The provision of appropriate opportunities for appeal is an important feature of any quality assurance procedure. The needs for appealing can refer to:

• Factual errors

Factual errors may appear in reports. According to MusiQuE guidelines, institutions are given the opportunity to correct those factual errors in review reports before these reports are deemed final. Therefore, issues pertaining to factual accuracy will not be considered as valid grounds for appeal.

• Complaints

A complaint may concern:

• a procedural failure: an institution may submit a formal complaint when it considers that the service provided by MusiQuE has not been delivered in line with the MusiQuE Guidelines applicable for the procedure
• the conduct of one or more individuals involved in the process from MusiQuE’s side, not aligned with the MusiQuE Code of Conduct for Peer Reviewers.

Complaints are submitted to the MusiQuE Office and are considered by the MusiQuE Board.

• Appeals:

An appeal refers to the outcomes of a review and represents an action of last resort for revising the judgements expressed in the review report. Institutions may consider that the statements in the review report constitute a flagrant misjudgement. However, they can only appeal when all other means for obtaining what they consider a just outcome have been exhausted. Appeals will be referred to the MusiQuE’s Appeals Committee.