Key projects and milestones

Cochrane’s change programme is made up of the following major projects:

Thematic Groups

Establish up to 20 Thematic Groups to support other parts of the new model for producing Cochrane evidence syntheses in key areas of health and social care and to retain and attract Cochrane volunteers.

Evidence Synthesis Units

Establish up to 10 Evidence Synthesis Units focused on capacity strengthening and delivering timely evidence syntheses relevant to local and regional contexts.

Central Editorial Service

Expand Cochrane's Central Editorial Service to handle the editorial process for all evidence syntheses, including a direct pathway and a fast-track service.

Review Development Pipeline

Project aims: secure submissions to a Centralised Editorial Service; reduce time to publication; and generate content that aligns with external stakeholder priorities.

Central Study Identification Service

Project aim: offer a customizable suite of dependable, high-quality search and screening services for all Cochrane reviews that will streamline study identification tasks and help eliminate development bottlenecks.

Prospective Author Journey

Project aim: Enable authors wishing to work with Cochrane to submit proposals for new or updated reviews to our central Editorial Manager site and get the go-ahead to start work.

New Review Format

Project aim: begin to implement a new shorter review format for Cochrane evidence syntheses in 2023.

Optimise production workflows

Project aim: implement and monitor improvements to our production (copy editing and publishing) processes; to support the timely publication of evidence on the Cochrane Library.

All Cochrane Reviews conducted in RevMan Web 

Project aim: increase the pace at which new features are developed in RevMan Web as RevMan 5 is retired, to enable introduction of new methods and new review format.

Revise Editorial Policies

Project aim: review and revise key editorial policies to support the new model for producing Cochrane evidence syntheses (for example Rejection and Updating Policies).