The new name for Cochrane Long-term Conditions & Ageing Network

Following consultations with all Cochrane Reviews Groups (CRGs) within the network, the Cochrane Long-term Conditions and Ageing Network are pleased to announce that they have changed their name to the Cochrane Abdomen and Endocrine Network.

Initial discussions about the name change began in November 2018, with the appointment of Professor Cindy Farquhar as the Senior Editor for the Network.

Several names were proposed by the Senior Editor and Network members that captured the scope of the six CRGs within the Network (Cochrane Colorectal Cancer, Cochrane Hepato-Biliary, Cochrane IBD, Cochrane Kidney and Transplant, Cochrane Metabolic and Endocrine, and Cochrane Upper GI and Pancreatic Diseases).

Options were voted on ahead of the Governance meetings in April 2019, and the final name agreed during the Network’s face-to-face meeting in Krakow. The agreed name was circulated to all Network members on 3 April 2019.

Our new name provides our Network with a clear and cohesive identity as we take our work forward. 

• Learn more about Cochrane Abdomen & Endocrine

The 26th Cochrane Colloquium, Santiago 2019 abstracts deadline has been extended.

This year’s theme is ‘Embracing diversity’, recognizing Cochrane as a truly global independent community, addressing relevant health questions from international stakeholders using a range of diverse methods.

We ask that abstract submissions consider the relevance to this theme. In particular, we welcome submissions that address or discuss diversity on reviews from different viewpoints/angles.

The deadline for workshop submissions is 12 April 2019.

The deadline for abstracts has been extended to 26 April 2019.

All submissions will be notified of their outcome in June 2019.

• View the call for abstracts
• View the call for workshops
• Find out more about this year’s Cochrane Colloquium in the exciting city of Santiago, Chile

Changes to the Cochrane Council

The Cochrane Council aims to ensure that Cochrane Groups retain an effective voice in Cochrane’s leadership and strategic decision-making.

Fergus Macbeth, Co-Chair of Cochrane Council, has stepped down from his position after two years of service on the Council; Fergus will continue his work as Co-ordinating Editor of the Cochrane Lung Cancer Group.

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Craig Lockwood as the Council's new Co-Chair, who will work with current Co-Chair Miranda Langendam. Craig is the Director of Implementation at the Joanna Briggs Institute of Science as well as the Director of the Cochrane Nursing Care Field. He is the Council's Representative of Cochrane Fields Groups.

The Council and the Governing Board wish to thank Fergus for his contribution to Cochrane and wish many congratulations to Craig on his appointment.

• Learn more about Cochrane Council
• See the full membership of the Cochrane Council

World Journal of Meta-Analysis invited Farhad Shokraneh, the information specialist of Cochrane Schizophrenia Group, to summarise seven strategies to enhance the reproducibility of systematic reviews. It is an open access paper and you can read it here: 'Reproducibility and replicability of systematic reviews'

Our Strategy to 2020 aims to make Cochrane the ‘home of evidence’ to inform health decision making, build greater recognition of our work, and become the leading advocate for evidence-informed health care. To meet our goals we have expanded our social media platforms to include Instagram! Instagram is a free photo and video sharing app. Some Cochrane Groups are already using the app, including Cochrane France,  Cochrane Russia, Cochrane Iran, Cochrane UK, Cochrane Rehabilitation, and Cochrane Common Mental Disorders.  We also have an account for the Cochrane Colloquium that will be passed to each host Centre annually.

It’s connected us with a different demographic then some of our other platforms – so far our audience is young (18% 18-24, 53% 25-34, and 19% 35-44) and mostly students or in their early career (nurses, doctors, dentists).

• If you are using Instagram we invite you to follow us at @cochraneorg 
• You can take a a look at our Instagram profile on youer desktop here.  
• If you are thinking about Instagram as a dissemination platform for your group or currently have an account, please review these tips.

We are pleased to announce the new one-stop support portal for Cochrane Help and Support Services.

The Cochrane Help and Support Centre is an online portal that allows you to search for answers to common queries about Cochrane's work. If you don't find what you are looking for, you can open a support ticket to be dealt with by the different support teams, including Community Support (for all general queries), ME Support (for Managing Editors), CIS Support (for Information Specialists) and the RevMan Web development team.

