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Welcome to the Author Digest, October 2025 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.
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Contents Reminder: Annual submission cut-off date
Call for a new Cochrane Thematic Group focusing on infectious diseases
INSPECT-SR: an optional tool for identifying problematic trials
Cochrane Methods Report 2025
Updates to subheadings for diverse Cochrane reviews coming in mid-November
Evidence that’s easier to act on: introducing a word limit for reviews and protocols
Changes to how Cochrane manages rapid reviews
Covidence
Top tips
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1. Reminder: Annual submission cut-off date
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As introduced in August’s Digest, we are implementing an annual submission cut-off date starting this November. This applies to all new manuscript submissions, but does not affect proposals or revisions. The aim is to better manage year-end workloads during the holiday period, when availability of internal staff and external stakeholders (e.g., peer referees and sign-off editors) is significantly reduced. Key Dates to Note: - Final submission deadline via Editorial Manager: Friday, 14 November 2025
- Submissions will reopen: Monday, 5 January 2026
We kindly ask all authors to plan accordingly. If your invitation to submit falls between 14 November 2025 and 5 January 2026, your submission date has been rescheduled for January. You should have received an email notification from Editorial Manager confirming this change. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
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2. Call for a new Cochrane Thematic Group focusing on infectious diseases
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3. INSPECT-SR: an optional tool for identifying problematic trials
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Until now, reviewers have had no way to assess the trustworthiness of trials based on consensus and validated methods. The INSPECT-SR tool fills this gap by providing a rigorously developed, systematic, and transparent method. Cochrane has recently endorsed INSPECT-SR as an optional tool for authors of systematic reviews including randomized controlled trials who wish to assess the trustworthiness of trials. For more information about INSPECT-SR, including links to a pre-print and guidance, see our news item.
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4. Cochrane Methods Report 2025
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We need to ensure that our reviews use best practices and that they address the known priorities of decision-makers. This is one reason our reviews are trusted, and our Methods community is a vital part of this.
We’re proud to share the latest Cochrane Methods Report and spotlights on our Methods Groups, showcasing the work of our global methods community. Take a look:
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5. Updates to subheadings for diverse Cochrane reviews coming in mid-November
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Cochrane’s 2025-2030 scientific strategy highlights the need for diverse evidence synthesis methods to address key research priorities. To support authors developing and reporting systematic reviews of studies that aren’t interventions, Cochrane will be introducing new review subheadings for the following review types: diagnostic test accuracy, methodology, overview, prognosis, and qualitative evidence synthesis. The new subheadings have been developed with the relevant Methods Groups and will align with the focused review format to improve consistent reporting for all types of Cochrane reviews. Although the subheadings are new, they reflect much of the content already in your review or protocol. Additionally, based on your feedback on the recent changes, there will be minor updates to subheadings in the intervention review template. The new subheadings will be available on 17 November. For the timeline and further details of these upcoming changes, please visit this page and the RevMan Knowledge Base.
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6. Evidence that's easier to act on: introducing a word limit for reviews and protocols
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Every author wants people to read their review and act on its findings, decision-makers are time-pressed. To help make our reviews and protocols more focused and impactful, we are bringing in a word limit in 2026. Rather than seeing this as a restriction, we invite authors to view it as an opportunity to reflect on the scope of their review and consider how much detail is needed to answer their research question. A word limit has been recommended in the Handbook for over a decade, but now we are going to be keeping a closer eye on it, encouraging authors to be more concise in their reviews. By encouraging more focused and effective writing, use of tables and supplementary materials, we aim to make reviews easier to write, edit, and peer-review, ultimately helping readers find and understand the evidence more quickly. We appreciate that this change might not be easy. So, please tell us what you need from us to make it work! You can share your requests for support though this form.
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7. Changes to how Cochrane manages rapid reviews
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Cochrane has now changed the way rapid reviews are managed across systems which will improve the experience for authors, readers, and editors. We’ve aligned the format authors use to report rapid reviews in RevMan with the type of review question being asked (e.g., intervention rapid review, prognosis rapid review) to make reporting of rapid reviews clearer and more consistent with other reviews in the Cochrane Library. These changes will affect the proposal and review development phases for rapid reviews. For further details of these changes, please visit this page and the Editorial Manager Knowledge Base.
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8. Covidence webinar: A practical guide to scoping reviews: purpose and process
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Discover how to plan and conduct a scoping review with confidence. Join us as we explore when to choose a scoping review, key steps in the process, and practical tips to make your review clear and impactful. Register now to attend live or receive the recording afterward.
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9. Top tips for Cochrane Authors
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