We are pleased to provide an update on Cochrane’s open access policy, which has been in place since February 2013. The open access policy aims to broaden access to Cochrane Reviews (including protocols) and generate greater impact. Since February 2013, Cochrane Reviews have been free to view 12 months after publication (green open access) via the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) in the Cochrane Library. Alternatively, authors have had a choice to select a Creative Commons licence for immediate open access upon payment of an article publication charge (gold open access). In October 2015, the Cochrane Steering Group reviewed this policy and approved some extensions to it. As a result of this we have been completed two key developments to allow Cochrane Reviews to be accessed more easily and openly. The first change is to make protocols for Cochrane Reviews free to view immediately upon publication in the CDSR, and the second change is to automate the process of depositing Cochrane Reviews in PubMedCentral. We anticipate that these changes will lead to greater dissemination of Cochrane Reviews and an increased impact from our current open access policy. Full details of these changes are below and in the Cochrane Editorial and Publishing Policy Resource (EPPR).
 
Changes to the open access policy
The Cochrane Steering Group approved the following changes to the Cochrane’s open access policy for Cochrane Reviews and protocols for Cochrane Reviews (http://community-archive.cochrane.org/news/tags/authors/cochrane-steering-group-announces-main-decisions-meeting-vienna):

• Protocols free to view upon publication
• Cochrane Reviews deposited in PubMedCentral and available to users 12 months after publication in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR).

 
Protocols free to view upon publication
Protocols have been free to view in the CDSR in the Cochrane Library (www.cochranelibrary.com) since 1 March 2016. Details of this change are in the EPPR.
 
Cochrane Reviews deposited in PubMedCentral
Cochrane Reviews published from 21 September 2016 onwards are being deposited in PubMedCentral on the authors’ behalf. As described in the policy details, the contact author for the review will need to approve deposition. The Cochrane Reviews will be available to view in PubMedCentral 12 months after publication in the CDSR.
 
These changes are reflected in the updated open access policy in the EPPR:

• Open access options for the Cochrane Library (link)
• Posting Cochrane Reviews and Protocols in Scholarly Collaboration Networks (SCNs) and repositories, including PubMedCentral (link)

 
Changes to the licence for publication forms
The licence for publication forms for Cochrane Reviews and protocols for Cochrane Reviews have been updated to reflect the changes in the open access policy along with some other general updates. The updated versions are now in Archie for authors to sign (and replace previous versions). The process to sign licence for publication forms has not changed. All versions are also available to view in full, along with introductory information, in the EPPR (link).
 
The updates include changes in the standard licences (for green open access) and Creative Commons licences (for gold open access), the PAHO and WHO addenda for standard licences, and new PAHO and WHO addenda for Creative Commons licences. Version numbers have been applied to the licences. See the EPPR for a list of the changes across versions.
 
As an example, the following changes were made to the updated standard licence for publication form:

• Field added for digital object identifier (DOI) version number.
• Revised authorship criteria for consistency with ICMJE criteria. (Authorship policy also updated in line with this: http://community.cochrane.org/editorial-and-publishing-policy-resource/ethical-considerations/authorship-and-contributorship)
• Authors are directed to the Cochrane Editorial and Publishing Policy Resource for Cochrane’s updating policy.
• Removed text about Cochrane Review Group approval ahead of publication (now located in the EPPR: link).
• Updated the following author rights:
  • Revised the rights to post in repositories and Scholarly Collaboration Networks (SCNs).
  • Added sharing rights with colleagues.
• Updated hyperlinks and minor text edit updates, including the addition of generic email addresses for all Wiley contacts and directing authors to Rightslink for permission requests.

 
The updated versions of the licence for publication forms are included in Archie and replace the previous version. General information about the forms is also available in the EPPR.
 
Contacts for questions

• Cochrane’s open access policy: David Tovey, Editor in Chief, dtovey@cochrane.org
•  Licence for publication forms: Harriet MacLehose, Senior Editor, hmaclehose@cochrane.org

Best wishes,
 
David Tovey
Editor in Chief, Cochrane Library

Cochrane’s newest Field, Global Ageing, launches on 1 October 2016. This field is the natural evolution of the Cochrane Healthcare of Older People Field. Read more about Cochrane Global Ageing in an interview with Managing Editor and Co-Director, Sue Marcus, on Cochrane.org.

For more information, please see 'Introducing Cochrane Global Ageing' on Cochrane.org

Visit the Cochrane Global Ageing website

‘It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.’ World famous philosopher (and sometime baseball player) Yogi Berra got it spot on. We’re all constantly making judgements – large and small – about the future based on our knowledge, experience, values, and intellectual analysis, but also our ‘gut instincts’ and feelings, when we can’t know whether they will be successful, irrelevant or a failure. So it’s always pleasing when you seem to be getting something right that was very far from a ‘sure thing’ when you first decided to set your course – especially if the stakes are high.

This is why the news that Cochrane has received a grant of USD $1.15 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the ongoing technological development of our ‘next generation evidence system’ is worthy of special celebration. Three years ago Cochrane’s Steering Group (CSG) agreed to invest hundreds of thousands of pounds in a multi-year Linked Data project to explore new ways that the data underpinning Cochrane evidence could be tagged, connected, and used in future to unleash much more of its value and help produce dynamic new forms of evidence. There was no guarantee of a successful outcome for Cochrane; we might be wasting our money. As if to stress the potentially fictional, starry-eyed nature of the initiative, its concept stage had been called the ‘Star Trek’ project!

A year later, in 2014, the CSG gave a further green light to another ambitious technology project. Project Transform won the CSG’s Game Changer strategic investment competition, an initiative established specifically to harness the innovation within Cochrane and identify an expensive project anticipated to have a transformative long-term impact on our work. Another £600,000 of Cochrane’s revenues is being invested on Project Transform’s development of a platform and processes that – amongst other things – allow us to harness technology and our worldwide network of contributors and supporters to deliver more efficient content production, information retrieval, and re-use of our data. One of the reasons we chose Transform as our game changer was because of the investments we were already making in the Linked Data project, and the way we thought these would complement and support each other.

