Resources for review authors

If you have expertise in health promotion and public health you may wish to consider becoming a review author. Benefits of being a Cochrane reviewer include ongoing editorial support, access to resources and training in conducting systematic reviews, and an international audience when your work is published in The Cochrane Library. 

Resources for assisting you in producing a Cochrane review are linked below.

Resources for those wishing to conduct a systematic review of a public health topic include:

The editorial policies of the Cochrane Public Health Group can be found in our Group's module on the Cochrane Library at http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/cochrane/clabout/articles/HEALTHP/frame.html
Here you will find information about the 3 stages of review production (title registration, protocol publication and review publication).  You will also find reference to the Role of the editors amd the TSC and what support they offer authors during the review process.

Health Promotion and Public Health Systematic Review Handbook  This handbook takes reviewers through the whole process of completing a systematic review. It can be used as a stand alone resource and includes information included in the Guidelines for Systematic Reviews of Health Promotion and Public Health Interventions (below).

Guidelines for Systematic Reviews of Health Promotion and Public Health Interventions   Produced by an international taskforce and supplement to the Cochrane Reviewer's Handbook, the Gueidelines highlight issues of relevance to doing reviews of effects of health promotion and public health interventions. They should not be used as a single resource for completing systematic reviews; they were produced to 'fill the gaps' for HPPH reviewers in the Cochrane Reviewer's Handbook.  Some of the information has now been included as a special chapter in the

The Guidelines were first produced in 2005 and underwent a revision in 2007. 
Summary of Changes in Version 2 of the Cochrane HPPH Guidelines:
Chapter 1: Planning the review
Includes questions to consider with regards to planning the review.
Chapter 2: Study designs to include
Highlights new research exploring the implications of the choice of study design when estimating the effects of policy interventions.
Chapter 3: Searching for health promotion and public health literature
Includes issues in searching for qualitative research,  use of searching filters and changes to the recommendations for handsearching.
Chapter 4: Quality assessment
New information on related initiatives
Chapter 8: Integrating qualitative and quantitative studies
Includes recommendations for review synthesis, on the conduct of narrative synthesis and the inclusion of qualitative
Chapter 9: Ethics and Inequalities
More information on concepts of ethics and Inequalities and relevant intitiatives
Chapter 10: Sustainability
Includes list of issues to consider when reviewing sustainability of included studies
Chapter 11: Context
Includes new papers exploring external validity
Chapter 12: Applicability
Includes questions for assessing the applicability and transferability of interventions

Author assistance provided by Information Retrieval support team - see slides presented at the 2009 Cochrane Colloquium

Finding Low and Middle Income Countries Databases
A collaboration, led by the Norwegian Satellite of the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group, has developed a list of databases, web sites and journals relevant to low and middle income countries. 
This listing is now available on their web page:  Databases Relevant to Low & Middle Income Countries (http://epocoslo.cochrane.org/en/newPage2.html)

Review Advisory Group guidance - guidelines to the role, development and management of advisory groups to inform the parameters of your Cochrane protocol.

Priority review topics - Developed by an international working group in 2002.

Systematic Review 2-Day Course

(Handbook plus exercises and powerpoint slides)

• Slides
• Introduction
• Unit One
• Unit Two
• Unit Three
• Unit Four
• Unit Five
• Unit Six
• Unit Seven
• Unit Eight
• Unit Nine
• Unit Ten
• Unit Eleven

Train the Trainer Course book For those wishing to teach others how to do a systematic review.

Links to Cochrane resources