The Cochrane-Wikipedia partnership is pleased to announce a pilot in which volunteers will work with Cochrane Global Ageing to help improve the medical and health content of Wikipedia in this area. If you are a student in a health- or care-related discipline, and have an interest in communicating about evidence informed health care, this is a great opportunity to engage!

We will recruit three volunteers through this project. To find out more information on the project, including how to apply, please read the full story on cochrane.org.

Holger Schünemann has announced his resignation from the Cochrane Steering Group (CSG). He will focus on leading Cochrane Canada and efforts to attract long-term funding to the Cochrane Groups based in Canada. His resignation takes effect from 22 August. We’d like to thank him for his service on the CSG and his contributions to its work over the last three years.

The Methods representative seat on the new Governing Board is scheduled to be one of the four new positions to be elected by the whole Cochrane community in the last quarter of 2016, following consideration of the governance reforms by Cochrane’s AGM on 25 October in Seoul.

Lisa Bero and Cindy Farquhar
Co-Chairs, Cochrane Steering Group

The 2016 Mid-Year Review, reporting on progress of targets associated with Cochrane's Strategy to 2020, is now available. This report provides a comprehensive update of work underway on all 17 2016 targets, and a more detailed picture of the data highlighted in the 2016 Q2 Dashboard, which was published in July.

For more information on this report, or to provide feedback, please contact Chris Champion, Senior Programme Manager, CEO's Office.

Cochrane Nutrition's vision is to make Cochrane the independent, globally recognized go-to place for nutrition systematic reviews

Cochrane is delighted to announce the establishment of the Cochrane Nutrition Field (Cochrane Nutrition), under the leadership of Cochrane South Africa (SA), the South African Medical Research Council, and the Centre for Evidence-based Health Care (CEBHC), Stellenbosch University, along with international partners.

Co-Directors Solange Durão of Cochrane SA and Celeste Naude of the CEBHC will lead Cochrane Nutrition, with guidance from an international advisory board comprising representatives from multiple stakeholder and partner groups. Cochrane Nutrition has been in active development since an exploratory meeting with interested stakeholders held in Cape Town in 2015, which established that broad-based support from both Cochrane and external stakeholders.
 

Find out more on Cochrane.org

We are delighted to announce the launch of the Cochrane Style Manual, a resource that outlines Cochrane journal style for use in the preparation of Cochrane Reviews and other Cochrane content. The Style Manual results from a comprehensive update of the Cochrane Style Guide, with extensive input from members of the Cochrane Editorial Unit, Copy Edit Support, and Review Group editorial teams, and should be used alongside other resources such as the Handbook, MECIR standards and the Cochrane Editorial and Publishing Resource.

If you have questions or would like more information about the Style Manual, please contact John Hilton, Editor, or Elizabeth Royle, Copy Edit Support Manager.

Project Transform aims to significantly improve the long-term value and sustainability of Cochrane by piloting, refining, and scaling up innovations in content production in collaboration with other Cochrane projects.

This short and snappy new video explains what Project Transform can mean for you and the wider Cochrane community. Take a look!

Find out more about Project Transform here.

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.

Study offers insight on factors influencing choice of publication in Cochrane and non-Cochrane sources.

New evidence published in BioMed Central’s Systematic Reviews provides some insights into authors’ experiences preparing and publishing systematic reviews, as well as factors that influence choice of publication arena, specifically Cochrane and non-Cochrane sources.

“The value of publishing systematic reviews in Cochrane was very evident. Cochrane authors valued the support, guidance and the technical resources offered. Even authors who did not conduct and publish their systematic reviews with Cochrane used Cochrane resources, such as The Cochrane Handbook,” says Dr. Lisa Hartling, lead author of the study.  "There was a lot of interest from authors in increasing efficiencies for producing and publishing systematic reviews. Cochrane Crowd and the Organizational Structure and Function review of Cochrane groups may work towards this goal. While this study may be limited by generalizability, we hope it provides some insight on the motivations of authors when they are deciding where to publish their systematic review.”

Read the full news story on Cochrane.org
 
Related resources:

• Publication of reviews synthesizing child health evidence (PORSCHE): a survey of authors to identify factors associated with publication in Cochrane and non-Cochrane sources
• Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions
• Cochrane Crowd
• Organizational Structure and Function

Dear colleagues,
During 2016, the Cochrane Steering Group has been developing a proposal for the transition to a new governance structure for Cochrane, including a transition from the Steering Group structure to a new Cochrane Governing Board.

Following an initial round of consultation in February and March, the proposals were the subject of detailed and very productive discussions at the Mid-Year Meetings in London in April (see documents on here). An amended proposal has now been drafted, along with more detailed plans for amendments to Cochrane’s Articles of Association and the establishment of a Cochrane Council.