Earlier this year the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) awarded Transform a matching grant to the money Cochrane was investing, making it a £1 million project. This latest grant provides another £880,000 to help develop new technology, ontology, structures, machine learning, and crowd engagement to change the ways data are used in the area of child health. Cochrane’s Child Health Field and Pregnancy and Childbirth and Neonatal Review Groups will be funded over the next six months to annotate all of their Reviews and help deliver the project, which we hope will prove the concept of what we have been designing and building for the last four years.

We hope there will be more grants to come that support this work, but for the next year we’ll be focused on delivering these mission-critical technology projects. We'll also be building the new partnerships we need to help us deliver our goals of making Cochrane the ‘home of evidence’ and offering new products and services that, in addition to Cochrane Reviews, will help to sustain the organization. There is no room for complacency, and we still cannot be sure that our plans and dreams will succeed in future – after all, as Yogi said, it’s hard to predict – but Linked Data and Project Transform are wonderful examples right now of the innovation, brilliant thinking, daring, and enthusiasm of our volunteers, staff, and governance that have characterized Cochrane in the past, and continue to do so in the present.

Mark Wilson, CEO
Cochrane Community
September 2016

A round-up of active surveys submitted by Cochrane contributors, colleagues, and partners seeking input from the Cochrane Community - updated through the month.

Testing the AGREE-REX Tool
General information: Contribute your knowledge to help develop the next generation of practice guideline appraisal
Who is running the survey: The AGREE Collaboration
Who should take the survery: Practice guideline developers, researchers, users
Closing date: Not specified
Link(s):Background information on the AGREE initiative and Survey for a new appraisal tool
 

Upper Gastrointestinal and Pancreatic Diseases (UGPD) Survey
General information: This survey is being conducted to help with justifying the importance of a review topic in the prioritisation process so that authors can spend their limited time and resources on topics that are of most interest.
Who is running the survey: Cochrane Upper GI and Pancreatic Diseases
Who should take the survey: Patients, carers, and clinicians
Closing date: 15 November
Link(s):survey

Consumer involvement in Cochrane: developing the Statement of Principles
General information: This survey is calling for consultation on the draft document “Consumer involvement in Cochrane: developing the Statement of Principles”.
Who is running the survey: Cochrane Consumer Network
Who should take the survey: Anyone with an interest in consumer involvement in Cochrane
Closing date: 30 November
Link(s):Call for consultation 

This is the second in a series of Cochrane Blog posts about prioritization work by Cochrane Review Groups. You can read an overview of the project in the first post.

The Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group (CTAG) has a longstanding commitment to prioritization, largely through informal discussions at the editorial base and by monitoring emerging research. In 2016, the year of their 20th anniversary, the Group decided to undertake a more in-depth prioritization exercise as part of the birthday celebrations.

As their starting point the group started looked at the well-established and successful prioritization framework developed by James Lind Alliance (JLA) in the UK. The JLA Priority Setting Partnership approach focuses heavily on clinicians and consumers, and the Cochrane CTAG wanted to ensure that the voices of researchers, commissioners, funders, and policymakers were also heard. Moreover the JLA approach would have taken more time than CTAG had to ensure completion before the 20th anniversary celebrations, so ultimately the group decided to use a modified version of the JLA framework to fit their circumstances.

The first task was to develop an online survey using Survey Monkey, which was disseminated on social media and through stakeholder mailing lists, and aimed to identify the stakeholder's most pressing unanswered questions about interventions and policies for the prevention and treatment of tobacco addiction. This survey allowed each person to propose up to four questions and explain why each was important to them. It was completed by several groups, including people who smoked/had smoked in the past, healthcare professionals, policymakers, service commissioners, research funders, and tobacco addiction researchers. In total this survey produced more than 600 questions - far more than had been anticipated!

Next, the process of narrowing down the questions to a more manageable number began. The group started by removing duplicate questions, using a dual decision making process to determine whether the question posed had already been answered by an existing, good quality systematic review or other reliable guidance. An unexpected but very useful consequence of this exercise is that it identified where Cochrane Review findings had not been adequately publicized. This knowledge was carried forward to the workshop stage of the process, when participants were asked to contribute ideas about improving evidence dissemination.

After all the sifting, 180 questions remained. This was far too many to ask people to rank individually, so the group sorted the questions into 15 categories.  A second survey was sent to those who had already taken part and then the Delphi method used. Participants were asked to pick their top three of the 15 categories and then rank only those questions that appeared in their chosen categories.

The final piece of the process was a workshop attended by members of the public, guideline developers, stop smoking advisers, clinicians, and funders. They were invited to the CTAG 20^th anniversary celebration to decide on the final list of high priority questions. These workshops were led by an independent facilitator who was paid through a grant that the CTAG received from the NIHR School for Primary Care Research. These funds also helped to support attendance at the workshop of members of the public, and covered venue costs, video, and photography. To ensure that participants understood the scope of the task, members of the CTAG editorial team spent the first half of the workshop talking about the history and work of CTAG, the history of tobacco research generally, and the steps in the process leading up to the workshop. The actual ranking exercise took place in the second half of the day and whilst it did focus on the results of the survey, the facilitator took care to allow new ideas to emerge. 

The methodology of this process was presented at Evidence Live (UK) in June 2016, and even received some attention from a BioMed Central representative keen to see the exercise written up. The CTAG do plan to document their approach to prioritization, as it produced questions and ideas that are not only relevant for Cochrane, but also will be of great interest to others, such as the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in the UK.

Despite attracting some financial support, the CTAG were not permitted to use these funds to hire staff to assist with the process, so all of the work leading up to the day of the workshop had to be absorbed at the editorial base. The fact that they all had extensive knowledge in the field of tobacco addiction meant that the de-duplication and categorization work that occurred ahead of the workshops was comparatively easy; however not all Cochrane Groups will have the resources to be able to process such a large quantity of data.

