Publishing with Cochrane: author guidelines

Publishing with Cochrane: author guidelines
Publishing with Cochrane: author guidelines

This guidance is for authors preparing Cochrane reviews for publication on the Cochrane Library. 

Do you want to start a new Cochrane review? Find out how to become a Cochrane author

We know Cochrane reviews can be complex and we are proud to support our authors with review development. Here is a quick summary of essential points to help you before submission. The guidelines below provide more detailed information on each point.

Table of contents

Author support - how we can help you

Publishing a Cochrane review is a team effort. Cochrane groups all over the world provide author support. This can include help with developing your review, access to an Information Specialist to run searches, and disseminating your evidence after publication. We know Cochrane reviews can be complex and we want to help you get it right as you write. Cochrane provides free access to training, bespoke software and detailed reporting standards to support authors before submission.

Cochrane Support team

We have a dedicated support team to respond to author queries: get in touch at support@cochrane.org.

Cochrane software

Author training

Methods support

Our volunteers

Cochrane offers you an active global community of volunteers to help with your review.

  • Visit Cochrane Engage to connect with people with a variety of skills and experience, including:
    • Consumer involvement
    • Translation of studies potentially eligible for inclusion in your review
  • Cochrane Crowd can help screen the search results for your intervention RCT-based review. Cochrane's Screen4Me service uses our volunteer citizen scientists and machine learning to reduce the number of results for you to assess. Contact your Cochrane Information Specialist or support@cochrane.org for more information.

Search support

If you are working with a Cochrane group, please contact the group to confirm if they can support you to develop and run searches for your review.

If you are not working with a Cochrane group, you are responsible for preparing the searches for your review. Your author team should therefore include a qualified Information Specialist or Librarian. This could be an Information Specialist in your host institution, for example. If this is not available, Cochrane Central Study Identification Service may be able to help with:

  • Search strategy development and running searches, particularly if:
    • You are writing a commissioned review, a review associated with specific funding or a review with a deadline (e.g. informing a guideline development group meeting on a specific date);
    • You need help with an update search or a top-up search.
  • Resolving queries regarding your search strategy or results.
  • If you are not writing a commissioned or funded review, search support may be available via the Central Study Identification Service or on a paid consultancy basis. Contact support@cochrane.org to find out more.

News and updates for authors 

Opt in to Cochrane communications and sign up to our Author Digest to receive all the latest news for authors each month. 

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Core methods and policies

Cochrane methods

Handbooks

Follow the guidance in our Handbooks as you conduct your protocol and review:

Please use the resources below for prognosis and methodology reviews. Handbooks for these review types are in development.

MECIR (Methodological Expectations of Cochrane Intervention Reviews)

  • Follow our detailed conduct standards. Your protocol or review will be assessed against these standards on submission.
  • You must adhere to all MECIR standards marked as mandatory. For example, choose outcomes that are important to users of Cochrane evidence. When preparing protocols, use standard outcome sets as defined by COMET.

Editorial policies

Cochrane's reputation rests on our independence and research integrity. Read our key editorial and publishing policies in full before you start work. These policies affect who can be in your author team, and how you write your review. Please pay particular attention to:

  • Conflict of Interest policy: if your author team has financial or commercial conflicts, your manuscript will be rejected. Read our quick guide for authors summarising key points in the policy.
  • Authorship policy: if your author byline has changed since the last published version (protocol or review) you must provide a signed Changes in Authorship form on submission. Download the form and collect signatures from all previous and current authors to show they have agreed to this change. List any previous authors and their contributions in the Acknowledgements section. Please note that any changes to the byline after submission will require a further signed Changes in Authorship form and the editorial process will be paused while we wait to receive this. Please finalise your byline before submission to avoid delays. 

