Issue 9, December 2023

Welcome to this month's Author Digest

We hope you find it helpful.

This digest goes out to all active Cochrane authors and will continue to be sent to authors who are opted in. Please review your communication preferences in your Cochrane account and ensure you are opted in to communications.

Contents

1. Adapting & Advancing: a lot has happened in 2023 as Cochrane prepares for the future
2. Adding, removing or changing the order of authors on your byline? Remember to confirm all authors agree
3. Three new chapters of the Cochrane-Campbell Handbook for Qualitative Evidence Synthesis are now available
4. Next in the Cochrane Rapid Reviews & Learning Live webinar series
5. Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods editors introduce the virtual issue of methods and statistics tutorials: a collection of resources for systematic reviewers
   
6. Please join the Methods Support Unit for our first web clinic of 2024! 
7. Did you know that we have a store of recordings from our Methods Support Unit web clinics available in our archive?
8. Top Tips
   

1. Adapting & Advancing: a lot has happened in 2023 as Cochrane prepares for the future

The last twelve months have been a busy time for Cochrane. We’ve started making some major changes to keep our place as a global leader in health evidence and to ensure we’re able to meet the health evidence needs of a changing world. Here, we’ve pulled together some of the key achievements in 2023 delivered through our Future of Evidence Synthesis programme.

2. Adding, removing or changing the order of authors on your byline? Remember to confirm all authors agree

Authors have complete autonomy to change the author byline at any stage – before and after submission, and after publication. Cochrane adheres to the Committee for Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance, which states that all authors should confirm they agree with byline changes in writing.

If you add, remove, or re-order authors on the byline, you may therefore need to complete a Changes in Authorship form. The form is available to download from within our Authorship policy. Please collect signatures from previous and current authors to show everyone agrees to any changes.

• Before submission – please contact your Cochrane group or Cochrane Support for authorship changes. Submit your completed Changes in Authorship form for editorial assessment with your next submission.
• After submission – please contact your Managing Editor.

Ensuring all authors agree to changes in writing, helps to prevent authorship disputes. Cochrane cannot mediate in authorship disputes; so please remember to complete your Changes in Authorship form to avoid unnecessary delays in the progress of your review. 

If you are working on a draft protocol that has not yet been submitted or published, you do not need to complete a Changes in Authorship form. 

If you have any questions about this, please contact support@cochrane.org.

3. Three new chapters of the Cochrane-Campbell Handbook for Qualitative Evidence Synthesis are now available

Please check the Cochrane Training Website for the new Cochrane-Campbell Handbook for Qualitative Evidence Synthesis chapters, available for personal use via a Cochrane Account: 

• Chapter 3 (Selecting and using theory)
• Chapter 12 (Using visual methods to support synthesis)
• Chapter 21 (Peer reviewing a protocol or a review)

4. Next in the Cochrane Rapid Reviews & Learning Live webinar series

Please join us on 25 January 2024 for the next webinar, 'Evidence synthesis and certainty of evidence ratings in rapid reviews', hosted by the Rapid Reviews Methods Group. 

These sessions are designed to provide you with a clear roadmap, helping you navigate the intricacies of rapid review methodologies. All sessions are freely open to everyone.

5. Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods editors introduce the virtual issue of methods and statistics tutorials: a collection of resources for systematic reviewers

This series provides easily accessible advice to the evidence synthesis community on the common methodological and statistical issues that occur frequently within Cochrane. 

Linked to each tutorial is a micro-learning module, including short videos and quick e-learning checks, which complements the article. We hope that practical exercises and easy-to-understand articles will help experienced authors brush up their skills and give a solid grounding for new authors. They can also be used as resources by those educating systematic reviewers. 

We will be adding articles frequently to build up a library of resources. 

Access the current resources via this link.

6. Please join the Methods Support Unit for our first web clinic of 2024! 

Leslie Choi will be discussing ‘Updated guidance on how to interpret and assess imprecision with GRADE methods’ at 9am UTC on 11 January 2024. 

Sign up here.

7. Did you know that we have a store of recordings from our Methods Support Unit web clinics available in our archive? 

We’ve covered everything from ‘Assessing imprecision and inconsistency in GRADE’ to ‘Writing up reviews with network meta analysis’, plus lots more. Our clinics are highly practical and focused on the needs of authors and editors. 

Take a look through our archive – we’re sure you’ll find something useful and interesting!

8. Top tips for Cochrane Authors

Do you want to save time when uploading extracted data to RevMan? 

Now when extracting data from a study, you can add an optional group name to accurately report how the intervention or comparator group was described. Group names captured against studies will be linked to interventions defined on the template and will be included in exports. 

When uploading data into RevMan, there will be no need to fill in the 'Interventions' column which was previously left blank, saving you time when uploading your data. 

Click here to learn more.

Contact us

If you have any questions about any of the above items, please contact us at support@cochrane.org