Cochrane is revising our current commercial sponsorship policy and also developing a non-financial or academic conflict of interest policy. Read about the progress to date, view project reports and recommendations, and learn about the next steps.

Cochrane’s policy on conflict of interest (COI) is very important to those who create and use Cochrane Library content. We strive to minimize the impact of conflicts of interest in the conduct of Cochrane Reviews and as a result we have a policy that is stricter than that of most biomedical journals (1).

Progress to date

The current version was last updated in 2014, so there was a clear need to review and refresh the policy and many members of the Cochrane community will be aware that work to do this got underway late in 2018. As background to the policy revision the COI Project Team undertook three separate pieces of work; a review of organizational COI policies and selective review of academic research; a survey of Cochrane community members; and a series of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and conflict of interest experts.

• Read the three project reports:
  • a review of organizational COI policies and selective review of academic research;
  • a survey of Cochrane community members; and
  • a series of semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders and conflict of interest experts.

The findings from the interviews, survey and organizational policy review, together with expertise from the COI Project Board and knowledge of the cases that had been referred to the Funding Arbiters and Panel in the past, were used to generate a set of recommendations for change which were presented to Cochrane’s Governing Board in Santiago, in October 2019.

• Read the recommendations paper

What's next?

All recommendations were approved by the Board and work on a draft policy is currently underway. In addition the Editorial and Methods Department is working on a detailed implementation plan to disseminate information about the policy changes, raise awareness of their implications, and provide training opportunities before the policy is officially launched.

•  Visit the COI Policy revision project webpage

1. Bero L. https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2018/11/12/lisa-bero-more-journals-should-have-conflict-of-interest-policies-as-strict-as-cochrane/. [Internet]: thebmjopinion, November 12, 2018. (cited January 2020)

The Early Career Professionals group aims to provide its members with opportunities to enhance their knowledge, skills, and expertise by providing a platform for international networking with early career professionals or other members in the Cochrane community.

After the success of the ‘30 Under 30’ series which aimed to introduce young people involved in Cochrane, a new organisational group, Early Career Professionals (ECP), established with the help of the people presented in the series.

This group has four main objectives, including international networking, representing trainees, active patient involvement, and knowledge translation. The last two items are a high priority to the Cochrane community, and the group hopes to involve younger researchers and consumers with them.

Everyone involved in Cochrane can be a part of this group. The steering group involves 12 people from the ’Cochrane's 30 Under 30’ series. They are as follows: Robin W.M. Vernooij (chair), Ahmad Sofi-Mahmudi (vice-chair), Andrés Viteri García, Etienne Ngeh, Heidi Gardner, Ibrahem Hanafi, Joel Pollet, Meisser Madera, Ndi Euphrasia Ebai-Atuh, Santiago Castiello, Sarah Tanveer, and Tahira Devji.

• Visit the Early Career Professionals Cochrane Group page on Cochrane Community
• Follow ECP on Twitter and Instagram with #CochraneEarlyCareer hashtag

For further information about ECP Cochrane Group, please contact:

Robin W.M. Vernooij

Chair of ECP Cochrane Group

E-mail: robinvernooij@gmail.com

or

Ahmad Sofi-Mahmudi

Vice-chair of ECP Cochrane Group

E-mail: ahmad.pub@gmail.com

As previously announced, Cochrane has been reviewing the editorial management systems (EMS) used by our editors and authors to prepare Cochrane Reviews, and other content published in the Cochrane Library. Cochrane engaged an experienced consultancy team, Origin Editorial, to partner in this work.

Origin Editorial has helped Cochrane to document stakeholder requirements, assess the potential for Archie to meet these requirements, and identify potential external systems that could meet these requirements. This phase of work is now complete with the key decisions:

• Cochrane will not continue to develop its own EMS, and the editorial management parts of Archie will be decommissioned. The other Archie functions will be reviewed separately.
• Cochrane will explore a small number of commercial EMS providers in more detail, with the aim of selecting one for implementation.

Cochrane's programme of work to review, evaluate, select, and implement a new EMS started this year and will extend into 2020 and beyond. This programme will also look at the linked production systems used to deliver content from the EMS to the publisher platform for the Cochrane Library. A combined review will ensure these systems are complementary and work efficiently together.

On behalf of the Project Team and Origin Editorial, I would like to thank everyone who participated in the discussions, interviews, and survey as the stakeholder requirements were gathered. My thanks also to the members of the Project Team and Project Board who led and oversaw the work this year on the project to evaluate the potential new EMS approaches. These groups are now standing down as new projects are set up for the next stages in the programme of work.

I look forward to sharing a further update in the new year.

Chris Mavergames

Head of ITS/CIO and Programme/Project Sponsor

Cochrane is a global community of over 11,000 members and 68,000 supporters from more than 130 countries. We are researchers, health professionals, patients, carers, and others passionate about improving health outcomes.