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Writing your review

Reporting guidance

  • Intervention reviews in the focused format should follow the Cochrane review template, available as a practice review in RevMan. Information in many sections is relevant to all review types and we recommend all authors read the template. 
  • All reviews should follow publishing standard guidelines, such as PRISMA 2020 (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) for systematic reviews of interventions. If you are not writing an intervention review, you can also check the PRISMA website for any extension that might be relevant for your review.
    • If your intervention review is not yet in the focused format, please continue to follow the reporting standards within the February 2022 version of MECIR.
    • If your review has been upgraded to our focused review format, you will need to make changes in RevMan as you prepare your draft. 
  • Write a concise review article focused only on your main findings. Please keep to our 10,000-word limit for reviews and updates. Protocols should be shorter. Read a sample of a published focused review.
  • RevMan will create a package of supplementary materials to publish alongside your main article. These materials are intended for a more expert readership and should include data and information that provide additional context or enhance your main findings.
  • Readers of the Cochrane Library include patients, carers, policy-makers and funders from all over the world. Write in accessible language for a reader who is not a medical expert or a native English speaker. 
    • Use short sentences.
    • Use everyday words to explain technical language.
    • Explain abbreviations and acronyms.
  • If English is not your first language, you could use AI language tools (such as Grammarly) to improve your writing. Our AI policy allows you to use these tools if you wish. Your Cochrane review does not need to be in perfect English: it should be understandable and clear. If you use any AI tools, always check the final text before you submit.
  • Cochrane protocols, reviews, and updates must follow the guidance in the Cochrane Style Manual. Key points for authors are summarised in Cochrane’s essential style guidelines.

Abstract

  • Cochrane abstracts are freely available online and are often the only part of a Cochrane review that people read. Your abstract should be clear, easy to understand, and translate.
  • Follow the guidance in the Cochrane review template to ensure your abstract is:
    • Accurate: supported by your results
    • Complete: question, methods, results, limitations
    • Consistent: based on the main article and introducing nothing new or different
    • Short: 700 words (no more than 1,000 words) so your abstract will display in full on PubMed after publication
  • Watch a training webinar on writing a Cochrane abstract in the focused review format.

Plain language summary (PLS)

Summary of findings

  • Include at least one key Summary of findings table (SoFT) in your review. Summarise results for the comparisons and outcomes that decision-makers will find most relevant, as outlined in your review protocol. Include a row for each outcome (up to a maximum of seven). Accepted SoFT formats and interactive Summary of findings tables can be produced within RevMan using GRADEpro GDT software.

Figures

  • Create and include links in the main article to the following figures:
    • PRISMA flow diagram.
    • Visual representation of syntheses for each outcome, such as forest plots.
    • Figures representing subgroup and sensitivity analyses that address the review’s objective and support its conclusions.
    • Others as appropriate, such as funnel plots.
  • Each figure must have a caption. Captions should provide a brief description or explanation of the figure.
  • A maximum of 10 figures should be sufficient for most intervention reviews. It may be necessary to include up to 20 figures for network meta-analyses. There is no set limit to the number of figures.
  • The ‘Analyses’ supplementary material will automatically include all syntheses and subgroup and sensitivity analyses. To direct readers to a particular analysis for which you do not include a figure in the main article, use the format 'Analysis 1.1 in Supplementary material (Analyses)'. You can use the internal link functionality in RevMan to select the correct analysis number and supplement.  
  • If you include external figures, they must meet our image resolution requirements. 
  • Captions for external, copyrighted images for which you have obtained permission must end with the following phrase: "Copyright © [Year] [Name of copyright holder, or other required wording]: reproduced with permission.”

Tables

  • Your focused manuscript must include an Overview of syntheses and included studies (OSIS) table. Example formats are available in the Tables section of the Cochrane review template. If your review contains a large number of included studies, a series of summary tables may be a better to display the information than a single OSIS table. Contact the Cochrane Support team to confirm if this applies to your review. 
  • The information in your OSIS table must match the details of all included studies and analyses.
  • When including tables, please consider the maximum table size allowed in RevMan. Tables will be published within the main article, below the paragraph where they are first linked in the text. 
  • Each table must be linked from the main article. Each table must have a title that provides a brief, clear description of the content. 

