The Annual General Meeting has been postponed due to the cancellation of the Colloquium.

It will be re-scheduled within the coming weeks. More details will follow.

In case of questions, please contact Lucie Binder, Senior Advisor (Governance & Management) lbinder@cochrane.org

With great sadness, we share the news of Dr. Arne Ohlsson's passing last week. He was a colleague and friend to many at Cochrane Neonatal, and a kind and nurturing editor, author, physician, and teacher. Arne was the director of Cochrane Canada from 1998 to 2005, a Cochrane Neonatal senior editor, and an author on countless Cochrane reviews.

In a recent Interview with Cochrane Canada, Arne spoke about his involvement with Cochrane from the earliest days to the present.

In addition to his work with Cochrane, Arne was a neonatologist at Women's College Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital, and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He was a professor at McMaster University and the University of Toronto. He was a recipient of the Distinguished Neonatologist Award and colleagues considered him "one of the most celebrated epidemiologists in Canada."

We add ourselves to the long list of those who will miss Arne, but we know the impact of his work will live on.

Cochrane Neonatal

Cochrane Crowd are running a citation screening challenge to coincide with the 2019 Cochrane Colloquium, and everyone is welcome to join in to help reach our goal of 20,000 classifications in 48 hours!

When is it running?

Start: Tuesday 22nd October at 13:00 Chile time (GMT-3)

Finish: Thursday 24th October 13:00 Chile time (GMT-3)

How much time do I have to commit?

Of course, we’d love you to do the whole 48 hours! Just kidding. Any contribution is welcomed, whether it be a few five-minute grabs or a more focused effort.

Sounds good so far. But I’m new to Cochrane Crowd. What is it all about?

Your best bet is to watch our 2-minute video introduction here.

If I join in, what will I be doing?

Your mission in Cochrane Crowd is to identify studies that provide the best possible evidence of the effectiveness of a health treatment – the randomised trials. Once identified by the Crowd these studies go into a central register where health researchers and practitioners can access them.

Don’t be spooked by the science speak! You don’t need any prior knowledge to contribute to Cochrane Crowd.

Will there be prizes?

We’re glad you asked! Prizes will go to the top contributors at the Colloquium, and the top contributors taking part from other places around the world. What are the prizes, you ask? You’ll have to wait and see!

How do I sign up for the challenge?

There is no need to sign up for the challenge per se, you just have to make sure you’ve signed up to Cochrane Crowd before the challenge starts.

Sounds fun, can I tell all my friends about it and get them to join in?

Yes please! We want as many as possible to join us. Feel free to share this page (share buttons below).

For this challenge we’ll be tracking how many countries are represented in our participants, so we want people to take part from all over the world!

Is there a Twitter hashtag?

Sure is, we’ll be keeping in touch with #ChileChallenge2019.

How can I find out more?

You can email Emily and Anna from Cochrane Crowd at crowd@cochrane.org. And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!

In May 2019 Cochrane, producer of the Cochrane Library, the world’s pre-eminent collection of high quality evidence to inform healthcare decisions, launched a competitive tender to establish its future publishing partner from 2021 for the following decade.

The tender attracted a wide response, and over the last few months Cochrane has been reviewing shortlisted proposals from suitable partners to decide with whom, and under what terms, our unique and world-renowned product in the health and healthcare sector will be published in the future.

Cochrane’s Governing Board has now agreed on a ‘preferred publisher’, and its Senior Management Team is negotiating with that publisher to try to reach a set of outcomes determined by the Board. A final decision is expected in November 2019.

Cochrane aims to identify a publishing partner who will increase the accessibility, awareness, use and impact of the Cochrane Library, promote greater innovation and the development of other derivative products and services, put Cochrane evidence at the heart of health decision-making globally, whilst also ensuring the long-term financial sustainability of the organization.

This competitive tender process is being led by Charlotte Pestridge, Head of Cochrane’s Publishing, Research & Development Department, together with a Project Board drawn from members of Cochrane’s Governing and Editorial Boards as well as its Central Executive Team[1]. The Project Board has been assessing proposals against rigorous criteria in four strategic areas: publishing services, open access, product innovation and financial sustainability.