The Help and Support Centre opened at the end of February 2019. In the first month, over 500 tickets were dealt with by Cochrane staff from 360 unique users. For the General Community Support Tickets, 41 people have responded to a customer satisfaction survey with 88% (36 people) responding; 'My query was fully and promptly answered'.

For ease of access, you can reach the portal through the 'Help' tab in the top navigation bar of the Community website.

Please let us know if you have any suggestions for articles to be included in the Knowledge Base, or if you have any other feedback on the service by emailing us at support@cochrane.org

• Visit the new Help and Support Centre portal

The agenda and open access papers for the Cochrane Governing Board meeting in Krakow, Poland on 4-5 April 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

Dear Cochrane Colleagues,

We are looking forward to seeing many of you at the April Governance Meetings in Krakow, kindly hosted this year by Cochrane Poland.

The Governance Meetings provide the main annual opportunity for Cochrane’s senior leaders and Group managers to come together to learn about and discuss organizational priorities, challenges and opportunities. Feedback from previous meetings has shown that participants would value more time working together across Group-types. We’re therefore trialling a new format this year, with a full day of cross-group strategic sessions on Tuesday 2 April and a half-day on the morning of Wednesday 3 April.

The content of these strategic sessions has been developed over the past couple of months in partnership with many of you, focused on the priorities you have identified, and facilitated by the Central Executive Team. See the full program for the strategic sessions and all other scheduled meetings in Krakow on the Cochrane Community website.

On the Tuesday we will spend a full day together, beginning with brief presentations from the Governing Board and Council Co-Chairs; and the CEO, Editor-in-Chief and their teams, to bring you up-to-date on activities over the last six months, followed by a Question & Answer session with all participants. Any participant is invited to ask questions at the session, but we also welcome questions in advance on the Cochrane Forums (topic: Governance > Governance Meetings 2019), which will be answered at the session and/or on the Forums directly. The Forums provide a space for all Members and Supporters to have open and transparent online discussions about issues relevant to Cochrane.

In the morning, the Council will lead an interactive discussion on the development of a set of key principles for how Cochrane Members and Supporters work together. In order for Cochrane to achieve its goals, it is essential that all those who work for and with us around the world understand the shared values of the organization, and the key principles that promote effective collaboration and minimize the risk of serious and disruptive conflict. The Board and Council feel the time is right, given recent events within the organization but also internationally, that we set out in writing these principles and the kinds of behaviours expected of everyone interacting with Cochrane. A draft of the principles is currently being developed by the Council and will be sent out to the community before the Governance Meetings. Feedback will be invited online and at the session, with the aim of finalizing them in time for this year’s Colloquium, in Chile.

After lunch on the Tuesday we will come together again for a panel session and interactive discussion on ‘Creating an author experience fit for the future’, based on a paper developed by the Council with invited input from the Central Executive Team. Following the coffee break, there will be a presentation and discussion on the opportunities and challenges for all Group-types in in improving the author experience, supporting the continuous improvement of editorial standards for Cochrane Reviews, and the development of Cochrane Review Group Networks. Presentations will be given by the Senior Editors of the Cochrane Review Group Networks, and this will be followed by general discussion.

On the Wednesday morning, participants are invited to choose to attend one of three sessions on:

1. Addressing Risk of Bias 2 and RevMan Web implementation (Particularly relevant to members of CRGs and Methods Groups)
2. Supporting policy-makers in the use of evidence in governmental policy-making (Particularly relevant to members of Centres and Fields – this session has a restricted number of participants and the deadline for applications has now passed)
3. Delivering training in Cochrane: a strategic discussion (Relevant to members of all Group-types)

We sincerely thank those who provided input into the organization and content of the Krakow Governance Meetings. We look forward to an exciting, informative and thought-provoking meeting with our Cochrane leaders from around the world. One final reminder: please don’t forget to sign-up to attend the Governance Meetings online by 15 March.

With very best wishes,

Marguerite Koster and Martin Burton
Board Co-Chairs

Fergus Macbeth and Miranda Langendam
Council Co-Chairs