Despite the cost and resource challenges, the CTAG felt the approach worked well – it was rigorous yet relatively short, it engaged a broad range of stakeholders, identified gaps in the CTAG portfolio, generated a list of questions that are relevant both in and outside of Cochrane, and galvanized the group into creating a more formal dissemination plan for their reviews.

For any questions or comments about this blog series or if you’d like to tell us about your prioritization work, please contact Ruth Foxlee at the Cochrane Editorial Unit – rfoxlee@cochrane.org

Ruth Foxlee - Information Specialist, Cochrane Editorial Unit

Lydia Wilson – Intern, Cochrane Editorial Unit

Taking a closer look at how we store blogshots and user engagement with them on twitter. 

Muriah Umoquit, Internal Communications and Content Officer with Cochrane’s Communications & External Affairs Department, spent the last quarter looking at the newest Cochrane dissemination product, blogshots. Here she shares the results:

We have a lot of dissemination channels in Cochrane and many different audiences we’re trying to reach. Many of our dissemination products and pathways could use some tweaking and ongoing monitoring. To make sure we’re making evidence-based decisions, the Communications & External Affairs Department is tackling one communication channel or product a quarter. We’re calling this a Dissemination Deep Dive (DDD). We started our DDD in quarter three of 2016 looking at the newest Cochrane dissemination product: blogshots.

Blogshots were created by Cochrane UK as a way to summarize Cochrane Evidence with a picture for sharing on social media. A lot of work goes into creating, storing, and translating blogshots, but previously we did not have an understanding of users engagement with them beyond a few anecdotes. For example, after sharing them Cochrane Iberoamerica found their Facebook and Twitter accounts grow. Also, there was no central area to view all blogshots, which made it difficult to search through and it was not helpful to our translators.

Blogshot storage fixes
Working with Cochrane UK and the web team we made some fixes to some long standing storage issues. We have established a Cochrane Blogshot folder on Dropbox. Here blogshots are sorted by Cochrane Group with the PowerPoint and picture used – which has made the translation process easier, by providing translators with everything they need for translation in one place. The CD number is included in the file titles for easy searching. This folder is useful for internal purposes – take a look! Does your Group have blogshots there that you can share?

We also launched our Cochrane Tumblr account, which will be maintained by Cochrane UK. This makes the blogshots searchable by CD number and name and they are grouped by categories/tags. One month after launching, it had 1,460 page views with an average of six pages per session and 144 unique users. We’ll continue to promote the Tumblr account through the link in the bottom footer of all Cochrane pages and with a rotating news item on Cochrane.org, and monitor how it is being used.

Blogshot engagement on Twitter
Given the time frame of the deep dive, we focused on engagement on Twitter. We suspected that having some type of image with a tweet would get more clicks, likes etc. on average than a tweet without an image. It was however unclear how much impact having a blogshot with a tweet would have in comparison to just an image. Over a month we used the main Cochrane account to do tweets, tweets and a picture, and tweets with a blogshot. We controlled for the order presented, time of day, day of the week, and content of the tweet. We had five data sets with 15 tweets in total; 5 tweets with just text, five tweets with a picture, and five tweets with a blogshot. Our small-scale study suggested that sharing a blogshot on average almost doubles the click-throughs, likes, and retweets that you get over a text-only tweet. However, sharing a related picture with text in a tweet on average triples the click-throughs and likes, and doubles retweets. There are quite a few limitations to this outcome, however - the biggest one probably being our small sample size.

We hope that the Cochrane Community views this as a ‘proof of concept’ or ‘pilot stage’ for larger studies. This may be done by several people or groups working together and combining evidence, or several smaller studies done separately. Ideally it would also be good to have a sample of non-English tweets and perhaps a sample from a specialized audience, like a Review Group. If you’re interested, please get in touch! We’re happy to share our methods and full report so that your group can scale it up.

Overall lessons learnt

• Take the time needed to look at issues: We’ve got lot of things already on the go and there are many potential dissemination products to tweak. Looking at one item per quarter made it more manageable for our workload and also gave us the time to really look into the issues.
• Make evidence-based decisions: If healthcare decisions should be evidence based, then so should how we share the healthcare information to make those decisions! One easy first step is contacting web@cochrane.org with a gmail account to get access to look at the traffic to your Cochrane website.
• Collaborate!: We had a lot of help doing this from Cochrane UK, and scaling up the Twitter experiment needs help from other groups. The Cochrane community has a wealth of skill sets so make use of it – check out TaskExchange if you haven’t already!
• Rotate news items: We used to only have ‘fresh’ news item on Cochrane.org. Now we have news items or ads for our external newsletter, Tumblr account, Cochrane iPad Edition, etc. We change the publication date and move it to the front page of the website on a rotating basis – and watch the hits to what we’re advertising spike!
• Every social media post should be shared with an image: every post on social media should have an image accompanying it: photo or blogshot, you should include something other than just text. This should be standard practice across all Cochrane accounts. We’re helping to make this easy by suggesting photos to use in the CommsNetwork Digest.

What’s next for the dissemination deep dive?
In Q4 we’re taking on podcasts. In 2017 perhaps newsletters and Facebook…but what else should we look at? We’d love to hear your feedback! Please let us know your thoughts by emailing me or attending the upcoming CommsNetwork Meeting at the Colloquium where the dissemination deep dives will be discussed further.

Muriah Umoquit
Internal Communications and Content Officer
Communications & External Affairs Department

Consultation on the draft document “Consumer involvement in Cochrane: developing the Statement of Principles” 

Closing date for feedback: 30 November 2016

Dear colleagues,
During 2015, the Cochrane Consumer Network undertook its Structure and Function Review, examining key elements about consumer involvement in Cochrane, and the ways in which it is supported. The report from this review is available online; amongst other things, the review showed that the ways in which consumers are currently involved in Cochrane varies significantly across the organization. For example, the review found that there is:

• little consensus about the best way to involve consumers in Cochrane activities;
• no consistent approach to the way Review Groups, Fields, and authors involve consumers in the review process;
• lack of support for authors, Review Groups and others in the form of guidance, resources, and tools for working with consumers;
• wide variation in the amount of resources available for those who involve consumers in reviews;
• difficulty in demonstrating the impact and value of consumer involvement.

