Cochrane Iran intends to hold a challenge on the Cochrane Crowd platform to encourage volunteer scientific activities. In this challenge, which is being held for the first time in Iran, participants will identify and classify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) by accessing the Cochrane Crowd platform. The results of this work are entered into the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) to help Cochrane review authors and other systematic reviewers around the world to quickly identify relevant studies for their review articles and ultimately determine the effectiveness of a therapeutic approach or the accuracy of a diagnostic test.
The challenge will be held on Thursday, February 1, 2024, from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM (Tehran time). Those interested in participating in the challenge can log in at Cochrane Crowd through their Cochrane account at any time during these 12 hours of the challenge. Then, they should select the "Dive in" option and find the "Cochrane Iran Challenge" dashboard on the page. There, they can select the "start" option to identify and classify the summaries of the articles displayed. In order to do this, participants must have the skills and knowledge to classify descriptive and analytical studies, as well as experimental and observational studies, and to distinguish RCT/qRCT studies from other types of studies.
If you have not completed the RCT classification training course in Cochrane Crowd, the start option may not be displayed. In this case, first select the "training" option. In this step, 20 article abstracts will be displayed one by one. You will select one of the three options: "RCT/qRCT", "Reject", or "Unsure". The accuracy of your classification will be displayed with explanations. If you are unsure how to classify a record, you can skip it and review the next record. The "Help me decide" option can also help you make a decision.
Participants in this challenge, while participating in a scientific volunteer work, strengthen their skills in identifying study types and receive one point for classifying each record (article abstract). Classifying 1,000 abstracts will earn 1,000 points and a one-year Cochrane membership. Classifying 3,000 and 5,000 abstracts will also earn three- and five-year Cochrane memberships, respectively.
In addition, the top three participants in this challenge who complete the most classifications will receive cash prizes of 4, 3, and 2 million Tomans, respectively.
The Cochrane Crowd software platform, which was launched in 2017, has classified over 8.7 million records with the participation of over 32,000 volunteers from 203 countries around the world.
In order to familiarize interested people in participating in this challenge, an introductory webinar was held on Sunday, January 28, 2024. The recording of this webinar is available here.
Please note that you must select your country as "Iran" when creating an account on Cochrane in order for Cochrane support to be able to classify you as an Iranian participant. Because the challenge is open to everyone and anyone can participate. If you have already created an account and do not remember if you have selected your country, please check your profile details in this link.
In case of technical problems, please contact Cochrane Crowd support email at crowd@cochrane.org address. Please remember to send your message in English.
Relevant links