The Governing Board is very pleased to announce the launch of three new organizational policies to support everyone contributing to Cochrane. These policies are designed to help members understand their roles and responsibilities both to the organization and their colleagues; and to ensure that Cochrane complies with the highest standards of governance.

Principles of Collaboration: Working Together for Cochrane

Cochrane’s new Principles of Collaboration will act as a Code of Conduct for all members and supporters. Developed by the Council on behalf of the Governing Board, with input from a cross-section of the community, this new policy lays out the principles that promote a collegial environment and effective collaboration. It describes the kinds of behaviour expected of everyone interacting with the organization.

Complaints Resolution Procedure

This new procedure supports those involved in making and handling complaints by providing transparent, consistent principles and processes. Fundamental to this procedure is the principle that in the first instance complaints should be dealt with directly between the parties involved, and at the most local level possible thereafter. This recognises that the earlier and more directly a complaint is raised, the greater the chance of successfully resolving it.

Organizational Accountabilities

Being accountable means making a commitment to be responsible and answerable for your actions, and wherever possible, doing the things you make a commitment to do. In Cochrane, accountability applies at a personal and organizational level. Members and supporters make a commitment to treat each other with respect and fairness in carrying out work for Cochrane. Management and governance decision-making are transparent and explainable. Constructive criticism and debate are welcomed. This new policy sets out clearly, and in one place, the structures for managerial and governance accountability that already exist within the organization.

All of these policies are now available on the ‘Policies’ section of the Cochrane Community website. Over the coming months you’ll receive more information and training opportunities on how they can support you, and if you’re working for a Cochrane Group, how to implement them within your Group’s standard procedures. You are welcome to submit questions and comments about these new policies to the Governing Board at: support@cochrane.org.

With very best wishes,

Martin Burton
Governing Board Co-Chair

Catherine Marshall
Governing Board Co-Chair

In 2014 Cochrane called for proposals for ‘Game Changer Initiatives’, ambitious projects to improve how we do business and enable our vision of ‘a world of improved health’.

Project Transform was funded by Cochrane and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council as part of this initiative. As the Final Report describes, Project Transform has resulted in a wide range of practical, innovative outcomes for Cochrane which have already impacted on the way Cochrane works.

Cochrane CEO, Mark Wilson says “Project Transform truly was a ‘Game Changer’ for Cochrane. It led us to innovate in ways that will have a profound and long-lasting impact on Cochrane’s evidence production by improving our editorial processes, engaging our community, and ensuring Cochrane evidence is high-quality and up-to-date in order to improve health outcomes.”

Innovative ways of involving people in Cochrane’s work was a core focus of Project Transform, which included developing classifiers for study identification, a citizen science platform, Cochrane Crowd, and an online task-sharing platform, TaskExchange. “Cochrane Crowd and TaskExchange are now core components of Cochrane’s Membership Scheme, helping us recognise contributions to Cochrane, big and small, and building skills and connections across our community” says Chris Champion, Cochrane’s Head of People Services. “In combination with novel machine-learning technologies in Evidence Pipeline, Crowd members are now making a substantial contribution to how we find the evidence on which Cochrane reviews are based.” 

Project Transform has also taken living, continually updated, systematic reviews from idea to a living, breathing, reality. Cochrane Editor-in-Chief, Karla Soares-Weiser says “Producing systematic reviews that are relevant to decision-makers is our core business. Living systematic reviews are an example of Cochrane at its best, harnessing innovation to ensure our reviews are up-to-date while maintaining rigour.” Read more about Cochrane living reviews and how to do them, or join the Cochrane-hosted Living Evidence Network here.

Each of the Project Transform components are now an ongoing part of Cochrane’s work. If you’d like to get involved in any of these activities, please get in touch with the teams below:

Machine learning and classifiers - James Thomas, james.thomas@ucl.ac.uk

Cochrane Crowd - Community Support Team, support@cochrane.org

TaskExchange - Community Support Team, support@cochrane.org

Living Systematic Reviews - lsr@cochrane.org

Living Guidelines - Julian Elliott, julian.elliott@monash.edu

The agenda and open access papers for the Cochrane Governing Board teleconference on 12 December 2019 are now available to view online, for information only.

Cochrane's governing body is the Governing Board. The Board is responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of Cochrane’s strategic direction.

If you would like to comment on an item you can contact the Board: support@cochrane.org

Many thanks to those who attended Cochrane’s first Annual General Meeting online. Over 200 participants joined from Cochrane’s head office in London, individually online, and in groups from Germany, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK.

All Resolutions proposed at the meeting were passed by the members. The record of votes is available here.

The meeting was also recorded and is available to view below.

The Governing Board can be contacted at support@cochrane.org. For questions or comments related to the AGM, please contact Lucie Binder, Head of Governance & Strategy, at admin@cochrane.org.

All content remains freely available on the Colloquium website and open to the entire Cochrane Community of members and supporters!

