A global public health emergency and the MJA rapid review process

The COVID‐19 outbreak is a global public health emergency, and as a leading general medical journal, the MJA recognises the importance of very rapidly sharing accurate health information with clinicians, scientists, health departments and the public.

We have assessed new important research papers on the outbreak with a 1‐week turnaround including double‐blind peer review. To ensure rapid and broad dissemination, the preprints have been uploaded to www.mja.com.au and accompanying commentary has been published in Insight+. We have also shared the information with the World Health Organization with the authors’ permission. We will publish the articles in full at the earliest opportunity online and in print, after further review (as needed) and our usual stringent structural editing. Future articles on COVID‐19 will be assessed on their merit and if deemed important will similarly undergo rapid review. We thank the authors and peer reviewers for their assistance with the rapid review process. As always, the MJA welcomes feedback from authors, peer reviewers and readers.