Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: Cochrane’s future relies on ensuring that Cochrane Reviews are high quality, relevant and up-to-date.
Methods: To inform discussion about how to best achieve this, we conducted interviews with 26 participants and an online survey with more than 100 respondents. We aimed to explore the models currently employed to produce systematic reviews both within and beyond Cochrane and to gather ideas about how review production could be improved.
Results and Discussion: Respondents highlighted the importance and the challenge of creating reliable, timely Cochrane Reviews. They described the difficulties and opportunities presented by current production models, and they shared what they are doing to improve review production.
They particularly highlighted significant challenges with:
- the increasing complexity of review methods;
- the difficulty keeping authors on board and on track (particularly volunteers, but also paid, geographically diverse teams);
- the length of the review process.
Respondents also raised concerns about conflation of review production and editorial processes.
The responses we received suggest that improvements to Cochrane’s systematic review production model could come from:
- improving clarity of roles and expectations of authors and Cochrane Review Groups from the outset of all review production processes;
- ensuring continuity and consistency of input throughout the production process, between reviews and between Review Groups;
- enabling active management of the review process;
- centralising some aspects of review production;
- breaking reviews into smaller ‘chunks’;
- improving approaches to capacity building and information sharing around review production.
Respondents noted the important role technology can play in enabling these improvements.
Conclusion: There are important opportunities to improve production of Cochrane Reviews. The information gathered through this project has been used in discussion with the Cochrane community to identify and develop new review production models and pilots are currently underway.
Methods: To inform discussion about how to best achieve this, we conducted interviews with 26 participants and an online survey with more than 100 respondents. We aimed to explore the models currently employed to produce systematic reviews both within and beyond Cochrane and to gather ideas about how review production could be improved.
Results and Discussion: Respondents highlighted the importance and the challenge of creating reliable, timely Cochrane Reviews. They described the difficulties and opportunities presented by current production models, and they shared what they are doing to improve review production.
They particularly highlighted significant challenges with:
- the increasing complexity of review methods;
- the difficulty keeping authors on board and on track (particularly volunteers, but also paid, geographically diverse teams);
- the length of the review process.
Respondents also raised concerns about conflation of review production and editorial processes.
The responses we received suggest that improvements to Cochrane’s systematic review production model could come from:
- improving clarity of roles and expectations of authors and Cochrane Review Groups from the outset of all review production processes;
- ensuring continuity and consistency of input throughout the production process, between reviews and between Review Groups;
- enabling active management of the review process;
- centralising some aspects of review production;
- breaking reviews into smaller ‘chunks’;
- improving approaches to capacity building and information sharing around review production.
Respondents noted the important role technology can play in enabling these improvements.
Conclusion: There are important opportunities to improve production of Cochrane Reviews. The information gathered through this project has been used in discussion with the Cochrane community to identify and develop new review production models and pilots are currently underway.