Trainers' Network Bulletin

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Trainers' Network Bulletin
June 2012

Welcome to the Cochrane Trainers’ Network Bulletin. In this edition, you’ll find a range of new resources, including expectations for author teams, key materials translated into Spanish, and an update from the Bias Methods Training Event.

Feel free to share this Bulletin with others who might be interested – and don’t forget that new members can sign up at https://training.cochrane.org/trainers. If you’d like to discuss issues of interest, ask questions and share examples with other trainers, try the Trainers’ Forum at https://training.cochrane.org/forums/trainers-forum.

If you have any questions, please contact the Training Co-ordinator, Miranda Cumpston, at miranda.cumpston@monash.edu.

Volunteers needed: Mobile app for citation screening and study selection

The National Trauma Research Institute (Alfred Hospital and Monash University, Melbourne, Australia) is conducting a study on the use of an iOS application (iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad) for screening titles and abstracts for Cochrane reviews. This is one of several exciting projects of this kind currently under way around the world. The team are looking for 'expert' review authors to use the app to screen citations and participate in a short qualitative interview. If you’re interested and have some time available before the end of July, please email veronica.pitt@monash.edu.

1. Managing expectations for Cochrane author teams

After much consultation, a policy on managing expectations for Cochrane authors and editorial teams has been approved by the Steering Group. The full policy is available in Section 3.2.4 of the Cochrane Policy Manual, and an author friendly version will soon be available on the cochrane.org and Cochrane Training websites.

The document outlines for authors the skills and competencies they will need to have to prepare a review, as well as outlining what to expect from CRGs, Centres and Branches in terms of both support and editorial review.

2. Report from the Bias Methods Training Event

In March this year, the Bias Methods Group brought together an interested group of methodologists, editors and trainers for the third annual Methods Training Event. The purpose of these events is to enable more advanced training in key Cochrane methods. Twenty-seven participants from a range of countries attended the event in Loughborough, UK, including MEs, Co-Eds, Editors, Centre staff and others, many of whom are members of the Trainers’ Network.

The program included presentations and discussion with Isabelle Boutron, Julian Higgins, Jonathan Sterne, Doug Altman, Kerry Dwan and Lucy Turner of the Bias Methods Group, and some of the presentations are now available on the Bias Methods Group website. Topics included:

Identifying and getting consistency on good practice Risk of Bias ratings – quite a few of the presentations included useful examples of high and low risk papers.

  • Developing areas of methods, such as Kerry Dwan’s work with Jamie Kirkham on outcome reporting bias (see their publications here and here for more on this).
  • Reaching overall judgements and incorporating risk of bias into analysis – improved guidance on how to put this into practice is currently in development.
  • Establishing a Bias Methods Network, linking entity representatives with an interest in implementing Risk of Bias assessment in reviews.

The next Methods Training Event will be in 2013, presented by the Comparing Multiple Interventions Methods Group. The date and location of the workshop are to be determined - keep an eye out for more information if you’re interested in attending, and note that funding may be available for participants from low-income countries.

Have you seen the Cochrane Live! webinar page?

Information about webinars across the Collaboration is now available at https://training.cochrane.org/authors/webinars, including an international schedule of coming webinars, and links to past recordings. If you’re interested in hosting your own webinars, whether for an internal discussion with your entity on topics of interest, or to present training on key topics, information for trainers is available at https://training.cochrane.org/trainers/webinars. Contact the Training Co-ordinator for more information and support.

3. New training resources available

A cluster of new training materials has recently been made available for authors (and trainers). You might be interested to see:

Good practice data collection form templates
Developed by the Editorial Resources Committee, designed for adaptation to each individual review. Templates are available for RCTs and non-RCTs.

Cochrane Handbook and RevMan tutorial in Spanish
The Iberoamerican Cochrane Centre is pleased to present Spanish translations of the Cochrane Handbook, as well as the self-guided RevMan tutorial. Note that these editions are not installed with RevMan, but can be accessed via cochrane.org and the IMS website respectively.

Standard author training presentations in Korean
The Korean Branch of the Australasian Cochrane Centre has translated five of the standard author training presentations into Korean, including the Introduction, Writing a Protocol, Defining a Review Question, Selecting Studies and Collecting Data presentations. These are now available from both the author and trainers’ sections of the Cochrane Training website.
Contact Miranda Cumpston, Training Co-ordinator at miranda.cumpston@monash.edu.