A message to Review Groups from the Cochrane Board

A new model for producing Cochrane evidence syntheses was approved by the Governing Board in February 2022 and at that time, the Cochrane Executive Team was tasked with implementing these changes through the Future of Evidence Synthesis programme.

Our new approach:

This new approach separates the development of Cochrane content from the editorial processes and will strengthen our robust and best-practice editorial independence. By the end of March 2024, the editorial process for all Cochrane reviews will be managed by an expanded Central Editorial Service, for these reasons:

  • It will strengthen our editorial independence with a clear separation between manuscript development and evaluation.

  • It will create a simpler and consistent editorial experience for our authors, editors, and peer reviewers.

  • Our editorial processes and terminology will be much more aligned with those of other academic journals.

  • It will enable those meeting the criteria for authorship to be recognised without compromising our editorial independence and integrity.

Changes for Review Groups:

The work and focus of Review Groups will change. An outline of which parts of the process CRGs will manage, and which parts will now be managed by the Central Editorial Service is available here.

All the purely editorial parts of the process - assessment of submitted reviews, peer review processes and the editing and publication of reviews - will be done centrally. Review Groups will now be able to focus more of their time and unique expertise on:

  • supporting authors, developing reviews, and

  • increasing the power and reach of Cochrane evidence

  • devoting more time to priority-setting

  • promoting consumer involvement in review development

  • disseminating published Cochrane evidence.

Working together in this new way will allow Cochrane to continue to produce the best possible evidence with greater efficiency and consistency. For more information and some of the important milestones and timings for this change, please visit the project page here.

The expertise in priority setting, consumer involvement, author support, capacity building and evidence dissemination that sit within Review Groups, remains crucial.

As we celebrate Cochrane’s 30th anniversary, the Board has asked us to acknowledge and thank the community for all your amazing contributions on Cochrane’s behalf over the years and we look forward to your continuing support and collaboration as we move towards this new way of streamlining and strengthening the services we provide to authors and contributors.

Catherine Marshall and Tracey Howe, Cochrane Board Co-Chairs.

On behalf of the Cochrane Governing Board

Neil Rodger