To address these concerns, in 2016 the Consumer Network Executive prepared the Consumer Delivery Plan to 2020. The plan sets out eight key priorities for the development of consumer involvement in Cochrane. The first priority is to “Develop and adopt a statement of principles about consumer involvement in Cochrane”: a shared agreement on the consumer role and how the whole organization can work with consumers will make our work clearer, reduce variations and uncertainty, and improve our effectiveness. It will also explain to our external partners how we include consumers in our work.

A task group comprising consumers, authors, and others has drafted the statement and will steer the consultation process, refine the statement in line with responses, and present the final draft to the Consumers Executive and Cochrane Steering Group.

Consultation and next steps
Comments on this draft Statement of Principles document are warmly invited from anyone with an interest in consumer involvement in Cochrane: consumers (patients, care givers, family members, people who support patient and public involvement in research, and citizens generally), review authors, members of Cochrane Review Groups, Fields, Centres and Branches, Cochrane staff, and Cochrane’s external partners, funders, and those who use Cochrane evidence.

• Consumer involvement in Cochrane: developing the statement of Principles [PDF]
   

Please submit your feedback and comments via our online survey until the closing date of 30 November 2016.

You can also join the conversation on Facebook and on Twitter by searching for @cochraneconsumr.

If you are attending the 2016 Cochrane Colloquium in Seoul, please come and join the discussion about this statement.

The final draft ‘Statement of Principles’ will be presented to the Cochrane Board, and will guide future consumer involvement in Cochrane and in particular the Cochrane Consumer Delivery Plan to 2020 and beyond.

If you have any other questions about the statement, please email Richard Morley.

Best wishes

Richard Morley
Consumer Coordinator

Cochrane Brazil manages a team of volunteer translators who work on systematic review abstracts and Plain Language Summaries. Part of this process involves editing and ensuring the quality of the Portuguese translations produced before they are published. Due to the popularity of WhatsApp in the country, Patricia Logullo, translation editor at Cochrane Brazil, has been using the app as a way to communicate with the translation volunteers. Here she tells us more about the initiative.

WhatsApp is hugely popular in Brazil, with over 100 million users. People use it both personally and professionally, individually or in groups with families or colleagues, without the need of a desktop computer. Nearly 100% of Internet users in Brazil use the messaging app, more than any other similar app or service. People stay connected through their mobile phones, which they use constantly.

Many of the Portuguese translation volunteers at Cochrane Brazil are also researchers at the Universidade Federal de São Paulo. They are part of a WhatsApp group whose purpose is to share information on a daily basis about research findings news, courses or symposia, exams questions, duty schedules, group meetings etc. Over the last year, we have been identifying the main mistakes and difficulties our translators have had with their own language. So, in December 2015, we started to send short texts, like tweets, about Portuguese grammar and writing but with a funny or ironic tone to the WhatsApp group, which I call 'Portuguese Pills'. They receive these short, easy to read messages (about 150 words) via their mobile phones, without needing to access a computer. The Portuguese Pills sometimes deal also with scientific terminology, symbols, and other issues our translators face every day.

The 'Portuguese Pills' are inspired and prepared during the revision process of the Cochrane Abstracts translated by the volunteers. They always touch on sensitive issues: the mistakes that translators make in their own work. The idea was to make them remember things they certainly learned in school, but as busy researchers, they did not have the time to study again, nor did they have appropriate grammar books to consult (and would not be familiar with those).

The response to the pills was very positive. Our translators have become accustomed to receiving these tips on the use of Portuguese and they often answer the messages immediately, with comments such as: "I did not remember this, thank you", or "I didn't know it worked this way! Now I understand!" They feel that the grammar tips can be used both in their translation activity for Cochrane and for their personal life: thesis, dissertations, research projects, grants reports.

Whenever I write and distribute a new pill through the WhatsApp group, I also save it to a folder, so I have a stock of pills ready to go if the same mistakes arise again. They are now being published online. Soon we intend to add new volunteers to the WhatsApp group, so that more translators can receive them too.

In conclusion, WhatsApp has proved a very useful tool to communicate with the volunteers. I would encourage other translation teams to consider using this system, which is more efficient than email.

Patricia Logullo
Translation editor
Cochrane Brazil

The IKMD team is pleased to announce an update to Archie effective 4 October 2016.

The update includes several new features; most noticeable to contributors will be the Archie log-in page, which is now Cochrane-branded. This change reflects that Archie is one of several systems to which your account provides access.

Other changes relate to new Cochrane Library developments, as well as a number of minor improvements and bug fixes. For a full breakdown of the new features and functionality available in Archie, please see the Archie Updates section of the Community website.

Should you come across any bugs or errors, please use the Archie Problem Reporting Form.

We value your input on Cochrane software, including Archie. We invite you to post your suggestions on our Archie Ideas forum, where others can vote and comment on these suggestions.

Cochrane Colloquia are our annual flagship events, bringing together Cochrane contributors from around the world to discuss, develop and promote Cochrane, and help shape its future.

The 2016 Cochrane Colloquium will be held in Seoul, South Korea from 23-27 October. For full information regarding the Colloquium, please visit the website.

• Key information
• Latest news
• Plenaries, speakers and symposia

Key information:

• Programme overview: colloquium.cochrane.org/programme-overview
• Registration fees: colloquium.cochrane.org/registration-fees
• Key dates: colloquium.cochrane.org/key-dates
• Website: colloquium.cochrane.org
• Hashtag: #CochraneSeoul

Latest news:

• Sign-up for the Anne Anderson Walk
  The walk around Gyeongbokgung (Gyoengbok Palace) is a fundraising event for the Anne Anderson Award fund. The walk is on Wednesday 26 October at 14:30. The tour guides have been provided gratis. If you would like to sign-up for the walk, you can do so here. To donate to the award fund, click here.

