In order to insure independence of the peer review process, each reviewer will disclose to TERA in advance any possible conflict of interest or appearance of conflict of interest. Conflicts of interest will be openly disclosed at the meeting and decisions for participation of the reviewer with a conflict will be open for the peer reviewer panel consensus. Each chemical assessment will generally be allotted three and one-half hours. The discussion will be structured to make maximum use of this time and to avoid needless repetition. If consensus is not reached in two hours, it is unlikely to with further discussion.
Reviews are on the basis of the identified methodology.
Reviewers will be provided with descriptions of the methodologies. Comments on the methods will not be entertained, but if persistent problems are encountered, then the panel may decide to discuss this with the appropriate organization. Post-meeting TERA will take notes of discussions and conclusions and provide these notes to the sponsor and peer reviewers for comments. The sponsors will also be given copies of each peer reviewers' pre-meeting comments. A synopsis of the meeting notes will be loaded onto the TERA home page after a review by the participants.