References

Supplementary materials

  • RevMan will automatically generate the following supplementary materials from information and data in your review: 
    • Search strategy: all search strategies for each database (and other sources, if applicable) with search strings, database names, access platforms, search fields and other limitations/settings.
      • Add in the Search strategy section in RevMan.
      • Published as 'Search strategies' supplementary material in protocols and reviews. 
    • Characteristics of studies: include the same information for each study, using the recommended headings: Methods, Participants, Interventions, Outcomes, Notes. Import into RevMan along with your study data.
      • Published as separate supplementary materials:
        • Characteristics of included studies
        • Characteristics of excluded studies
        • Characteristics of studies awaiting assessment
        • Characteristics of ongoing studies
    • Analyses: all comparisons and forest plots for all syntheses, including subgroup and sensitivity analyses are published in the ‘Analyses’ supplementary material.
    • Risk of bias 2 tables: published in the ‘Risk of bias’ supplementary material’.
    • RevMan data package: downloadable alongside your published review as the 'Data package' supplementary material.
    • Additional data or information that supports or enhances the article: include in ‘Other supplementary materials’.
  • External files and datasets: to include supplementary information not managed in RevMan, you can link to external files and datasets stored in external repositories if needed.
  • You are responsible for the accuracy of your Supplementary materials: Cochrane will not copy edit, typeset or proof-read these materials. See Supplementary materials.

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Pre-submission checklist

Protocols and reviews are submitted to Cochrane Central Editorial Service. When you submit your manuscript, it must be of publishable standard and ready for peer review. Manuscripts that are not of publishable standard may be rejected on submission or following peer review.

  • Check your manuscript meets Cochrane requirements before you submit. Open the Cochrane review template as a practice review in RevMan. Compare each section of your manuscript with the reporting guidance in the template. The template is for intervention reviews, but information in many sections is relevant to all review types. If you are not writing an intervention review, you can also check the PRISMA website for any extension that might be relevant for your review.
  • Download and complete your pre-submission checklist. It is mandatory to upload a completed checklist alongside your manuscript, when submitting your first draft to Editorial Manager.
  • You can also check your manuscript against our methodological standards for protocols and reviews.
  • All manuscripts will be assessed for compliance with the following policies on submission:   
    • Conflict of Interest policy: declarations of interest are requested after submission. Please ask all authors to flag any relevant interests before you submit. Your manuscript risks being rejected if authors have prohibited interests. 
    • Authorship policy: all authors must meet our criteria for authorship. 
      • Author byline: please ensure that your byline is finalised before submission and matches the author list in RevMan. See information on Changes in authorship.  
      • Please note that Cochrane follows Wiley’s policy regarding submissions from sanctioned countries.
      • Acknowledgement: contributors who have helped you with your work but do not meet the threshold for authorship can be named in the Acknowledgements in RevMan. You will need to obtain written permission from each contributor to be named in this section, and upload the relevant documents on submission. Use our suggested template email to seek consent from any other named contributors.
      • If you have used our Cochrane Crowd Screen4Me service to screen your search results, you can name Screen4Me volunteers in the Acknowledgements without seeking additional permissions. Volunteers give this permission when agreeing to take part.
    • AI-generated content policy: if you used AI tools when preparing your manuscript, please give full details.
    • Plagiarism policy: we use iThenticate CrossCheck software to detect text copied from other material. We do not screen supplementary materials in our similarity checks. You are therefore responsible for ensuring that you have correctly used quotation marks for any text copied directly from study reports to include in your Characteristics of studies tables and/or your risk of bias tables.
      • Reproduction of copyright material: you must obtain permission to reproduce any figures or excerpts from copyrighted works. It is your responsibility to submit evidence of this permission, such as an email, signature or publisher’s form.
  • Other essential submission requirements:
    • Currency of evidence: if you are submitting a review or update, your search date should be less than 12 months' old at the point of submission. Please also check the publication status of any ongoing studies. Editors and peer reviewers will take into consideration how long ago your search was run, and how relevant your review findings are likely to be. You may be asked to rerun searches and incorporate new studies to ensure your results are relevant at the time of publication, particularly if your searches will be over 12 months' old when the review publishes (see MECIR review conduct standards and Reporting search dates in Cochrane reviews).