• 2016 Annual General Meeting
  Cochrane’s Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday 25 October, at the Colloquium. Find out more, here.

• Sign-up now open for the full Colloquium schedule
  Sign-up for all the sessions you want to attend and create your own personal schedule for the Colloquium! You can also export the schedule to your online calendar. We'll be launching the Colloquium app in early October that will sync with your personal schedule. Details of the poster sessions are being finalised now and will be available from 21 September. 

• Very limited room availability at the Grand Hilton
  As of 25 August, we have been advised that very few rooms are available. We have removed the online reservation page - please contact the Hilton directly (via reservation.grandseoul@hilton.com 
   or T +82-2-2287-8428) to check if there are any rooms available.

Plenaries, speakers and symposia:

Plenary 1: Overdiagnosis and overtreatment in health care

In this session, the role of evidence-based health care and systematic reviews in limiting overdiagnosis and oversue will be discussed, including realignment of disease definition; quantification and monitoring of overdiagnosis; sensitisation of health professionals and patients; provision of balanced information on risk and benefits intervention; and the implications for Cochrane.

Speakers:

• Alexandra Barratt, Professor of Public Health, School of Public Health, University of Sydney

• Rita F. Redberg, Editor, JAMA Internal Medicine. Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of California, San Francisco

• Jenny Doust, Professor of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University

Plenary 2: Challenges and different approaches to improve the quality, timeliness and usability of Cochrane Reviews

The speakers in the plenary session have been asked to describe their experiences in making challenging decisions regarding the quality and usability of Cochrane reviews. Different perspectives and lively debate will be sought with particular focus on potential initiatives that are being explored and are consistent with the CEU vision for high quality and timely Cochrane Reviews that meets the needs of end-users and informs clinical care and health policy.

Speakers:

• James Thomas, Project Transform, Cochrane. Director of the EPPI-Centre’s Reviews Facility, Department of Health, England

• Karla Soares-Weiser, Deputy Editor in Chief, Cochrane Library & Cochrane Innovations

• Marguerite Koster, External Member, Cochrane Steering Group

• Harriet MacLehose, Senior Editor, Cochrane Library

• Claire Glenton, Director, Cochrane Norway

Plenary 3: Data transparency: where are we and what can we get?

Pressure to increase transparency of data in clinical research is growing as scientific academies, regulatory agencies, funders and international organisations join the call for more data transparency. In this session, recent issues in the open data movement, data access policies and its impact on health care are discussed. Some examples of the impact of lack of transparency in East Asia will highlighted.

Speakers:

• Kay Dickersin, Director, Cochrane United States. Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Clinical Trials & Evidence Synthesis

• Byung Joo Park, Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine

• Lesley Stewart, Director, Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York

• Rintaro Mori, Director, Cochrane Japan. Head of Department National Center for Child Health and Department of Clinical Epidemiology

Annual Cochrane Lecture: Four challenges for EBM and Cochrane’s future

Since the term evidence based medicine (EBM) was coined over 20 years ago it has had a remarkable global influence. But EBM is not a static set of concepts, set in stone tablets in the 1990s; it is a young and evolving discipline. The fundamental concept of systematic reviews – providing a periodic summary of all controlled trials to aid clinical care – may have changed little since the birth of Cochrane. However, how to best provide and apply these in practice continues to develop.

In this year’s Cochrane Lecture, Paul Glasziou will propose four areas requiring renewed or ongoing attention:

1. Improve dialogue between “evidologists” and clinicians
2. Treatment is the patient’s decision: support and promote shared decision making
3. Take non-drug interventions as seriously as pharmaceuticals
4. Sustain investment in automating evidence synthesis 

Speaker:

• Paul Glasziou, Professor, Evidence-Based Medicine at Bond University; Chair, International Society for Evidence-Based Health Care

#CochraneTech Symposium: The new ecosystem for evidence synthesis

Cochrane’s technological innovations are set to transform the way evidence for health is created and used. Join us at the #CochraneTech Symposium in Seoul to discover first-hand the emerging Cochrane ecosystem for evidence synthesis.

We’re preparing an exciting morning of talks and discussion centred around how Cochrane is using its technology to help both prepare systematic reviews more efficiently but also better deliver outputs to our end-users. The #CochraneTech Symposium is the premier event for those interested in the application and integration of existing and emerging technologies in the production of Cochrane systematic reviews and evidence synthesis in health care.

Since the inaugural #CochraneTech Symposium in Québec City in 2013 several ambitious technological strategies have been pursued by Cochrane, and we welcome you to join us in exploring this new ecosystem for evidence synthesis.

Methods Symposium: Living Systematic Reviews: Methods, Opportunities and Challenges

Living systematic reviews, as online summaries of healthcare research that are updated as new research becomes available, offer exciting possibilities in the new evidence ecosystem. Momentum is building around the living systematic review concept: a number of approaches are being piloted and Cochrane is at the forefront of these efforts. Living systematic reviews differ from traditional systematic reviews in several ways that have important implications for review methods and processes, affecting authors, editors and publishers. 

At this interactive symposium, we will explore what living systematic reviews actually are and their implications for Cochrane. Participants will hear from those who have been piloting living systematic review methods and will be invited to contribute their expertise as we explore the implications of LSRs for review methods and review production processes, plus the enablers within Cochrane to support their introduction.

Knowledge Translation (KT) Symposium

In 2016 Cochrane is embarking on the development of a Knowledge Translation (KT) Strategy, which will inform, facilitate and coordinate KT activities within Cochrane. We hope this strategy will scope knowledge translation activities for Cochrane, build on the Strategy to 2020 goals and provide a framework and co-ordination to support those who are undertaking knowledge translation activities in Cochrane. This framework will guide our knowledge translation work and ensure quality of outputs. We hope to establish mechanisms for better coordination of knowledge translation work within Cochrane so that organisational learning in this area flows through Cochrane.

