The Bill Silverman Prize

The Bill Silverman Prize

Bill Silverman

William (Bill) Silverman, MD

William (Bill) Silverman (1924-2004) was one of the founders of American neonatal medicine. He was honoured repeatedly as one of the pioneers in his specialty; however, he often evoked somewhat contradictory responses amongst his colleagues because he was in the habit of raising troubling questions about the scientific basis and ethics of his and their practices. Like many of the people who have helped to establish Cochrane, Bill Silverman could be regarded as a 'troublemaker'. As he reiterated frequently, however, criticism is a form of troublemaking that can help to drive progress. Furthermore, criticism should not be limited to examining the work of others, but should also include self-criticism.

Bill Silverman Prize

The Bill Silverman Prize is offered annually and explicitly acknowledges Cochrane's value of criticism, with a view to helping to improve its work, and thus achieve its aim of helping people make well-informed decisions about health care by providing the best possible evidence on the effects of healthcare interventions. The Cochrane Steering Group approved the establishment of the Prize in 2007, and it was awarded for the first time in 2008.

Purpose

Please note that this Prize is not for the preparation of a Cochrane Review; rather, it is for a published paper which demonstrates originality and critical thinking, either in evaluating any aspect of the preparation, maintenance or dissemination of Cochrane Reviews or about the work of Cochrane more generally. It should be of high quality, have been accompanied by constructive suggestions on how the relevant aspects of Cochrane’s work could be improved; and have had, or is likely to have, a positive impact on the scientific quality, relevance and use of Cochrane Reviews.

Eligibility

Peer-reviewed papers that fulfil the criteria described above under ‘Purpose’, and were published in the twelve-month period from 1 April to 31 March are eligible for nomination. Papers of critique of a single Cochrane review are not considered for the prize. Previous winners of the Prize are not legible to submit a review that they are corresponding authors for, for five years after winning.

Nomination process and deadline

The Central Executive Team issues the call for nominations via Cochrane’s mailing lists each year. Nominations can be made by anyone, including the authors of the publication being nominated.

2024 nominations now closed

 

Announcement of Prize recipient  

The Bill Silverman Prize is awarded to the corresponding author of the selected publication, and comprises a cash award of  USD $1,000 and a certificate. It is this person’s responsibility to distribute the cash award in a fair way to co-authors of the paper.

Bill Silverman Prize Committee

The Prize Committee comprises five members, at least three of whom do not have an active role within any Cochrane entity (other than, possibly, as an author or referee of one or more Cochrane Reviews). When one of the committee members stands down from the committee, the resulting vacancy is filled by the recipient of the most recent Prize (or a person chosen by the recipients). 

Funding for the Prize

Bill Silverman’s family agreed to the establishment of this Prize, and Iain and Jan Chalmers contributed GBP £5,000 sterling of start-up funding. The Steering Group will determine the future of the Prize when this initial contribution has been exhausted and, if relevant, will seek to identify future funding. The Central Executive Team is responsible for administering these Prize funds.


 

Bill Silverman Prize recipients 

2023

Yonggang Zhang for the paper: Co-publication improved the dissemination of Cochrane reviews and benefited co-publishing journals: a retrospective cohort study

2021

Paula Williamson, for the paper ‘Assessing the relevance and uptake of core outcome sets (an agreed minimum collection of outcomes to measure in research studies) in Cochrane systematic reviews: a review

2020

Livia Puljack, for the paper Risk of bias assessments for blinding of participants and personnel in Cochrane reviews were frequently inadequate

2019

Nicole Skoetz, for the paper Methodological review showed correct absolute effect size estimates for time-to-event outcomes in less than one-third of cancer-related systematic reviews.

2018

Matthew Page, for the paper Flaws in the application and interpretation of statistical analyses in systematic reviews of therapeutic interventions were common: a cross-sectional analysis

2017

David Henry, for the paper Risk of bias in systematic reviews of non-randomized studies of adverse cardiovascular effects of thiazolidinediones and cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors: application of a new Cochrane risk of bias tool

2016

The Prize Committee was unable to award a prize for 2016, as there were no eligible submissions received.

2015 

Saini P, Loke YK, Gamble C, Altman DG, Williamson PR, Kirkham JJ. Selective reporting bias of harm outcomes within studies: findings from a cohort of systematic reviews. BMJ 2014; 349:g6501.

2014

Takwoingi Y, Hopewell S, Tovey D, Sutton A. A multicomponent decison tool for prioritising the updating of systematic reviews. BMJ 2013;347:f7191 doi: 10.1136/bmj.f7191 (published 13 December 2013).

2013

Roseman, M, Turner EH, Lexchin, J, Coyne, JC, Bero, LA, Thombs, BD. Reporting of conflicts of interest from drug trials in Cochrane reviews: cross sectional study. BMJ 2012;345:e5155 [abstract].

2012

Nasser M, Welch V, Tugwell P, Ueffing E, Doyle J, Waters E. Ensuring relevance for Cochrane reviews: evaluating processes and methods for prioritizing topics for Cochrane reviews. J Clin Epidemiol 2012 Apr [abstract].

2011 

Donegan S, Williamson P, Gamble C, Tudur-Smith C. Indirect comparisons: a review of reporting and methodological quality. PLoS ONE 2010 5(11):e11054, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011054. [abstract].

2010 

Ford AC, Guyatt GH, Talley NJ, Moayyedi P, Errors in the conduct of systematic reviews of pharmacological interventions for irritable bowel syndrome. Am J Gastroenterol 2010; 105: 280-288; doi: 10.1038/ajg.2009.658. [abstract].

2009 

Moher D, Tetzlaff J, Tricco AC, Sampson M, Altman DG. Epidemiology and reporting characteristics of systematic reviews. PLoS Medicine 2007 4(3): e78. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0040078 [full-text PDF].

2008 

Biester K et al. High dropout rates in trials included in Cochrane Reviews. Oral presentation at the 14th Cochrane Colloquium, Dublin, Ireland, October 2006 [abstract].