Cochrane’s annual flagship event brings together the world’s most influential health researchers, scientists, academics, opinion leaders, clinicians, and patients to promote evidence-informed decision-making. The unprecedented situation of civil unrest across Santiago led to the cancellation of our face-to face 2019 Colloquium and Cochrane’s first virtual Colloquium.  Whilst we recognize our virtual meeting can never replace what we would have achieved together in-person in Chile, we believe that this unique week of content as a fitting tribute to recognizing the extraordinary efforts of hundreds of contributors and the Cochrane community's spirit of resilience and collaboration.

We were so pleased to see all of the social media activity around Virtual #CochraneSantiago last week and it was very exciting to see the diverse content. The amount of work that went into the nearly 180 digital posters and close to 120 video oral presentations was impressive! We heard about equity in systematic reviews; learned about how to better disseminate evidence to diverse stakeholders; and looked at different elements of methodological diversity. We also had time to look back; we relived some memories of prior Colloquia, celebrated acheivements of our community,  and had our Annual General Meeting. We ended the week by looking ahead; to ways people can get involved, the vision of our new Cochrane Library Editor, and to our next Colloquium; #CochraneToronto in 2020! In the midst of all of this content, we also screened more than 100,000 records for the Cochrane Crowd #ColloquiumChallenge2019!

If you participated in the Colloquium last week, please share your feedback with us by 20 December. This short survey will help us know what you thought of Cochrane’s first Virtual Colloquium and will help inform what we do virtually in the future!

Finally, we would like to remind you that all Virtual #CochraneSantiago content will stay active and the 2019 Colloquium website, so you can get back to watching those oral presentations you missed during Colloquium week.

Thank you for your participation and feedback!

• Take part in the 5 minute participation survey
• Visit all the virtual #CochraneSantiago content

Dr. Karla Soares-Weiser became the new Editor in Chief of the Cochrane Library in June. Karla replaced Dr. David Tovey, who stepped down from the role at the end of May following ten years of distinguished service.

Learn more about Karla's story and her journey through Cochrane since 1995 in the video below;

Karla Soares-Weiser was born in Brazil and now lives in Israel. She is a trained psychiatrist, holds a Master's degree in epidemiology, and a Ph.D. in evidence-based healthcare from the University of São Paulo. She has been working in evidence-based health care since 1997 and is an author of over 60 Systematic Reviews, including 33 Cochrane Reviews. She has held numerous positions in Cochrane Groups, including as a Visiting Fellow at the IberoAmerican and UK Cochrane Centres, where she provided training in systematic review production. Outside Cochrane she has held Assistant Professor posts in Brazil and Israel, and established her own consultancy business providing evidence synthesis services to government agencies and not-for-profit organizations. She was instrumental in the development of Cochrane Response, the organization’s evidence consultancy service; and in 2015 was appointed Cochrane's first Deputy Editor in Chief. Since 2016 she has been leading the transformation programme of Cochrane Review Groups into Networks, and in 2017 became Acting Editor in Chief for four months during David Tovey’s leave on health grounds.

Following her appointment, Karla reiterated her vision for the Cochrane Library: “to improve health care decision making by consistently publishing timely, high priority, high-quality reviews responding to the needs of our end-users. I am committed to working with the Cochrane community to achieve this vision, strengthening diversity, and striving for an excellent author experience.”

• Learn about Cochrane's Strategy to 2020
• Visit the Cochrane Library's website

Update to Subheadings in RevMan Web: Addition of 'Summary of findings and assessment of the certainty of the evidence'

We will be adding in a new subheading to the Methods section where people will describe their approach to rating the certainty of the evidence and preparing Summary of Findings tables. Given the importance of describing GRADE methods in the review it is advisable to add the information about GRADE and preparing Summary of Findings tables under this heading. Whilst this information is included in many reviews, it is done so variably: sometimes as part of Data synthesis, Assessment of risk of bias, or under a user-defined heading at the end of the Methods section. The new Handbook chapter provides the basis for a standardised heading (see https://training.cochrane.org/handbook/current/chapter-iii#section-iii-3-3-3), and following informal consultation we have decided to add a new level 3 subheading 'Summary of findings and assessment of the certainty of the evidence'.

Where will the new heading be placed?
It will be placed as the last subheading under Data collection and analysis in the Methods section.

Will this be a fixed heading?
It is a fixed heading in RevMan Web. Note that authors who are only working in RevMan 5 will not see this heading but can add it in as a user defined heading.

What happens when a review that is available in RevMan Web is checked out in RevMan 5? Will the heading just happily show?
If a review that is available in RevMan Web is checked out in RevMan 5, the heading will be shown as a level 3 heading.

When will this be switched on in RevMan Web?
This will be enabled from Thursday 5th December in RevMan Web. Reviews which are available in RevMan Web, and are currently checked out in RevMan 5, will not be updated until they are checked in.

Will authors need to add this heading in if they are working in both RevMan Web and RevMan 5?
No. If a review is accessed in RevMan Web, the heading will be added in.

• Learn more about the way that headings work in RevMan (both online and desktop versions)