April 2024 (Next June 2024)

In this issue

1) Switching to Cochrane's new Focused Review Format: what you need to know.

2) Transforming Health Evidence: a look at Cochrane's Future of Evidence Synthesis programme.

3) Upcoming events and opportunities to get involved include online webinars and Methods Support web clinics.

4) New resources include papers from our Methods Groups and much more!

Your top three highlights

Switching to Cochrane's new Focused Review Format: what you need to know

We have made significant changes and improvements to Cochrane's review production model, which has led to the creation of our New Focused Review Format. This is not just a tweak – it is a complete overhaul to make life easier for our authors and improve how our systematic reviews are conducted and presented. Take a look here to find out more.

Transforming Health Evidence: a look at Cochrane's Future of Evidence Synthesis programme

Our Future of Evidence Synthesis programme is now well underway, designed to reinforce and maintain Cochrane's standing as a leader in health evidence synthesis and ensure we are adapting to meet evolving global challenges. Significant changes have already been made, and more are on the horizon, so we caught up with Cochrane's editor-in-chief, Karla Soares-Weiser, to get the latest insights. Read more and watch our short video here.

Cochrane's sustainable path to open access

Open science has long been at the heart of our ethos at the Cochrane Collaboration. From publishing free plain language summaries in multiple languages to making study data available, we have always strived to make our evidence accessible, transparent and useful to as many people as possible. Read more about our long-term transition to open access here.

Events and opportunities

Upcoming

● April 17: Campbell South Asia webinar series: Introduction to mixed methods evidence synthesis. Open to all; registration required.

● April 25: Methods Support Unit web clinics: Plain language for Cochrane reviews: how to ensure your readers find what they need and understand what they find. Open to Cochrane authors, editors and staff; registration required.

● April 29: Evidence Synthesis Ireland online course: An Introduction to Systematic Reviews of Diagnostic Test Accuracy. Open to all, registration fee applies.

●May 2: Johns Hopkins University-Bloomberg School of Public Health online webinar: Living Evidence Model. Open to all; registration required.

● May 9: Methods Support Unit web clinics: Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in Cochrane. Open to Cochrane authors, editors and staff; registration required.

● May 16: Evidence Synthesis Ireland webinar series: Integrating the findings of a QES with the findings of a Systematic Review of Effectiveness (with Qualitative and Implementation Methods Group). Open to all; registration required.

● May 22: Evidence Synthesis Ireland course (in person): Conducting Time-limited or resource-constrained qualitative evidence syntheses in Galway, Ireland. Open to all, registration fee applies.

●May 27-31: In-person course: Introduction to Cochrane Methodology in Lund, Sweden. Open to all, registration fee applies.

Can you help with methods-related tasks? Browse Engage (formerly TaskExchange) for opportunities (tip! Filter by your specific skills). For more information on signing up and using the platform, see the instructions.

New resources

● Members of Screening and Diagnostic Tests and GRADEing provide guidance on rating imprecision in a body of evidence assessing the accuracy of a single test in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.

● Members of Prognosis and GRADEing provide guidance on how to judge the certainty of discrimination performance estimates of prognostic models in a body of validation studies in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.

● Members of Qualitative and Implementation discuss the limitations of tools to assess the methodological limitations of a completed QES in Systematic Reviews.

● Members of Statistics respond to the paper "A method was developed for correcting the bias in the usual study weights in meta-analyses" in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.

● Members of Bias and GRADEing introduce the Risk Of Bias In Non-randomised Studies of Exposures (ROBINS-E) tool, focused on the assessment of the risk of bias in estimates from cohort studies of the causal effect of an exposure on an outcome in Environment International.

● Members of Bias and Statistics describe application and interpretation errors that can arise in pairwise meta-analyses in systematic reviews of interventions in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.

● Members of Equity describe the methods used to develop a new reporting guidance checklist for studies of HIV drug resistance prevalence or incidence in BMJ Open.

● Members of Rapid Reviews identify guidance based on the preferences of guideline developers and evidence synthesis producers about the format of evidence synthesis summaries to support decision-making in Systematic Reviews.

● Members of Comparing Multiple Interventions assess different approaches using simulated and real data with binary and time-to-event outcomes to estimate the individualised treatment effects from an IPD-MA in a one-stage approach in BMC Medical Research Methodology.

● Members of Qualitative and Implementation report the update of the Right Review tool and establish a common set of questions for synthesising quantitative and qualitative studies in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.

● Members of Co-Production provide recommendations for conducting the patient and public involvement (PPI) component when developing reporting guidelines in Research Involvement and Engagement.

● Members of Bias and Statistics present validated search filters to retrieve interrupted time series studies in MEDLINE and PubMed in Research Synthesis Methods. 

● Members of Equity evaluate how equity-relevant observational studies reported equity considerations in the study design and analyses in the Journal of Global Health. 

● Members of Rapid Reviews offer guidance on determining when to conduct a rapid review instead of a full systematic review in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine.

● Members of Comparing Multiple Interventions present a protocol for developing a tool (INSPECT-SR) to identify problematic randomised controlled trials in systematic reviews of health interventions in BMJ Open.

Other news

●  Call for abstracts for the next 4th Evidence-Based Research Conference. The EBR Conference will be held on September 9 as a satellite event to the Global Evidence Summit. Deadline for submissions: June 3, 2024 (midnight GMT).

●  The Cochrane Bias Methods Group invites the submission of abstracts for its annual meeting, which will be held during the Global Evidence Summit. The event is scheduled for September 10, 2024, from 12.45 to 13.45 local time. Deadline for submissions: July 14, 2024.

●  Call for submissions for the WWCS Evidence Accelerator (13-14 June 2024 in Berlin). This training event will be held as part of the What Works Climate Solutions Summit.