Issue 5, August 2023

Welcome to this month's Author Digest

In this edition we cover review management and data sharing, as well as information on submitting proposals. 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

• Cochrane’s focused review format is now available
• Have you read our new Author guidelines?
• Author submission survey
• Move studies through to full-text review sooner using machine-learning in Covidence
• Introducing your Author Reps on the Cochrane Council
• Meet Roses Parker - Cochrane's new Commissioning Editor
• Web Clinic recording now available
• Author Top Tips

1. Cochrane's focused review format is now available

We're simplifying and streamlining our review process, making it more efficient for our authors. It will also help our published reviews to have an even greater impact globally. 

We will be agile, and developments will be ongoing so we can ensure they support the best possible experience for those involved in systematic reviewing. 

You can read more about this here. We're looking forward to making these changes together!

2. Have you read our new author guidelines?

Are you preparing a protocol or review for submission to Cochrane Central Editorial Service? Follow our new Author guidelines to give your manuscript the best chance of acceptance.

• All essential guidance at one easy-to-remember URL.
• Guidance broken down into stages so you can quickly locate the section most relevant to you, e.g. Submit your manuscript
• Clear instructions on preparing manuscripts in the new focused review format

The guidelines are easy to access from the RevMan Help Menu as you write your review.

Watch a 3-minute walk-through on YouTube.

3. Author submission survey

Have you recently submitted a protocol or review? Do you have a few moments to complete a short author survey? Please tell us about the resources and support available to you before submission. 

Your feedback will help us to improve the Cochrane author experience.

4. Move studies through to full-text review sooner using machine learning in Covidence

Machine learning (active learning) is now helping teams move relevant studies through to full-text review sooner in Covidence. When screening titles and abstracts, teams now have access to a new sort option “Most relevant”.  

This sort option uses machine learning (active learning) to identify trends in past screening behaviour on the review to determine and display the studies that are most likely to be included first. 

The more studies screened, the stronger the system’s prediction will be. You can learn more here.

5. Introducing your Author Reps on the Cochrane Council

Assoc. Prof Vanessa Jordan

Vanessa has been involved with Cochrane for 20 years. She is an Associate Professor of epidemiology specialising in systematic reviews based in Auckland, New Zealand. She is currently an author on 16 reviews and 6 protocols listed on the Cochrane library. She has held training workshops for Cochrane authors in NZ, Australia and China and her research interests include conflict of interest, risk of bias and trial registration. She is currently an Associate Director of Cochrane New Zealand, an editor for the Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility group, the coordinator of the Cochrane Sexual and Reproductive Health thematic group and the Chair of the Cochrane Conflict of interest panel. She is also a member of the statistical methods group, trainers', and consumer networks. 

Dr Nai Ming Lai

Nai Ming is currently Professor of Paediatrics and Director of Clinical Campus at Taylor’s University School of Medicine, Malaysia. Trained as a Paediatrician-Neonatologist, he started his involvement in Cochrane in 2004. He serves as author, trainer, reviewer and associate editor for Cochrane Neonatal, Cochrane Clinical Answers and clinical editor for Cochrane Central Editorial Service. He was a member of the Cochrane Linked Data Project, which collated and piloted the use of PICO-based search in Cochrane. He has been a consultant in systematic review for the Malaysian National Institute of Health since 2010, and mentors systematic review authors from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, China, Bangladesh and Australia. Currently, he is involved in 22 reviews and 3 protocols.

The role of the council

The Cochrane council aims to ensure that Cochrane Groups retain an effective voice in Cochrane’s leadership and strategic decision-making. Cochrane authors make up one of these groups and there are two author representatives on the council to represent the authors’ view. Their role is to consider how high-level matters such as the new Cochrane organisation strategy will affect Cochrane authors.

To inform the author representatives viewpoint, there is an author panel made up of invested Cochrane authors which the Council representatives can use to elicit feedback. If you wish to join the Cochrane author panel, please contact support@cochrane.org. 

The next meeting of the Cochrane council will be just prior to the colloquium on the 3^rd of September. Please do not hesitate to reach out to either of the Cochrane author reps if you currently have any questions or concerns that you wish raised at this meeting: v.jordan@auckland.ac.nz or lainm@doctors.org.uk.

6. Meet Roses Parker - Cochrane's new Commissioning Editor

Roses Parker started with Cochrane in 2019 as a Network Support Fellow and is now a Commissioning Editor in the Evidence Production and Methods Directorate. Roses has previously held roles as a Staff Nurse, Data Analyst, and Research Assistant, all standing her in good stead for the role. 

Here, Roses explains how her new role will help commissioning and her hopes for the upcoming Cochrane Colloquium.

7. Web Clinic recording now available

The Methods Support Unit’s August web clinic was delivered by Jayne Tierney and Sarah Burdett from the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL. They gave a fascinating presentation about FAME - the collaborative Framework for prospective, Adaptive Meta-analysis.

The vast majority of systematic reviews are planned retrospectively, once most eligible trials have completed and reported, and are based on aggregate data that can be extracted from publications. Prior knowledge of trial results can introduce bias into both review and meta-analysis methods, and the omission of unpublished data can lead to reporting biases. The collaborative framework for prospective, adaptive meta-analysis (FAME) of aggregate data can reduce the potential for bias, and help produce more timely, thorough and reliable results. Recognising that it might not be possible or desirable to apply all aspects of FAME to all Cochrane Reviews, this Methods Support Unit web clinic demonstrated how the adoption of some of the key principles (FAME-lite) could improve the quality and efficiency of the vast majority.

Click here for the recording

8. Top tips for Cochrane Authors

This month, we will look at the export function in RevMan.

There have been a few updates to the export function in RevMan recently. Authors can now export supplementary materials (related to the Focused Review Format). 

Also, the article can be exported in HTML format to preview it outside RevMan.

Contact us

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