Welcome to the Author Digest, June 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. Right tool, right job: Deciding when to not use an AI tool

From searching and screening to drafting text, artificial intelligence (AI) tools offer the promise of increased efficiency. But with promise comes responsibility. Take a look at our latest blog where Ella Flemyng, Cochrane’s Head of Editorial Policy and Research Integrity, highlights what you need to consider when deciding whether to use an AI tool, and when you might decide not to.

2. Reminder: word limits will be in place from 1 July 2026

From 1 July, Cochrane will be introducing word limits for our reviews, updates, and protocols, to help keep our evidence focused, concise, and more accessible for readers. We are have compiled some useful webinars and training materials to help you scope your review and stay within the limits. You can also find out more about why we are introducing word limits and what you need to know here.

3. Making our evidence more usable

We are taking an important step towards a more open, efficient, and future-ready evidence ecosystem, and authors are central to this change. Our latest blog sets out how improving interoperability and adopting study centric data will transform the way evidence is created, shared, and reused. But what does this mean in practice for review authors?

For intervention reviews:

We will expect authors of new intervention reviews to use study centric data. This includes the data underlying network meta-analyses.
Don't worry, if your review is already past the point of entering study data into RevMan, you won't need to change your approach at this late stage. However, authors that are still at or before the data extraction stage are strongly encouraged to adopt study centric data now.
Once tools are available to help authors migrate existing reviews to study centric data, this expectation will also apply to updates.
We’d like to get input from authors to make sure the policies and guidance are useful, and all concerns are addressed. If you would like to provide feedback, please use this survey link. We’ll announce the final changes to policies and expectations soon, and release additional guidance.

For living reviews: We will be investigating how living reviews may publish their dataset more frequently. We hope to share more information later this year.

4. Call for author team to prepare a new Cochrane review of over-the-counter medications for acute cough in children and adults

We are looking for a new author team to update a key review on over-the-counter medicines for acute cough. The Cochrane review incorporates evidence from 1966 up to 2012 and a new search for recently published evidence is necessary. Take a look at the requirements, the support we can offer and information on how to register your interest here.

5. Reminder: annual awards now open

Cochrane’s annual awards are now open for nominations. We invite you to highlight outstanding contributions across our global community. Submissions are now open and run until 27 July 2026. Prize winners will be notified mid-October. Submit your nominations now!

6. Strengthening systems to manage retracted publications in our published reviews

As part of our commitment to the highest standards of evidence, we are strengthening how we identify and manage retracted publications associated with studies included in published or identified in ongoing Cochrane reviews.

This includes:

using new data and automation to flag retracted studies at scale
introducing processes to identify and address retractions after publication
providing a new framework to help review teams and editors assess the impact of retractions consistently and transparently.

Read the full article to learn more about these developments and the next steps for authors and editors.

7. On 1 July 2026 - Use of new random-effects methods for all new submissions

In January of 2025, following the recommendations of the Cochrane Statistical Methods Group, RevMan introduced a new set of statistical methods for use with the random-effects model in systematic reviews of interventions. Last July, all new protocols for reviews of interventions adopted these methods.

As of 1 July 2026, all new protocol, review, and update submissions should adopt the recommended methods in the synthesis of data when using the random-effects model. If you are planning a submission after this date and plan to use the random-effects model for your analyses, please be sure to check your methods section and analyses ahead of submission!

To learn more about these methods and access further resources, please click here and visit the RevMan Knowledge Base.

8. Recent update to the Cochrane review templates to reflect upcoming word limits

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 review templates have been updated for to reflect the upcoming word limits starting 1 July.

9. Covidence blog

As generating research becomes easier, validating research becomes more important. The future of evidence synthesis may involve more automation, but researchers remain essential for validating evidence, resolving uncertainty, and ensuring conclusions are justified.

Trustworthy evidence depends on rigorous methods and accountability. As automation advances, the role of researchers is evolving to include determining what evidence can be trusted.

👉 Read the full article here.

10. Top tips for Cochrane Authors

For Cochrane systems to work well across the editorial process, we need your email address in your Cochrane account/RevMan and Editorial Manager to match. Please check that your email addresses match by following these instructions. If you need to update your email address, make sure to do it in both places!

Contact us

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

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