Briefs

About Briefs

CSTE members can voice their opinions on any issue, topic, policy, or best practice of public health importance, that would not directly result in changes to state, Tribal, local, or territorial law, rule, or regulation, using CSTE Briefs. These documents represent the consensus opinion of CSTE’s membership and communicate a comprehensive overview of a public health problem, any potential policy options, and then implications of those policies.

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View Past CSTE Briefs

Brief Types

Issue Briefs: identify, define, and explain issues. They can be statements of fact about an issue, summary of a meeting, the results of an assessment with its implications, etc.

Policy Briefs: are statements of CSTE positions on issues of concern and may suggest policy action(s) to be taken (that does not affect state or local law/rule/regulation), provide guidance for best practices, state support for specific policies or guidelines from external sources, endorse positions taken by other organizations, etc.

Interested in Developing a CSTE Brief?

Interested authors should discuss proposed topics with relevant Subcommittee or Steering Committee leadership and CSTE staff. If all parties agree that a brief should be developed, CSTE's consensus development staff will be engaged to start the formal development and approval process.

How CSTE Briefs are Vetted and Approved

CSTE is piloting a new process to develop and vet CSTE Briefs. This process aims to encourage more member engagement in content development and review as well as streamline the approval process.

Topic Generation	Authors should work with CSTE program staff to draft a topic proposal for review. Within this proposal, the authors should answer: What is the proposed topic and policy position? Why should this topic be advanced now? Why do you need to seek consensus from CSTE membership? What are the implications of publishing this work? The authors will present this topic proposal to CSTE’s Program and Policy (P&P) Committee, which directs all CSTE’s policy-related work. If P&P signs off on the topic, the CSTE consensus building team works with the authors to schedule consensus building sessions to vet the topic and proposed argument with groups across the organization.
Consensus Building	CSTE consensus building team schedules meetings with relevant subcommittees and workgroups. During these sessions, the authors present their main argument (in parts) and take comments/concerns on each part. These sessions are interactive – members are polled on their opinions throughout. The authors use the information gathered during these consensus building sessions to draft a brief. The brief content must be approved for formal submission by CSTE’s P&P Committee.
Submission Review	The authors submit the brief draft for a final review, conducted by relevant Subcommittee and Steering Committee leadership. The final brief will be published on CSTE’s website and publicized to all members.