Cochrane intends to announce its new publishing partner arrangements before the end of the year.  

• For more information on Cochrane’s publishing partnership and the tender process, please contact, Charlotte Pestridge, cpestridge@cochrane.org
• Find out more about Cochrane’s publishing and our health evidence: https://www.cochrane.org/

The agenda and open access papers for the Cochrane Governing Board meeting to be held at the Cochrane Colloquium in Santiago, Chile on 19-21 October 2019 is 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

Just in time for the 2019 Cochrane Colloquium, the living systematic review (LSR) support team has revised the guidance for Cochrane living systematic reviews, following evaluation of Cochrane pilot LSRs and wide consultation across the Living Evidence Network. If you’re coming to Santiago, join us at our oral presentation and workshop to find out more. We’d love to see you there!

If you’re new to the world of living evidence, Cochrane LSRs are an approach to keeping Cochrane Reviews continually up-to-date as new evidence emerges.  LSRs are useful for topics that are a high priority for health decision-making, where the evidence base is uncertain and further research is likely.    

If you’re thinking about doing a living systematic review or would like to know more, Cochrane’s LSR support team would love to help. We can provide methods guidance, templates and practical examples, and answer your questions.  Contact us at lsr@cochrane.org

• Learn more about Cochrane's Living Systematic Reviews

Sign-up for the Colloquium schedule
If you are attending the Santiago Colloquium,  login to your Colloquium account, and sign-up for the sessions you want to attend. Create your own personal schedule for the colloquium and then export to Outlook/Google and add personal notes.

Workshops
Please note that most workshops have limited capacity, therefore participants are required to sign up for workshops. You can only sign up for one workshop per time slot, but you can be on the waiting list of a preferred workshop while signed up for another one. You will then receive an email when a spot is available.

Restricted meetings
Meetings are open to all delegates unless marked 'Restricted' to a specific target audience.

Social events
Register and donate today for the Anne Anderson Fundraising Walk – a tour on Santiago’s Cerro San Cristobal, set-up to raise money for the Anne Anderson Prize.

Today, Cochrane publishes an amended version of the Review, 'Exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome.’ In the last nine months, this Cochrane Review has been modified by the review’s authors and evaluated by independent peer reviewers and editors. It now places more emphasis on the limited applicability of the evidence to definitions of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) used in the included studies, the long-term effects of exercise on symptoms of fatigue, and acknowledges the limitations of the evidence about harms that may occur.

Cochrane’s Editor-in-Chief, Dr Karla Soares-Weiser, commented on the publication of the review, “Cochrane recognizes the importance of providing the best available evidence on interventions for ME/CFS to enable patients and clinicians across the world to make well-informed decisions about treatment. This amended review is still based on a research question and a set of methods from 2002, and reflects evidence from studies that applied definitions of ME/CFS from the 1990s. Having heard different views expressed about the evidence base for this condition, we acknowledge that the publication of this amended review will not resolve all the ongoing questions about this globally important health topic.

“We have decided, therefore, that a new approach to the publication of evidence in this area is needed; and, today we are committing to the production of a full update of this Cochrane Review, beginning with a comprehensive review of the protocol, which will be developed in consultation with an independent advisory group that we intend to convene. This group will involve partners from patient-advocacy groups from different parts of the world who will help us to embed a patient-focused, contemporary perspective on the review question, methods and findings.” 

She added, “By forging better relationships with patients, as well as the groups that represent them and the clinicians who seek to treat them, we can improve the way in which future Cochrane Reviews in this area address important questions and meet patients’and clinicians’ needs. I can confirm that work will begin on this new review at the beginning of 2020 and that we will keep patient groups regularly informed of progress during the subsequent months.”

• Read the Review in full
• Find out more about the Cochrane Library

This post was originally published on the Cochrane Methods website on 1 October 2019

We are delighted to announce the launch of the brand-new edition of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (Version 6). After substantive updates since the first published edition by Julian Higgins and Sally Green in 2008, Version 6 is now freely available online via the Cochrane website and in printed book form, which can be purchased from the Wiley website. 

