Author Resources

The Cochrane follows a standard set of guidelines and procedures in order to ensure a high-quality product. All authors should familiarize themselves with the Cochrane Handbook. In addition, we have included the following resources for authors with the Fertility Regulation Group. 

Prepping a Cochrane review:

Cochrane online trainings: A portal to useful information for those looking to undertake a Cochrane review. Trainings presented with interactive infographics and learning activities.

Cochrane Canada Live:  A series of interactive webinars presented by the Canadian Cochrane Centre, covering useful topics for Cochrane authors

Cochrane style manual:  The official style guide for Cochrane Reviews. Used for both writing protocols and reviews.  

Methodological Expectations of Cochrane Intervention Reviews (MECIR):  Standards for the conduct and reporting of new Cochrane Intervention Reviews, reporting of protocols and the planning. All Cochrane authors should be familiar with and follow these standards in developing their protocol, and conducting and writing up their review and update thereafter. These standards provide clarity in line with the Cochrane Handbook about expectations on how to conduct a new Cochrane Intervention Review and what should be documented in the protocol and review.  Each standard is considered to be either mandatory (compliance required for publication) or highly desirable (expected but may be justifiably not done).

Writing of Plain Language Summaries:  Every Cochrane systematic review includes a short summary of the review in plain language. Draft standards for writing plain language summaries.

Common Errors to avoid:  Modules that are designed to help Editors learn to recognize and address many of the common errors that occur as Cochrane reviews are carried out

Co-publishing: Explanation of agreements and requirements if you wish to republish your review in another scientific journal

Editorial and Publishing Policy Resource: Cochrane’s editorial and publishing policies, as well as general information about the editorial and publishing processes.

Resources to be familiar with:

RevMan: Documentation and support software for writing and maintaining Cochrane reviews. Protocols and reviews are entered here, a living document. FAQ’s for RevMan can be found here.

Covidence: An online systematic review production platform which is recommended by Cochrane. The tool includes title/abstract screening, full text review, risk of bias assessment, and data extraction. Registered Cochrane Reviews are free of charge in Covidence. Read more about Covidence here. Helpful tutorials can be found here.

ArchieCochrane’s online information management system, where published and draft versions of all Cochrane Reviews are stored along with contact details of our contributors. A useful resource for Archie can be found here.  

GRADEpro: (GRADEprofiler) is the software used to create Summary of Findings (SoF) tables in Cochrane systematic reviews. You can import data from RevMan, perform calculations to present the key findings of your review, and conduct a GRADE assessment of the quality of the evidence. Demonstration videos, a user guide and the GRADE Handbook are available once you have created an account on the GRADEpro GDT website. Helpful webinars surrounding GRADE and GRADEpro here.

ROBINS-I: A risk of bias tool to assess non-randomized studies of interventions.

PRISMA: A checklist used focuses on the reporting of reviews evaluating randomized trials, but can also be used as a basis for reporting systematic reviews of other types of research, particularly evaluations of interventions.