Entire Cochrane membership invited to vote

Voting for the 2017 election for two (2) internal members of the Cochrane Board is now open until Monday 24 July 2017. The results will be annouced on 27 July 2017. 

All Cochrane contributors are invited to vote in this election. You may cast your vote online at elections.cochrane.org, where you will be asked to login to your Cochrane Account to access the voting form. If you have any queries about or difficulties with the voting process, please contact elections@cochrane.org.

Cochrane places high regard on minimizing bias, promoting access, and enabling wide participation. For these reasons:

• Any Cochrane individual, Group, or committee may encourage members to participate in elections without endorsing specific candidates.
• Cochrane leaders or leadership committees (such as Executives) should not publicly endorse specific candidates.

For more information on canvassing and candidate promotion, please see the Board electoral and appointment procedure.

The minutes from the Governing Board’s meeting in Geneva, 5-7 April 2017, are now available. Governing Board members are Cochrane’s directors and trustees, and are elected to direct the strategy and policies of the organization. Questions about the minutes can be sent to admin@cochrane.org.

Additional resources:

• Agenda and open access papers from Geneva meeting
• Governing Board membership
• Full list of meeting minutes and open access papers.

We are pleased to announce the 12 successful titles from the fourth Cochrane Review Support Programme (CRSP) funding round.

1. Adverse events in patients taking macrolide antibiotics versus placebo for any indication (Cochrane Acute Respiratory Infections)
2. Cognitive behaviour therapy versus standard care for schizophrenia (Cochrane Schizophrenia)
3. Continence outcomes in pelvic organ prolapse surgery (Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility)
4. Fluoride toothpastes of different concentrations for preventing dental caries (Cochrane Oral Health)
5. Methods of consumer involvement in developing healthcare policy and research, clinical practice guidelines and patient information material (Cochrane Consumers and Communication)
6. Mobile phone based interventions for improving adherence to medication prescribed for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (Cochrane Heart)
7. Peri-operative interventions in pelvic organ prolapse surgery (Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility)
8. Saline irrigation for allergic rhinitis (Cochrane ENT)
9. Selective noradrenaline re-uptake-inhibitors (SNRIs) for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults (Cochrane Developmental, Psychosocial and Learning Problems)
10. Surgery for women with posterior compartment prolapse (Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility)
11. Treatment for lupus nephritis (Cochrane Kidney and Transplant)
12. Very early versus delayed mobilisation after stroke (Cochrane Stroke)

We received 17 applications (19 reviews) from 13 groups. To evaluate the applications we convened an international assessment panel comprising nine Cochrane contributors and consumers of Cochrane Reviews, who generously shared their time and expertise:

Dr Corrado Barbui, WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health and Service Evaluation, Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, Section of Psychiatry, University of Verona, Verona, Italy

Dr Urbà González, Unit of Dermatology, CLĺNICA GO&FER, Barcelona, Spain

Prof Sally Green, Australasian Cochrane Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Dr Richard Lehman, Hightown Surgery, Oxford, UK

Prof Ashraf F Nabhan, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

Dr Susan Norris, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

Dr Mbah P Okwen, Centre for the Development of Best Practices in Health, Yaoundé Central Hospital, Yaoundé, Cameroon

Dr Sera Tort, Cochrane Editorial Unit, London, UK

Dr Ronaldo Zonta, Secretary of Health of Florianópolis, Florianópolis, Brazil

The next funding round will open in September 2017 and will be advertised via the usual Cochrane communication channels.

Cochrane’s Project Transform team, in partnership with the LSR Network, have been working away for some time on the methods, and production and publication processes needed for Cochrane to be able to pilot Living Systematic Reviews (LSRs).

After successful meetings and events at the Cochrane Colloquium in Seoul, and a recent two-day workshop following the Canadian Cochrane Symposium, the pilots are very nearly ‘go for launch’!

In preparation for this milestone, we have published a Living Systematic Reviews web page where you can learn more about Living Systematic Reviews and the LSR Network, take a look at the guidance we have developed to support the pilots, and access webinars and other useful resources.

Support for Project Transform was provided by Cochrane and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (APP1114605). The contents of the published material are solely the responsibility of the Administering Institution, a Participating Institution or individual authors and do not reflect the views of the NHMRC.

Dear Community colleagues,

Last week I shared the news that Cochrane’s Editor in Chief, David Tovey, needed to undergo urgent coronary bypass surgery.

I’m pleased to pass on that David’s surgery took place on Monday and has gone well. We have heard that David is resting comfortably in hospital, and the prognosis is good for a full recovery.

David is a hugely respected and admired colleague, and our thoughts continue to be with him, and his family, in the coming days and weeks. Many of you, of course, will want to send personal messages and well-wishes to David directly; please may we ask that you do this through David’s Executive Assistant, Hilary Simmonds, who will ensure he receives them all in due course.

As you will appreciate, this means that David will be on leave for at least the next three months.

