Cochrane is excited to announce The People’s Review, a project designed to empower individuals worldwide to take part in a systematic review. The People’s Review invites the public to learn about systematic reviews by directly participating in the process. The People's Review is brought to you by Evidence Synthesis Ireland and Cochrane Ireland.
The People’s Review will be hosted on the Cochrane Crowd platform, which already supports various citizen science tasks related to systematic reviews. It will help guide participants through eight interactive stages— from choosing the review question to sharing the final results.
What Makes The People’s Review Special?
In an age of overwhelming information and online health advice, it’s crucial to have tools that allow individuals to navigate complex medical data. Systematic reviews offer a structured and reliable way to assess healthcare treatments. By involving the public in conducting one, The People’s Review seeks to demystify the process and equip participants with essential critical thinking skills for health decision-making.
Éle Quinn, is a PhD student at University of Galway and is working alongside Evidence Synthesis Ireland and Cochrane Ireland on this project. Éle is the lead behind The People’s Review and shares her enthusiasm for the project and its potential impact:
"The People’s Review opens up the world of systematic reviews to the public, giving people the opportunity to directly participate in and learn about evidence-based healthcare. We believe that everyone has the right to be involved in research, and this project brings that vision to life!"
The Cochrane Crowd platform hosts tasks that help identify and describe health research for systematic reviews. Many within the Crowd community have fed back that the experience helps build skills around understanding health evidence. Each task is always supported by brief (and fun!) interactive training, and any contribution is welcome. Anna Noel-Storr, Cochrane Crowd Lead adds:
"We’re thrilled to be part of this exciting initiative. Cochrane Crowd has always been about engaging the public in evidence production, and The People’s Review is the next step in empowering individuals to contribute to systematic reviews directly."
Maureen Smith, a long-time advocate for public involvement in health research, Chair of the Cochrane Consumer Network Executive, and member of ‘Team People’s Review’ highlights the importance of this project:
"The People’s Review involves people in producing evidence, and by doing so it helps to build knowledge about evidence that people need to make informed health choices."
Get Involved and Stay Updated
Everyone, regardless of background or experience, is welcome to join The People’s Review. Whether you have a smartphone, tablet, or computer, you can participate from anywhere in the world. This project is designed to be inclusive and accessible to all.
Be part of this unique opportunity to engage with health research! The project will go through 8 different stages. To stay informed about opportunities to get involved, sign up for the newsletter and be the first to know about each new step in The People’s Review.
- Sign up now and express your interest in participating in The People’s Review
- Follow The People's Review on social media
The People’s Review is funded by the Health Research Board (Ireland) (ESI-2021-001) and the HSC Research and Development Division of the Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland) through Evidence Synthesis Ireland and Cochrane Ireland. Éle Quinn’s PhD studentship was funded by the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, University of Galway, Ireland through Evidence Synthesis Ireland.