissions must meet all of the criteria in NGC's Inclusion Criteria.
    • Refer to the Guideline Submission Checklist (available in the Guideline Submission Kit) for guidance on how to prepare your submission. This checklist will assist you in providing the necessary information and/or documentation that is required by NGC.
    • Complete the Copyright Agreement Form (available in the Guideline Submission Kit). NGC must receive copyright permission to abstract and post the guideline summaries before your organization's guidelines can be included on the NGC Web site (unless the guidelines are in the public domain).


  4. Your Guideline Submission can be submitted in one of two ways:

    • Electronic submissions (preferred). Requests to submit electronically should be sent to Vivian Coates, NGC/NQMC Project Director, at info@guideline.gov.
    • Two (2) paper copies of the guideline and its supporting documentation. Include a listing of the titles being submitted for consideration. Paper copy submissions should be sent to:

      Vivian Coates
      NGC/NQMC Project Director
      ECRI Institute
      5200 Butler Pike
      Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462

Questions regarding submissions can be directed to Ms. Coates at info@guideline.gov.

For Additional Information

Additional information regarding NGC is available from Mary Nix, Project Officer, Center for Outcomes and Evidence, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), e-mail: info@guideline.gov.

Are You Also a Measure Developer?

Visit our Sister Site, the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse (NQMC), and submit your evidence-based quality measures and measure sets.

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Submission Resources

NGC provides two reference tools in the Guideline Submission Kit; the Template of Guideline Attributes and the Glossary. These tools will be used by the NGC staff to abstract or summarize your guideline. The NGC Template of Guideline Attributes provides descriptions of each guideline attribute in a NGC Complete Guideline Summary. The NGC Glossary provides clarifying definitions and examples of terms used to describe common properties of evidence-based clinical practice guideline abstracts (guideline summaries). They are provided here to give you some insight to the process.

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Guideline Submission Kit

Download entire Guideline Submission Kit Zip file (321 KB)
Instructions for Electronic/Hard Copy Submission PDF (45 KB) MS WORD (40 KB) Text (3 KB)
NGC Inclusion Criteria PDF (19 KB) MS WORD (38 KB) HTML
Guideline Submission Checklist PDF (75 KB) MS WORD (52 KB) Text (3 KB)
Template of Guideline Attributes PDF (64 KB) MS WORD (116 KB) HTML
Glossary of Terms PDF (138 KB) MS WORD (80 KB) HTML
Copyright Agreement Form PDF (16 KB) MS WORD (37 KB) Text (5 KB)

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What to Expect After Submission

Submission Timeline

Step 1: Guidelines Submitted to NGC and Copyright Received. Step 2: NGC Reviews Against Inclusion Criteria and Developer is Notified of Submission Status (two to three weeks).  Step 3: Guidelines enter NGC Work Queue (Summary Prepared and Reviewed) (Approximagely eight to ten weeks). Step 4: Developer Verification / Review (three to four weeks). Step 5: Post to NGC Website (two to three weeks). Step 6: Annual Verification - Reassess Currency of Guidelines Annually.

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Submission FAQs

  1. What are NGC's criteria for inclusion?
  2. Are there copyright restrictions on the information accessed through the NGC Web site at www.guideline.gov?
  3. What are examples of guideline documentation provided to NGC?
  4. How does NGC use the submitted guideline documentation?


  1. What are NGC's criteria for inclusion?

    Please see our Inclusion Criteria page.

  2. Are there copyright restrictions on the information accessed through the NGC Web site at www.guideline.gov?

    There are no copyright restrictions that prevent users from copying and/or distributing content found on the National Guideline Clearinghouse™ (NGC) Web site, provided that all content is appropriately identified. NGC's content (guideline summaries and syntheses) is available for public use, and we encourage the distribution of our content, particularly for educational purposes. NGC content may not be used for commercial and/or product endorsement purposes.

    While most of NGC's content is free of restrictions, exceptions occur in where individual guideline developers have requested otherwise. Users can refer to the "COPYRIGHT STATEMENT" field at the end of each summary to determine if such restrictions apply.

    NGC does NOT have the authority to grant copyright clearance for the original full text guidelines upon which the summaries are based. NGC seeks and receives permission from each guideline developer whose guidelines appear on the Web site. If you are interested in using/distributing the original full text guideline, you will need to refer to the specific copyright restrictions imposed by the individual guideline developers.

    See our Copyright/Permission Requests page for more information.

  3. What are examples of guideline documentation provided to NGC?

    A variety of documents are submitted to NGC by guideline developers including the following:

    • Guideline documents/recommendations statements (published journal articles, unpublished documents, documents published electronically)
    • Technical manuals describing the developer's process for guideline development
    • Documents detailing the specific methodology for the guideline (evidence syntheses, systematic reviews, assessment reports)
    • Patient resources (fact sheets, patient versions of guideline recommendations, pamphlets/brochures)
    • Tools to assist in implementation (quick reference guides, PDA downloads, pocket guides. algorithms, order sets, chart documentation, slide sets, etc.)
    • Continuing Medical Education (CME) material
    • Other companion documents (background material, costing statements)
  4. How does NGC use the submitted guideline documentation?

    This information is used by NGC to compare submitted guidelines against the Inclusion Criteria and to subsequently develop summaries of those submitted guidelines that do meet the Inclusion Criteria.

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