Cochrane’s first open access journal, Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods, recently opened for submissions! See our announcement for full details.

Why is Cochrane launching a new journal? And why now? Over the coming weeks we’ll discuss Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods in relation to Cochrane’s four key values: Collaboration, relevance, integrity and quality.

Today is Collaboration.

Collaboration underpins everything we do locally and globally. Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods provides a platform to collaborate more closely with many of our key stakeholders.

Researchers from across Cochrane groups, and those from the wider field who have not previously published with Cochrane, can now publish a variety of research seeking to inform and develop evidence synthesis. This includes methods research, priority setting, consumer involvement, and meta-research to improve research integrity.

We can also develop our partnerships with guideline developers, decision makers and funders through publication of evidence syntheses directly relevant to their interests, including as scoping reviews and rapid reviews.

Helping researchers develop professionally is embedded within Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods. Associate Editors are mentored by the Editor, Michael Brown, and annual peer reviewer excellence awards will shortlist potential new Associate Editors. We are also investigating how to best facilitate peer review mentoring to help early career researchers on the professional development ladder.

To ensure everyone gets the correct acknowledgement for what they do, Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods asks authors and other contributors to use ORCID iD’s. For authors, this facilitates the use of CRediT to provide detailed information about each individual author’s contributions to the work, and it also allows peer reviewers and editors to add reviews to Publons.

We work closely with Cochrane’s consumers. Our Consumer Editor, Helen Bulbeck, is responsible for bringing the consumer perspective to the journal’s development and peer review. The editors also encourage all authors to involve consumers in their research; all authors should include a transparent statement on how consumers were involved and if they weren’t, why not. There will also be opportunities for consumers to be authors.

The journal is committed to inclusivity and diversity with a gender-balanced Editorial Board and representation from across all continents. This will ensure Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods works with the wider international evidence synthesis community to create a journal that meets their needs.

By developing collaboration opportunities with Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods, Cochrane will be better able to achieve its mission of a world of better health for all where decisions are informed by high-quality evidence.

Today is Relevance.

Relevance is about having the right evidence at the right time in the right format. 

In the last post, we discussed how Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods strengthens Cochrane’s ability to meet our stakeholders’ needs and publish different types of evidence synthesis beyond systematic reviews. 

For all submissions, the editors also expect a clearly stated question and evidence of stakeholder need or research that informed the question, as well as encouraging patient important outcomes and/or standardized outcomes, as defined by COMET. 

In terms of the format, Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods aims to make this as easy as possible for authors. The journal supports free format submissions so authors don’t have to spend hours updating manuscripts to specific formatting requirements before submission.  

In addition, the editors encourages accessible language to be used in all submissions. This is hugely beneficial for researchers from across disciplines, non-native English speakers and consumers who will not be familiar with overly technical or difficult to read language. In addition, plain language summaries will be expected for all submissions that include health-related outcomes to ensure the research has as broad a reach as possible.  

Authors are also able to include graphical or visual abstracts alongside submissions to help readers identify and visualise the important messages quickly and easily. We have guidance on creating visual abstracts available to help authors.    

And then we have evidence at the right time. To ensure articles are shared and made discoverable as early as possible, Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods considers articles previously published on preprint servers, or, during submission you can opt-in to Under Review, a preprint server that aims to open up the peer review process. Once submissions are accepted, Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods shares the accepted draft article online immediately to prevent any delays in getting the research to the community. This happens before the article is copyedited and the final version is shared. 

Embedding relevance will facilitate our impact globally, which the journal will showcase with a variety of journal and article metrics. 

Today is Integrity.

Integrity includes ensuring independence and transparency. 

As a Cochrane journal, Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods abides by Cochrane’s conflict of interest policy. This policy is stricter than most other journals and not only requires study funding and author interests to be declared at the earliest point possible, but also mandates that some funding and conflicts of interest will prevent people from being authors.
 
Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods expects data sharing, with a transparent statement on the availability of the data in the submission, along with a citation if possible. It is also part of the Open Research Badges program, whereby authors can clearly indicate on their publications whether their data and materials are open and available to other researchers, and whether their study was preregistered.

Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods will be part of Wiley’s transparent peer review pilot, which means the peer reviewer reports, authors’ responses, and the editor’s decision letter will be linked from the published article to where they appear on Publons (if accepted). Authors do have the choice to opt-out, if they prefer, and peer reviewers can choose to sign their reports or remain anonymous.

Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods has a strong commitment to open science and high research integrity, which helps move science forward with trust and credibility.

Please join us on 9 March 2023 for a webinar with Michael Brown, Editor of Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods.

For more information on Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods:

• See the journal website with details on how to submit
• Announcement of a new open-access journal for Cochrane: Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods
• Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods: Adding to our collaboration 
• Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods: Adding to our relevance
• Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods: Adding to our integrity