Background:

Consumer involvement is an essential part of any evidence synthesis project to ensure that the work carried out is truly meaningful for the end users. Cochrane is committed to encouraging authors to involve consumers in their research, as evidenced by the extensive work of the Cochrane Consumer Network and, more recently, by the rollout of Cochrane’s new focused review format, which now includes specific methods sections on the review author’s plans for "consumer involvement." This presentation will be of importance to patients because promoting meaningful consumer involvement in systematic reviews will help to ensure that the subsequent findings are important, relevant, accessible, and understandable to the end users.

Objective:

The objective of this project is to explore the consumer involvement–related content of protocols submitted to Cochrane in the focused review format. We aim to assess the extent to which the introduction of the "consumer involvement" section has increased awareness and consideration of these issues among protocol authors.

Methods/

results:

The Quality Assurance team in Cochrane’s Central Editorial Service will collate the information provided in the "consumer involvement" section of protocols during the first 3 months of the introduction of the focused review format. This presentation will focus on the proportion of authors who now include plans for consumer involvement during protocol development compared with those who have not and will also highlight some examples of best practice—for example, whether authors have adequately described the consumer’s involvement in terms of their specific role, the extent of involvement, the specific stage of involvement, and any formal methods used.

Conclusion:

The findings will inform our understanding of the consideration of consumer involvement issues during protocol development and may also inform future projects on consumer involvement in evidence synthesis. We will reflect on the potential need for further guidance for authors on what to plan for in this section and guidance for peer reviewers on what to expect in this section.