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Abstract
Background: To achieve wide dissemination of Cochrane Reviews and maximize their impact, the Cochrane Collaboration allows co-publication of Cochrane Reviews in other journals.
Objectives: To identify co-publications of systematic reviews published by the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Group (CEVG), and compare characteristics of CEVG reviews and corresponding co-publications.
Methods: For the 104 CEVG reviews in The Cochrane Library published by Issue 2, 2013, we identified potential co-publications by: (1) using the keywords in the title and first author’s name to search the Web of Science, Scopus, EMBASE and PubMed, (2) searching for ‘Cochrane eyes and vision’ in Google Scholar, and (3) querying 88 contact authors of the 104 reviews. For each co-publication and corresponding CEVG review, we recorded titles, authors, publication dates, and citation information. We classified each co-publication as ‘identical’, ‘similar but not identical’, ‘abridged’, or ‘other’ compared to the CEVG review.
Results: We found 22 co-publications that corresponded to 19 CEVG reviews: 1 co-publication from 2 CEVG reviews, and 2 co-publications from each of 4 CEVG reviews. We classified 3 of the 22 co-publications as ‘identical’ (14%), 14 as ‘similar’ (64%), 3 as ‘abridged’ (14%), and 2 as ‘other’ (9%). In half the co-publications, either the names or order of the authors differed from the CEVG reviews. CEVG co-publications were published in ophthalmology (55%) and general medical (45%) journals; most (77%)were publishedwithin 2 years of the CEVG review. Six co-publications (27%) did not cite the CEVG review in the text or reference list (Table 1). On average, co-publications were cited more often (mean = 28–29.9) than the CEVG reviews (mean = 9.7–13.1) according to Web of Science and Scopus (Table 2).
Conclusions: The Cochrane Policy Manual established co-publication standards in 2011, expecting citations of CEVG reviews and consistent authorship to be improved thereafter. Providing information on increased frequency of citation of co-publications to journal editors and review authors may help encourage co-publication.
Objectives: To identify co-publications of systematic reviews published by the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Group (CEVG), and compare characteristics of CEVG reviews and corresponding co-publications.
Methods: For the 104 CEVG reviews in The Cochrane Library published by Issue 2, 2013, we identified potential co-publications by: (1) using the keywords in the title and first author’s name to search the Web of Science, Scopus, EMBASE and PubMed, (2) searching for ‘Cochrane eyes and vision’ in Google Scholar, and (3) querying 88 contact authors of the 104 reviews. For each co-publication and corresponding CEVG review, we recorded titles, authors, publication dates, and citation information. We classified each co-publication as ‘identical’, ‘similar but not identical’, ‘abridged’, or ‘other’ compared to the CEVG review.
Results: We found 22 co-publications that corresponded to 19 CEVG reviews: 1 co-publication from 2 CEVG reviews, and 2 co-publications from each of 4 CEVG reviews. We classified 3 of the 22 co-publications as ‘identical’ (14%), 14 as ‘similar’ (64%), 3 as ‘abridged’ (14%), and 2 as ‘other’ (9%). In half the co-publications, either the names or order of the authors differed from the CEVG reviews. CEVG co-publications were published in ophthalmology (55%) and general medical (45%) journals; most (77%)were publishedwithin 2 years of the CEVG review. Six co-publications (27%) did not cite the CEVG review in the text or reference list (Table 1). On average, co-publications were cited more often (mean = 28–29.9) than the CEVG reviews (mean = 9.7–13.1) according to Web of Science and Scopus (Table 2).
Conclusions: The Cochrane Policy Manual established co-publication standards in 2011, expecting citations of CEVG reviews and consistent authorship to be improved thereafter. Providing information on increased frequency of citation of co-publications to journal editors and review authors may help encourage co-publication.