We would not have been able to produce this Handbook without the expertise and commitment of individuals from our Methods Groups and methods community. We would like to thank the team of over one hundred authors, editors and chapter peer reviewers for completing this major piece of work. We especially want to thank the central Handbook editorial team, Senior Scientific Editors Julian Higgins and James Thomas, Associate Scientific Editors Jackie Chandler, Miranda Cumpston, Tianjing Li, Matt Page, Vivian Welch, and Laura Mellor, our Editorial Assistant. 

Overview of the new Handbook

Version 6 has been revised to reflect current best practice in review methodology and includes updated guidance that will be widely applicable. The new edition of the Handbook is divided into four parts: The first part (available only online) addresses issues specific to undertaking systematic reviews within Cochrane; the second part describes the core methods applicable to systematic reviews of interventions, from framing the question through to interpreting the results; the third part provides considerations for tackling systematic reviews from different perspectives, such as when thinking about specific populations, or complex interventions, or particular types of outcomes; and the fourth part covers a range of further topics, including prospective approaches, non-randomised studies and individual participant data.

How can I find out more?

Below we have compiled a list of the key resources and references that complement the launch of the new Handbook:

• The Handbook editors will publish an Editorial in the Cochrane Library.
• Cochrane released a news post announcing the Handbook with quotes from Senior Scientific Editor, Professor Julian Higgins, and Editor in Chief of the Cochrane Library, Dr Karla Soares-Weiser.
• A ‘What’s New’ leaflet has been created to highlight key updates in the new Handbook, and considerations that Cochrane Review Groups may need to take in order to address the methods contained.
• The Methodological Expectations for Cochrane Intervention Reviews (MECIR) has been updated to reflect the new Handbook and introduce new MECIR authors (of the 75 Conduct Standards, only 10 Standards changed in terms of scientific content or recommendations of ‘mandatory’ vs. ‘highly desirable’: C14, C15, C23, C52, C55, C59, C60, C72, C74 and C75).
• Watch the recorded webinar 'Introduction to new Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions (Version 6).'

The 2019 Cochrane Colloquium will be a key avenue for dissemination of the methods detailed in the Handbook. For those attending, the following will be of particular interest:

• 2019 Methods Symposium on Monday 21 October 2019 at 14:00-17:00: This year’s Methods Symposium will examine whether our protocols continue to provide the road map we need to navigate a modern Cochrane review. It will showcase updated material from the new Handbook and will address aspects of pre-specification from diverse methodological perspectives (make sure to register!).
• Cochrane and complex reviews: methodological advances in the new Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions on Thursday 24 October, 14:00-15:30: This Special Session will provide an overview of the new Handbook, followed by presentations drawing on key new chapters, presented by their lead authors.
• Embracing Methodological Diversity (Plenary Session) on Thursday 24 October 2019, 09:00-10:30: This Plenary will showcase how Cochrane is adopting and endorsing increasing methodological diversity within its reviews, and will include a launch announcement for the new Handbook.
• Also look out for the core methods training workshops from the Cochrane Methods Groups.

Requests to translate

With the launch of the new Handbook, we have already begun receiving requests to translate. As part of Cochrane’s multi-lingual commitment and aim to increase capacity and impact in non-English speaking countries, we have begun defining the process for translating Cochrane’s methods guidance. Given the very large size and technically challenging content, the process highlights that translation teams begin by translating the Methodological Expectations for Cochrane Intervention Reviews (MECIR), which are also embedded within the new Handbook. Full details on the process can be found here.

What next?

The previous version of the Handbook sold nine thousand copies and has been cited over 40,000 times (according to Google Scholar), and we know that this version will continue to be the go-to resource for Cochrane review teams and the wider community. 

To facilitate the dissemination of the Handbook, we have developed an implementation plan, which is also being discussed with the Cochrane Review Group (CRG) Networks and other key stakeholders, to ensure review teams have the resources in place to use the guidance in the new Handbook. 

If anyone has any questions or is unsure on any of the aspects of implementation, please contact support@cochrane.org.