This proposal arises from a review of governance that the Steering Group conducted during 2015. Key aims for the new Board include ensuring that its membership reflects Cochrane as an evolving organization and our environment; supporting the Board's role in making decisions on behalf of Cochrane as a whole; opening the membership to bring in external perspectives and valuable skills; and refreshing our electoral procedures.

The current Steering Group believes that the proposed changes will deliver improved governance for Cochrane, while ensuring that Cochrane Groups and contributors retain an active and effective voice in Cochrane's leadership and direction.

Consultation and next steps
All Cochrane Groups and individual contributors are invited to discuss and have input into the current proposal. Final decisions on how to proceed will be made at the Steering Group meeting and Annual General Meeting at the Cochrane Colloquium in Seoul in October 2016.

• Consultation document [pdf]
• Current Articles of Association [pdf]
• Draft new Articles of Association [pdf]

Cochrane Group Executives are asked to lead these discussions and collating feedback among their constituents. All contributors are invited to contribute their feedback through the Execs, where applicable. Written feedback from the Execs should be submitted to Miranda Cumpston, Head of Learning and Support at the Cochrane Central Executive by Tuesday, 23 August.

Authors and other individual contributors are also invited to submit feedback directly via the online survey by Tuesday, 23 August.

All feedback received by this deadline will be collated and used to finalise documents for the Colloquium. The new Articles of Association will be put to the membership for ratification at the AGM, and the detailed policy documents will be considered for a decision by the Steering Group.

For more detailed information about the history of this project, please see the Governance Restructure Project page.

Best wishes

Miranda Cumpston
Head of Learning and Support

As of the end of 2013, Wikipedia's health content was assessed at more than 155,000 articles, which had been viewed more than 4.88 billion times. Wikipedia therefore provides a major source of health information for people across the world.

The Cochrane-Wikipedia partnership, formalized in 2014, supports the inclusion of relevant evidence within all Wikipedia articles on health, as well as processes to help ensure that health information included in Wikipedia is of the highest quality and accuracy. For more information on the Cochrane-Wikipedia partnership, please click here.

We are now pleased to announce a pilot programme through which Cochrane Review Groups (CRGs) can benefit from having a volunteer work with them in improving the medical and health content of Wikipedia that is of relevance to their Group.

In 2016, we will recruit three volunteers that will work with three CRGs for a period of three months. At the end of the year we will evaluate this pilot phase and consider improvements that can be made, before deciding whether to continue the programme in 2017. Volunteers will receive a small honorarium for their efforts.

What we expect from CRGs:

• One to two hours per week of a named contact person’s time to work with the volunteer and provide:
  • editorial oversight of the edits and writing conducted by the volunteer;
  • guidance on priority topics and articles.
• Feedback on this pilot.

What we expect from the volunteer:

• Interest in communicating about evidence informed health care.
• Willing and able to write and edit Wikipedia articles and understand systematic reviews.
• Availability during a 3-month period (October–December 2016) for 8 hours per week.

What you can expect from the Communications and External Affairs Team at Cochrane:

• Guidance on Wikipedia editing, including providing training resources and facilitating connections to Wikipedians where needed.
• Overall project management: this will include a virtual kick-off meeting with the volunteers to provide training, as well as monthly meetings with CRGs and volunteers to monitor progress, facilitate work where needed, and share best practice between CRGs.

If your CRG is interested in supporting a volunteer in conducting this work, please send an email by 20 August to Sylvia de Haan, Partnerships Coordinator at Cochrane, explaining your interest and indicating who will be the main contact person for the pilot project. If we receive more than three expressions of interest, we will make a selection based on CRGs’ motivation to join this pilot project and the thematic areas most in need of updating within Wikipedia. If we receive more than three expressions of interest, and all are of the same quality and urgency, we may decide to keep some of the expressions of interest for 2017 when considering the next phase of this project.

For the past twelve years, the Department of Health in England has funded an annual scheme, the National Institute for Health Research Cochrane Review Incentive Scheme, which offers small incentive payments to Cochrane Review Groups (CRGs) to support preparing key new or updated Cochrane Reviews by agreed dates. Although these awards cannot meet the full costs of conducting reviews, they provide CRG Co-ordinating Editors opportunities to distribute support in ways that will facilitate and possibly accelerate activity that is already planned or underway.

Since the Scheme's launch, more than 240 awards have been made. This year, the funders expect to make around 10-20 awards. They encourage Co-ordinating Editors of all CRGs, not only those whose editorial bases are located in the UK, to nominate up to three new Cochrane Reviews or Review updates that they consider are of importance and for which they anticipate that the award of an incentive payment would lead to significantly earlier completion of work.

Nominations are being accepted until 31 August 2016. For complete information on what the scientific panel is looking for and how to apply, please see the submission criteria and form.