Since last week we have been working to put in place interim arrangements to cover his absence. David’s Deputy, Karla Soares-Weiser, will be Acting Editor in Chief and together with Cochrane’s Senior Management Team and the Central Editorial Team have finalized the changes to principal editorial and other project management and accountabilities. Here is an overview of these key areas together with the designated project lead, who can provide further information:

• CRG Structure and Function Review: Karla Soares-Weiser and Martin Burton.
• Content Strategy: Karla Soares-Weiser and Chris Champion.
• Enhanced Cochrane Library: Mark Wilson and Harriet MacLehose.
• Policy Development: Karla Soares-Weiser and Harriet MacLehose.
• CEU screening of reviews: Toby Lasserson.
• Methods coordination: Jackie Chandler and Miranda Cumpston.
• Cochrane Reviews complaints and issues: Karla Soares-Weiser.
• Review Support Programme and COI Audit and Funding Arbiter Support: Ruth Foxlee.
• Project Transform Executive and Covidence Project Board: Chris Champion.
• KT working project/PLS project: Julie Wood.

Furthermore, should you have any questions or concerns in regards to a specific piece of work or project not addressed above, please feel free to email Hilary Simmonds and we will respond as swiftly as possible.

We will keep you informed as to David’s recovery over the coming weeks, and may I extend my personal thanks and gratitude for your continued support during this time.

With my very best wishes

Mark
 

Mark G. Wilson
Chief Executive Officer

The 2016 Journal Citation Report (JCR) has just been released by Clarivate Analytics (formerly Thomson ISI), and we are pleased to announce that Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) Impact Factor is now 6.124.

This is a slight increase on the 2015 impact factor, which was 6.103.

The CDSR impact factor is calculated by taking the total number of citations in a given year to all Cochrane Reviews published in the past 2 years, and dividing that number by the total number of Reviews published in the past 2 years. It is a useful metric for measuring the strength of a journal by how often it its publications are cited in scholarly articles.

Some highlights of the CDSR 2016 Impact Factor include:

• The CDSR is ranked 14 of the 154 journals in the Medicine, General & Internal category.
• The CDSR received 57,740 cites in the 2016 Impact Factor period, compared with 47,899 for the 2015 Impact Factor calculation.
• The total number of times the CDSR was cited increased from 47,899 in 2015 to 57,740 in 2015 meaning the CDSR received the 5th highest number of citations in its category.
• The 5-Year Impact Factor is 7.018.

The main Impact Factor report and the CRG reports will be delivered after the JCR is updated in September. This is because, as has happened in previous years, Clarivate was unable to accurately index Cochrane Reviews for this Impact Factor window; Wiley and Cochrane are following-up with Clarivate regarding the calculation of the 2016 impact factor.

We expect that the CDSR impact factor will be revised when the JCR is updated in September 2017. When this occurs, we will revise and re-circulate documentation accordingly. In the meantime, we encourage Cochrane contributors to use and share the CDSR impact factor noting that this June release will be revised in the September update from Clarivate.

More information is available here on how the CDSR Impact Factor is calculated.

Deadline for submitting nominations: 20 June 2017

• Two internal members
• Three external members
• One Co-Chair

Do you want to help shape Cochrane’s strategic direction and build your leadership profile?

Cochrane exists so that healthcare decisions get better. Over the past 20 years we have helped to transform the way health decisions are made. We do this by identifying, appraising, and synthesizing individual research findings to produce the best available evidence on what can work, what might harm, and where more research is needed. We are widely acknowledged as one of the world’s leading organizations in the health sector, with a reputation for producing high-quality, credible information to inform health decision-making. But we want to achieve more – and our Strategy to 2020 aims to put Cochrane evidence at the heart of health decision-making all over the world.

We now invite you to apply to help lead the organization to 2020 and beyond.

Due to the expiry of current terms of existing Governing Board members, we are seeking to elect two (2) internal members from the Cochrane community; appoint three (3) external members; and appoint one (1) Co-Chair to replace Lisa Bero, who is stepping down from her post after four years of outstanding service on the Board. The new Co-Chair will work with current Co-Chair, Cindy Farquhar.

You must have strong leadership skills, vision, and expertise, and be able to play a pivotal role in Cochrane’s future success. You will bring high levels of personal integrity to the role and a commitment to working in a multi-cultural, geographically diverse organization. You must be able to challenge and debate constructively, whilst exemplifying mutual trust and respect for other Board members. Candidates who have not served at a board/director level before are welcome to apply.

The deadline for nominations is the end of your day on Tuesday 20 June 2017.

For more information and details of how to nominate, please visit the Cochrane Community Board Elections page.

The Cochrane Council was established in November 2016 as part of Cochrane’s governance restructure, to ensure that Cochrane Groups retain an effective voice in Cochrane’s leadership and strategic decision-making. The Council met for the first time at the Cochrane Mid-Year Meeting in Geneva, April 2017, and will be meeting again by teleconference on 28 June 2017.  

The Council values input from members of the Cochrane community, and we invite all contributors to submit agenda items for discussion. Matters raised should be of wide relevance to all Cochrane’s Groups and contributors. To contact the Council, please see contact details for your representative, or contact the Council directly. Please send your submissions by the end of your working day Friday, 23 June.