In this symposium we will be presenting the current draft of Cochrane’s KT strategy. There will be brief presentations on the work around the strategy, an opportunity for discussion and input into further development of the strategy and the implementation plans accompanying it and what it will mean for knowledge translation in Cochrane.

Look forward to seeing you in Seoul in October!

The Agenda and Open Access papers for the Cochrane Steering Group meeting in Seoul are now available.

Cochrane Community members may be particularly  interested in the following papers:

CEU Report on Review Quality

Governance Restructure Papers

Knowledge Translation Strategy Update

Membership Update

Spokesperson Policy

Structure and Function Papers

Targeted Updates Project Report

Nancy Owens is Senior Communications Manager with Cochrane’s Central Executive team, and Rome 1999 was her first Colloquium. Seoul 2016 is her fourteenth!

Is Seoul your first Colloquium? Perhaps you’re excited and a bit nervous, maybe not sure exactly what to expect? Fear not! We’ve canvassed the Cochrane Central Executive team’s Colloquium veterans, and put together a list of tips and ideas to help you navigate five days (or more!) of intensive Cochrane interaction with your health, sanity, and collaborative enthusiasm (mostly) intact.

Taking the plunge – sessions and colleagues

1. Get involved – if you’re learning about Cochrane, go along to some meetings, even if you’re not sure what you might have to contribute. Many of Cochrane’s Methods Groups, Review Groups and other interest groups have open meetings at the Colloquium – a great opportunity to hear about current projects and issues, meet new people, and decide what you might be interested in pursuing further.
    
2. Start slow - go to the introductory-level workshops rather than anything marked advanced. Even if this is covering ground you think you’re familiar with, you’ll come away with something new.
    
3. Drill down - rather than try and get to every oral session you really want to, try sitting through all the talks in one session that ties in with a general interest you have. You won’t lose time rushing between rooms and you’ll learn things you wouldn’t otherwise have thought you wanted to know more about.
    
4. Introduce yourself – the Colloquium is a great chance to meet people you’ve read about, or who might be doing something interesting in your field. And they want to meet you, too! Don’t be shy about introducing yourself and asking questions when you sit next to people in oral sessions, workshops, and breaks. If you introduce yourself, you might also accidentally rescue the people you’re talking to, who have forgotten each other’s names and were too polite to ask.
    
5. Beware the distant elephant! – it’s very easy to get swept up in the excitement of discussing ideas and possible collaborations with colleagues, but try to take a deep breath and think about what might be involved and how it might fit in when you get back to your own desk and regular work. In management training, future projects like this are referred to as ‘distant elephants’ – that is, they look small and manageable when they are off in the distance, but can loom larger and more daunting the closer they get!

Logistics – navigating the day

1. Orient yourself - make sure you have your timetable and map (either electronic or on paper) to hand – otherwise it’s always a last-minute stress figuring out where and when you’re supposed to be places!
    
2. Plan ahead - give yourself enough time to get from one session to the next. Ideally leave a few extra minutes for an impromptu chat when you run into a friend or colleague en route!
    
3. Pack snacks – the meetings start early, your hotel breakfast doesn’t open until 8am, and there’s no shop in sight. Or maybe you’re too busy talking and forget to eat during the breaks. Make sure you have some emergency snacks packed in your bag to keep you going through the day.
    
4. Make the most of breaks - they are when you are most likely to see old friends and make new ones. Lack of formality helps to break down some of the barriers and ease conversation. It’s the only way to talk to people you recognize as email addresses.
    
5. Catch up outside business meetings - near enough everyone you will need to know over the course of your time in Cochrane will be there and many will become good friends. Set aside time to go out for dinner with them. 

Personal well-being – maintaining your perspective

1. Schedule down time - plan your social diary to keep some time back for yourself. It’s tempting to use the evenings to see who’s in the bar, but you can avoid fatigue by going for a run/swim, or just going to bed early and reading.
    
2. Pace yourself - don’t eat and drink everything on offer, otherwise by the end of the week you feel terrible!
    
3. It’s a marathon - so try to get enough rest and (non-alcoholic) fluids!
    
4. Buddy up – it can get lonely if you’re always rushing from one thing to the next, alone. Finding a ‘Colloquium buddy’ and keeping tabs on each other helps.
    
5. Check back with base – after a few 14-hour days it can start to feel as though you’re in a different and very intense world – Planet Cochrane! It can help to schedule time for a Skype call with a friend, family member, or workmate who’s not at the Colloquium, and re-connect with your daily life.

Have you got tips of your own to share? Send an email or a tweet and we'll add it to the list!

Thanks to Lucie Binder, Miranda Cumpston, Toby Lasserson, and Chris Mavergames for their contributions to this post.

Nancy Owens (nowens@cochrane.org, @nancyjowens)

MECIR (Methodological Expectations for Cochrane Intervention Reviews) standards for conduct and reporting have been updated. We have added two new sets of standards to cover the reporting of protocols and the planning, conduct, and reporting of updates.

For further information and to download the latest booklet of standards please visit the Cochrane Methods website.

We want to share some exciting news about changes in development for the Cochrane Library! We are developing an enhanced Cochrane Library with greater functionality that makes it easier for users to discover and use Cochrane content in their decision-making. Over the course of this year, we are redeveloping all aspects of the Cochrane Library to improve user experience.

The first changes will roll out in early 2017 and include: enhancements to the display and new features for Cochrane Reviews and other articles; enhancements to CENTRAL; linking of the CDSR and CENTRAL; an improved search and discovery interface.

