Welcome to the Author Digest, February 2026

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. The power of lived experience - Cochrane's Patient and Public Network
2. Reflections on involvement
3. Structuring analyses in RevMan
4. Recent updates to the Cochrane review RevMan templates
5. Seeking qualitative evidence synthesis author teams!
6. Methods Support Unit web clinics
7. Reminder: Subheading changes for diverse Cochrane review types in May
8. Reminder: Word limits coming in July
9. Covidence webinars on demand
10. Top tips for Cochrane authors

1. The power of lived experience - Cochrane's Patient and Public Network

Health research affects us all. So our voice should be a part of it. Watch this video as members of Cochrane's Patient and Public Network Executive share what motivates them, their experiences in health research, why involving patients and the public matter, and how everyone can play a role.

2. Reflections on involvement

Join us behind the scenes for reflections, best practices and impact stories from author teams, Geographic Groups, and others involving patients and the public in Cochrane activities.
In celebration of our 2025 in review article, we’re sharing the full interview with Alex Todhunter-Brown. Alex is an author of the Cochrane review Physical rehabilitation approaches for the recovery of function and mobility following stroke, which prioritized involvement to enhance its relevance, accessibility, and usefulness.
Read the full interview.

3. Structuring analyses in RevMan

Upcoming RevMan improvements will help you structure your analyses more accurately, avoid common Summary of Findings (SoF) issues, and prepare complete synthesis PICOs.

👉 Learn about the new features in the RevMan Knowledge Base.

In the next months, we are working on building functionality to create summary of findings directly in RevMan.

👉 Sign up to try SoF functionality as a beta tester.

4. Recent updates to the Cochrane review RevMan templates

Cochrane's review templates contains essential guidance on conducting your review and reporting your findings. Review templates are  updated periodically to ensure authors have clear and current guidance on best practice for Cochrane reviews. We therefore advise that authors always open the template as a practice review in RevMan to ensure you are always viewing the latest version. The following review template sections have been updated for clarity in February 2026:

For access to, and more details on using templates for reviews of intervention, prognosis, or qualitative studies, visit the RevMan Knowledge Base.

5. Seeking qualitative evidence synthesis author teams!

The Qualitative and Implementation Methods Group is looking for qualitative evidence synthesis (QES) author teams! They would like teams to test out and give feedback on the ease-of-use of the new PRISMA QES reporting guideline. If you will be writing up your synthesis between August and December 2026 and would like more information on taking part, please contact emma.france@stir.ac.uk or jane.noyes@bangor.ac.uk.

6. Methods Support Unit web clinic

The next MSU web clinic is open for sign-up. The March clinic focuses on INSPECT-SR - a tool for assessing the trustworthiness of randomised controlled trials.  Don’t forget - if you sign-up, you will automatically be sent a recording of the session afterwards.

INSPECT-SR: A tool for assessing trustworthiness of randomised controlled trials: Thursday 19 March 2026: 9am UTC. Check time in your time zone.

7. Reminder: Subheading changes for diverse review types in May

Last year, Cochrane introduced new review subheadings for the following review types: diagnostic test accuracy, methodology, overview, prognosis, and qualitative evidence synthesis. Switching to the new subheadings is currently optional for these review types; however, from 4 May 2026, these review types will be updated in RevMan to include the new subheadings, unless they are already in editorial (e.g. submitted, under peer review, under revision).
If you are planning your submission after 4 May, or if you think you might miss a submission deadline around this time, it may be helpful to switch to the new subheadings now. To switch to the new subheadings, you can use the new button, ‘update to latest heading structure,’ available on the right side of the RevMan Dashboard. For further details regarding these changes, please visit this page and the RevMan Knowledge Base.

8. Reminder: Word limits coming in July

As part of our commitment to making reviews and protocols more focused and impactful, the new word limits will be coming into effect from 1 July 2026. Find out more about the limits, and resources to help you here.

9. Watch Covidence webinars on demand!

Missed a live session? You can watch recent Covidence webinars anytime with our on-demand recordings. These sessions offer practical guidance you can apply right away.

Catch up on topics like:

🌐Covidence Step-by-step

🎯 A Practical Guide to Scoping Reviews: Purpose and Process

📝 Which Review Is Right for You? Understanding Review Types in Research

Each webinar includes expert insights, step-by-step explanations, and examples to support review teams.

Start watching here!

10. Top tips for Cochrane Authors

Adding Figures to Other supplementary materials: Following recent RevMan development, when you add a link to a figure in one of the Other supplementary materials, the figure is now inserted into the supplement and displayed at the bottom.

Contact us

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