Communicating Cochrane Reviews: experiences with a review specific dissemination strategy

Tags: Oral
Jones B1, Stephani A1, Hinds P1, Smith H1, Garner P1
1Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group Editorial Base, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK

Background: Effective communication of Cochrane Reviews helps people use our reviews to identify research priorities, to teach, to help clinical decision making, and to contribute to policy. What is more, if academics find the reviews helpful, they may cite them. The Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group (CIDG) has developed a Review Specific Dissemination Strategy that targets stakeholders on a case by case basis.

Objectives: To report on our Review Specific Dissemination Strategy, and reflect on lessons learnt.

Methods: The Editorial Team assess each review at the time of submission against a checklist of stakeholder categories such as ‘multilateral organizations’, ‘clinical specialists’, or ‘the general public’. Within each we might identify specific categories, organizations, and individuals, and decide on our dissemination strategy for each. In addition, we identify the lead authors of included trials published in the last 10 years and let them know the review has been published. For reviews that have high potential for impact, we may seek ways to ensure pickup by blogs or in editorials.

Results: We have been applying this approach for the last 8 years. We will present case studies of review specific strategies, an analysis of the various strategies used across reviews, and report on the experiences emailing individual trial authors. We will also provide examples of particular impact with the public, medical press and other stakeholders.

Conclusions: Cochrane Review Groups, with their knowledge of stakeholders in their topic areas, can develop and implement systematic, thoughtful review specific dissemination strategies. These could potentially increase the impact of Cochrane Reviews.