We will also be including a new Spanish version of the Cochrane Library, incorporating the translated Cochrane Review content from La Bibliotheca Cochrane Plus, with a dedicated search functionality. The Cochrane Library will also incorporate Cochrane Clinical Answers, with over 1200 articles linked to Cochrane Reviews. Finally, a federated search feature will enable searches of other systematic reviews via Epistemonikos.

This project will form a major contribution to our Strategy to 2020 goal of making Cochrane the ‘home of evidence’ to inform health decision-making, building greater recognition of our work, and becoming the leading advocate for evidence-informed health care.

The Cochrane Library will maintain its familiar look-and-feel while improving the overall user experience. Researching user needs and stakeholder insights is a key component of development. We are doing this research through one-to-one user testing with Cochrane Library users and focus groups with members of the Cochrane community.

We are also taking this opportunity to remove several databases (DARE, HTA, EED) from the Cochrane Library collection as they are no longer being updated or were not well used currently. The Cochrane Methodology Register will be migrated and archived on the Cochrane Methods website. The About The Cochrane Collaboration database will also be retired; further information for groups currently published modules will be circulated in the next few weeks.

2017 is the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the Cochrane Library. We look forward to working with you to ensure it provides the best possible experience for our users. More information will follow as we near a launch date in early 2017.

Any questions please contact Deborah Pentesco-Gilbert (dpentesc@wiley.com), Editorial Director, Wiley, or Harriet MacLehose (hmaclehose@cochrane.org), Senior Editor, Cochrane.

Please find below the main decisions made by Steering Group at its meeting in Seoul. If you have any questions about these decisions, please contact your Steering Group Representative.

• Co-Chair election: The CSG elected Cindy Farquhar and approval of her appointment would be sought from the Cochrane members at the AGM.
• Structure and Function Review: The CSG approved the structure and function recommendations. For CRGs, Steering Group will work closely to support the Editor-in-Chief on the CRGs sustainability review and will provide support in completing this review in a shorter timeline.
• Governance: The CSG approved the final policies to implement the new Cochrane Governing Board and Council, should the members adopt the proposed changes to Cochrane’s Articles of Association at the AGM.
• 2017 Targets: The CSG approved the proposed Strategy to 2020 Target areas for 2017. Final Targets will be developed in consultation with executives and submitted for approval in December 2016, alongside the Plan & Budget.
• Spokesperson Policy: The revised Cochrane Spokesperson Policy was approved.
• CPAC: The CSG approved the disbanding of the Cochrane Policy Advisory Committee and the formation of the Cochrane Events Network.
• Auditors: The CSG approved the recommendation from the Finance, Investment and Audit Committee, a CSG sub-group, to appoint Sayer Vincent as Cochrane’s auditors for the 2016 financial year, for ratification at the AGM.
• Rehabilitation Field: The registration of a Cochrane Rehabilitation Field was approved.

The agenda and open acess papers can be found here. The full minutes will be available soon.

The next CSG face-to-face meeting is 5-7 April, 2017, in Geneva.

Cochrane Complementary Medicine is pleased to announce our 2016 bursary scheme, made possible through funds from the US National Institutes of Health, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. The purpose of this bursary scheme is to ensure that reviews relevant to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) are completed and published in The Cochrane Library. 

Funding offered
Two review proposals in the amount of $5,000 USD each will be funded. The funding must be paid directly to the individual bursary recipient; it cannot be paid to the recipient's institution. 

Eligibility requirements

• Review must be registered with a Cochrane Review Group, and the relevant protocol/review must already be published in The Cochrane Library;

• the topic of the review must relate to CAM (see scope in Call for Applications); and

• bursaries will be targeted to reviews for which substantial progress has already been made and whose completion has been stalled due to a lack of funding.

Timeline
Completed application forms should be e-mailed to Susan Wieland by 29 November 2016. Forms sent by postal delivery or fax will not be accepted. Successful candidates will be notified by 10 January 2017. Funds will be distributed to successful applicants in a single installment, after the award notification. Funds must be paid to the individual recipients of the bursary, and not to their institutions.

For more information (e.g., the assessment criteria, additional details about eligibility and application procedures), please see the full Call for Applications and Application Form. 

A round-up of active surveys submitted by Cochrane contributors, colleagues, and partners seeking input from the Cochrane Community - updated through the month.

Testing the AGREE-REX Tool
General information: Contribute your knowledge to help develop the next generation of practice guideline appraisal
Who is running the survey: The AGREE Collaboration
Who should take the survery: Practice guideline developers, researchers, users
Closing date: Not specified
Link(s):Background information on the AGREE initiative and Survey for a new appraisal tool
 

Upper Gastrointestinal and Pancreatic Diseases (UGPD) Survey
General information: This survey is being conducted to help with justifying the importance of a review topic in the prioritisation process so that authors can spend their limited time and resources on topics that are of most interest.
Who is running the survey: Cochrane Upper GI and Pancreatic Diseases
Who should take the survey: Patients, carers, and clinicians
Closing date: 15 November
Link(s):survey

Consumer involvement in Cochrane: developing the Statement of Principles
General information: This survey is calling for consultation on the draft document “Consumer involvement in Cochrane: developing the Statement of Principles”.
Who is running the survey: Cochrane Consumer Network
Who should take the survey: Anyone with an interest in consumer involvement in Cochrane
Closing date: 30 November
Link(s):Call for consultation 

This is the third in a series of Cochrane Blog posts about prioritization work by Cochrane Review Groups. You can read an overview of the project in the first post, and a story from the Tobacco Addiction Group in the second post.

The Cochrane Consumers and Communication Review Group (CCRG) had a few goals in mind when they embarked on a recent prioritization exercise. They wanted to make sure their portfolio of reviews reflects the important questions in their field; to increase their capacity to meet stakeholder needs; and to foster stronger engagement with consumers, consumer groups and health and policy services and groups in this area.

They approached the task in three stages, beginning with the formation of a steering group, followed by an international online survey and finally a workshop. The group had hoped to have the exercise completed within a year, but in the end it took closer to 18 months. This included a 2-3 month preparatory period, where they talked with funders in Australia and sought advice from the Cochrane Priority Setting Methods Group (CPSMG).

