Issue 8, November 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. NEW! Version 6.4 of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions and updated review conduct standards
2. Rejection policy: revisions to clarify expectations for authors
3. Screening search results in Covidence? You can now filter your results for Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) before screening
4. Next in the Cochrane Rapid Reviews & Learning Live webinar series
   
5. An Interview with Leslie Choi and Lindsay Robertson, Cochrane’s Evidence Synthesis Development Editors
6. Methods webinar recording: Dealing with rare events
7. Comments process: changes to facilitate discussion on published reviews and protocols
8. Top Tips
   

1. NEW! Version 6.4 of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions and updated review conduct standards

We are pleased to announce an update to the online version of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (V6.4, 2023) and to the Methodological Expectations of Cochrane Intervention Reviews (MECIR) standards (August 2023). 

In this update, the main edits include:

• Changes to organizational structures in Cochrane.
• Changes introduced by the new focused review format. 
• The adoption of publishing standard reporting guidelines, such as PRISMA 2020 for intervention reviews.
• The retirement of the Cochrane's Protocol, Reporting and Updated reporting standards. 
• Updates reflecting current tools and best practices. 

For more information, please visit Cochrane's Methods page, the Handbook versions and changes page and the MECIR versions and changes page.

2. Rejection policy: revisions to clarify expectations for authors

Cochrane's rejection policy has been revised to: clarify some of the criteria for rejections; when rejections may occur (as early as possible); reflect the changing structure of Cochrane's groups; and clarify what rights are retained by authors and by Cochrane in rejected manuscripts.

3. Screening search results in Covidence? You can now filter your results for Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) before screening

You can now remove references not reporting on RCTs, so that you can focus your effort on studies more likely to be included in your review. The automatic removal of non-RCTs before screening can be enabled on health-related reviews when creating a review or can be updated on existing reviews via the review settings page. 

Click here to learn how this RCT classifier works in Covidence!

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

Please join us on December 12 for the next webinar entitled Team considerations, study selection, risk of bias and data extraction 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. An Interview with Leslie Choi and Lindsay Robertson, Cochrane’s Evidence Synthesis Development Editors

Leslie Choi and Lindsay Robertson are Evidence Synthesis Development Editors. They work within Cochrane’s Evidence and Production Methods Directorate to support authors with reviews before they are submitted. Find out more about their roles and the important work that they do via this link.

6. Methods webinar recording: Dealing with rare events 

Rare events are a common problem in Cochrane reviews, especially for secondary and safety outcomes. In the presence of rare events, standard meta-analytical models have important limitations and may lead to biased results.

The objective of this web clinic was to provide guidance on handling rare events in a Cochrane review, present the properties of the inverse variance method and explain why this method is problematic when outcome data are rare.

Click here to find out more about this web clinic and watch the recording.

7. Comments process: changes to facilitate discussion on published reviews and protocols

Cochrane has updated the process for managing comments on published reviews and protocols on the Cochrane Library. This is due to calls to process comments more quickly to facilitate discussion and to reduce the management burden for Cochrane group and editorial staff.

Previously, Cochrane Review Groups worked directly with authors to consider comments submitted on their reviews and protocols via the Cochrane Library, to prepare responses, and to decide whether to revise or update the article as a result. Under the new process, comments are published immediately after central moderation, then forwarded to the article’s contact author with guidance on how to submit a response. Managing Editors, Handling Editors and Feedback Editors are copied in where possible, to continue to provide support to authors. 

If the Managing Editors and/or Cochrane Review Group associated with the review or protocol are no longer available, authors can receive assistance through Cochrane Support. The change aligns with the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidance on handling post-publication critiques and full details on how to submit comments are available on the Cochrane Library.

8. Top tips for Cochrane Authors

When checking a long list of references, you can use the Filter field at the top of the page to search for and navigate to a specific reference from the list.

Contact us

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