Handbook Advisory Group Report

to the Cochrane Collaboration Steering Group

for discussion at its meeting in October 2005

 

Report submitted by Julian Higgins and Sally Green



 

Steering Group response needed to three questions at Item 4.

 

 

 

1.     How many meetings, and of what type (e.g. face-to-face, by teleconference), has your Advisory Group had since April 2005? 

The co-convenors met face-to-face in Oxford in June 2005 and communicate by telephone regularly to keep abreast of HAG issues. The broader membership of HAG communicates by email, and many attended the trial quality assessment meeting in June in Cambridge (see section 3.1). The co-convenors met with Deborah Russell from Wiley (Julian face to face, Sally by phone) in September to discuss the plans for the print version of the Handbook (see later). The Handbook Advisory Group will meet face-to-face at the Melbourne Colloquium

 

Is this what you expected when you set your budget for the year?

We did not anticipate the face-to-face meeting of the co-convenors in June, but given Sally was in Oxford for the MRG meeting it seemed cost-effective and timely for Julian to travel from Cambridge for a meeting.

 

 

2.     Supply an up-to-date list of the members of your Advisory Group.

 

Lisa Askie

Editorial board

Chris Cates

Editorial board

Mike Clarke

Editorial board

Jon Deeks

Editorial board [CCSG representative]

Matthias Egger

Editorial board

Sally Green

Co-Convenor/Co-Editor

Julian Higgins

Co-Convenor/Co-Editor

Alex Jadad

Editorial board

Philippa Middleton

Editorial board

Ruth Mitchell

Trials Search Co-ordinator

Jim Neilson

Co-ordinating editor [CCSG representative]

Deborah Pentesco-Gilbert

Publisher of The Cochrane Library

Jacob Riis

Technical support

Danielle Wheeler

Fields representative

Convenors

All Cochrane Methods Groups

Member

Adverse Events Sub-Group

Member

Methodology Review Group

 

 

3.     Summarise any significant actions taken by your Advisory Group since your last report, and significant actions planned between now and the next meeting of the CCSG.

 

3.1.           Actions in last 6 months

3.1.1       Substantive update of the Handbook to coincide with Issue 2, 2005 (Version 4.2.6). This update included:

ú                      Section on the inclusion of adverse effects in Cochrane reviews

ú                      Information on methods for dealing with cluster RCTs and cross-over trials in Cochrane reviews.

ú                      Major revision of Sections 1, 2 and 3 (including new advice about plain language summaries).

3.1.1       Two new members of HAG (Danielle Wheeler representing Fields and Deborah Pentesco-Gilbert representing the Publisher).

3.1.2       Convened a successful meeting (funded by the CCSG) in Cambridge about the assessment of trial quality. This will inform the new Section 6 of the Handbook.

3.1.3       Progressed plans for the publication of the Handbook as a book (see section 4.3).

3.1.4       Gained CCSG approval to purchase two new licenses for ‘Robohelp’ (the software used to produce the Handbook). We are however yet to purchase these pending advice from Wiley about alternative mechanisms which may ease production).

 

3.2              Planned Actions for next 6 months

3.2.1       Incorporate all new terminology changes into the Handbook.

3.2.2       Finalise the Health Promotion and Public Health appendix to the Handbook.

3.2.3       We have recently received the first draft of a section from the Health Economics Methods Group which we hope to include in the Handbook in the next 6 months.

3.2.4       Update Section 10 in line with the paper from the working party investigating the problem of updating reviews.

3.2.5       Continue to work to a timeline to update the Handbook to meet the requirements and deadline of the release of RevMan 5.

3.2.6       Work with Wiley towards an up to date Handbook to publish as a text book.



4             Does your Advisory Group have any questions that you would like the Steering Group to answer?  If so, please list them.

 

We have three significant issues where we seek advice from the CCSG. These represent changes to the current production of the Handbook and so we would appreciate input:

 

4.1 New schedule for updating the Handbook and the creation of a web page

The production of a new update to the Handbook with each Issue of The Cochrane Library consumes a large amount of time and effort from a technical point of view in addition to content. Four updates a year represent a significant burden for CRGs and review authors to keep abreast of. We would like to propose we alter the schedule to one substantive update of the Handbook per year, and place updated material and new sections on a dedicated page on the Collaboration’s website (where the content can be maintained by the Handbook editors). We would update the Handbook with each Issue if there were important corrections to be made, but substantive updates would occur annually.

 

Does the Steering Group support this new schedule of updating?

 

4.2 Structure of the Handbook

We have developed a new structure for the Handbook that we believe simplifies and improves the ease of use. We plan to reduce the number of appendices, instead structuring the Handbook in two parts: Part A which will contain the advice common to all reviews, and Part B which will contain specialist advice (for example about economics data or analysis of individual patient data). The new structure is appended to this report.

 

Does the Steering Group approve the planned new structure of the Handbook?

 

4.3 Working with Wiley toward a print version of the Handbook

At its Bergamo meeting, the CCSG approved the concept of publishing the Handbook in print version with Wiley Interscience. We have begun work with Deborah Russell from Wiley toward this, and believe there will be significant benefits for the electronic version (which will continue to be freely available and published according to the current arrangement) in terms of incentive to update and management support for the Handbook editors (for example in contacting section editors). At the Melbourne HAG meeting we will be discussing ways of working with Wiley to achieve the necessary updates to allow this to happen, but, given the print version of the Handbook will not allow the level of correction or alteration as the electronically published current version, we are requesting instruction from the CCSG about the level of sign off you would like to have on this material.

 

Does the Steering Group wish to approve the content of the print version of the Handbook prior to publishing, and, if so, how much time for each section would be required?

 

 

5              Does your Advisory Group wish to raise any problems, and recommended solutions, which you would like the Steering Group to discuss?  If so, please list them. 
All issues covered elsewhere in this report.


6             Do you foresee any problems in keeping within the budget you submitted for the current financial year (April 2004 to March 2005)?  No, given that the planned purchase of RoboHelp licences is considered an additional request, and not included in the overall budget.