Project steering group
The steering group proved to be vital to the success of the project. It was made up of consumer representatives, funders, representatives from government health departments/bodies, health service managers, health professionals, and researchers with previous experience of prioritization activities. The steering group helped determine how broad the range of topics should be and gave shape and direction to the project as it progressed. With their extensive networks, they were invaluable with promotion and recruitment, and helped shaped the dissemination activities to ensure greatest relevance and use to key stakeholder groups. They also identified opportunities for intersection with our work and current policy activities in Australia.

Online survey to generate ideas
An international online survey generated responses from 151 participants (75% Australian; 18 to 80 years; 30% consumers/carers, 50% health professionals) and identified 191 priority topics which were organised into 21 broad research priorities by the CCRG. A significant challenge was the lack of time between the online survey and the workshop. This meant that in the analysis and organization phase the group had to make some pragmatic decisions, but overall they were confident that the broad categories were representative of the needs and concerns they heard expressed in the survey.

Priority setting workshop
The workshop was attended by 28 people, 50% consumers or carers and 50% clinicians, researchers, policy makers, and health services managers.  After adding one additional research priority, the broad list of 22 priorities was further narrowed down to the most important 12 topics using a modified version of the James Lind Alliance approach.  This involved group discussion, a voting round, and then small group work to explore the top 12 research priorities in depth.

Selecting the top five Cochrane Reviews
After the workshop, the CCRG mapped the top 12 research priorities against their reviews, protocols, and title proposals to identify priority topics or gaps in their portfolio. Two existing reviews and three reviews in title proposal stage were selected, and were added to the Cochrane Priority Review List immediately. Work on these reviews is underway and another five titles will be commissioned in a second round of reviews (after 2016).

The Group’s reflections
This prioritization approach was demanding and resource-intensive at times, but the Group felt strongly that such an investment was necessary to explore the issues that mattered to stakeholders. Having asked people to get involved, they were keenly aware of their responsibility to deliver a workshop that honoured the commitment and interest shown by participants. They managed to secure a couple of small grants which helped to fund a part-time research assistant and cover workshop attendance costs for some consumer/carer participants. The exercise required significant commitment from the group’s Research Fellow, Anneliese Synnot, over the course of a year. As a result of this commitment and the ongoing nature of the work, Anneliese will continue to work on CCRG prioritisation as part of her PhD.

One of the most pleasing parts for the Group was the fact that participants were enthusiastic and committed. They were not only willing to invest their time throughout multiple stages of the project, but keen to know the outcomes of the day and stay involved in future prioritization activities. This strengthening of ties to their stakeholders was an important outcome for the CCRG, because it lays the ground work for ongoing engagement.

What’s next
The exercise hasn’t stopped with a list of prioritized reviews. The CCRG were keen to stress the importance of taking ownership of these priority reviews as a whole – not just producing them, but actively disseminating and advocating for more research where it’s clear there isn’t enough. For the CCRG, this exercise has set off a whole new thread of work to ensure that the reviews are done in a way that means they are meaningful and useful, and that they reach the people who need them. All priority teams are actively involving stakeholders as part of their review team, or as an advisory group.

To view the final report for this project visit the CCRG’s priority setting project page.

For any questions or comments about this blog series or if you’d like to tell us about Cochrane group prioritisation work please contact Ruth Foxlee at the Cochrane Editorial Unit – rfoxlee@cochrane.org

Ruth Foxlee - Information Specialist, Cochrane Editorial Unit

Lydia Wilson – Intern, Cochrane Editorial Unit

We're posting all the highlights from the 2016 Cochrane Colloquium here - watch this space as we'll continue to update with new stories as we receive them!
 

Cochrane Community's response to Strategy to 2020
Cochrane's 2016 Annual General Meeting included a Special Session where the Cochrane Community had the opportunity to share their stories of responding to the challenges of Strategy to 2020. As well as live presentations from a selection of Cochrane Groups from around the world, the session included this video highlighting just a few stories among many of what Strategy to 2020 means to Cochrane Groups and their work within local contexts:

Steering Group decisions from the 2016 Cochrane Colloquium
Read about the many decision coming from the meeting of the Steering Group.

Seoul Colloquium Pictures
Browse through pictures taken at the Colloquium! You are welcome to use these pictures on your Cochrane website, newsletters, and social media. If you have pictures you would like to contribute, please contact mumoquit@cochrane.org

Andrew Herxheimer Memorial Meeting
Friends’ Meeting House, St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW
Tuesday 15 November 2016, 10am for a 10.30 start
 
We very much hope that you will be able to join us on Tuesday 15 November 2016 to remember our colleague Andrew Herxheimer (1925-2016). We will celebrate his extraordinary contributions, in particular to the fields of pharmacology, patients’ experiences, and The Cochrane Collaboration.

We will also take great pleasure in remembering his warmth, charm and humour, his editorial skills and enthusiasm for plain English, and of course the constant puns. Indeed, the Guardian obituary writer noted that Andrew used ‘words as precision tools’ and ‘punned in four languages’.

There will be talks and photographs, personal reflections from Andrew’s daughters Sophie and Charlotte, and from his wife, Christine.

Confirmed speakers include Iain Chalmers, Nicky Britten, Anita Hardon, Gabriele Lucius-Hoene, Trish Greenhalgh,  Jeffrey Aronson and Sue Ziebland.
  
To cover the costs, including venue hire, coffee, lunch, and tea we are inviting people to pay £45 a head. Any money that is left over will be donated to the DIPEx charity, of which Andrew was the co-founder (with Ann McPherson) and a trustee until his death.

See here to book and pay for your place.

Where financial constraints, or the use of online booking, would be a barrier to participation, please contact Elizabeth Woolliams for assistance (01865  617844, elizabeth.woolliams@phc.ox.ac.uk).