The Corresponding Author will receive an email invitation with a link to submit. Follow our step-by-step instructions for authors to submit your draft to Editorial Manager.

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Editorial process

Cochrane has high standards of research integrity and a very rigorous peer review process - particularly methodological peer review. Our meticulous quality checks mean that our editorial process may take longer than other journals. Authors may also be required to make more extensive corrections where methods do not meet our standards. Before submitting, please complete a pre-submission checklist to ensure your submission meets our core research integrity and methods requirements. Please do not chase a first decision until at least 12 weeks following submission.

On submission to Cochrane Central Editorial Service, all authors must complete a declaration of interest in Convey, our disclosure management platform. See also our instructions for authors on submitting declarations of interest. At this stage, the status of your manuscript in Editorial Manager will be Manuscript Submitted.

Please submit your declaration of interest as soon as you can. Research integrity is very important to Cochrane. Once declarations are requested, if authors do not submit a declaration of interest within 30 days, the manuscript will be removed from our system. 

Editorial processing begins when all author declarations of interest are completed. An Editorial Assistant and a Managing Editor will check your manuscript and completed declarations for compliance with the Conflict of Interest policy for Cochrane Library content. Editors will also assess if your submission meets Cochrane's methodological standards. Your submission may be rejected if major concerns are identified, in line with Cochrane's rejection and appeals policy. At this stage, the status of your manuscript in Editorial Manager will be With Editor.

Peer review

If our editors consider your manuscript suitable for peer review, the following specialist reviewers may be invited to comment, depending on the article type of your submission (in adherence with Cochrane's Peer review policy):

  • Methodologist (find out how our Quality Assurance Editors assess protocols and reviews)
  • Information Specialist (search methods)
  • Clinical or content experts (generally two or three reviewers per submission)
  • Consumer (patient, carer or family member with lived experience of the condition or intervention on which the review is focused)

You are welcome to suggest suitable non-conflicted peer reviewers (with their contact details), on submission. However, our Managing Editors are free to decide who to use as peer reviewers. At least one content/clinical reviewer must be identified independent of author recommendations. At this stage, the status of your manuscript in Editorial Manager will be Under Review.

Cochrane has a named peer review process (other than for consumer reviewers who may choose to remain anonymous). You will receive collated peer review comments with an overall editorial decision of accept/major/minor revision/reject. This decision is made by a Senior Editor who is an expert in the topic area of your submission. 

Your deadline to revise your draft will depend on whether you are writing a protocol or review, and the extent of revisions required. See Submission deadlines. If you need to request an extension, or have any queries about revisions, please contact your Managing Editor. At this stage, the status of your manuscript in Editorial Manager will be Revise.

Follow our step-by-step instructions for authors to submit your revised draft to Editorial Manager. On revision, please also confirm your chosen open access licence. Check if you qualify for a waiver for Gold Open Access.

Your Managing Editor will assess your revised manuscript and rebuttal, and make an editorial decision of accept/major/minor revision/reject. The Managing Editor may request peer reviewers re-review the revised version and rebuttal or they may discuss the revisions with a Senior Editor. 

We allow a maximum of one round of major and one round of minor revision. Manuscripts that do not meet the required standard after this point will be rejected in line with Cochrane’s rejection and appeals policy. 

Timelines

We aim to advise authors of our first decision within 12 weeks of submission. We will not contact you before the first decision.

The table below shows submission and revision deadlines for authors.  

Action or decision Protocol Review Update
Submit draft after proposal is accepted 120 days - 180-365 days
Submit draft after protocol is published - 180-365 days -
Resubmit with minor revisions 14 days 21 days 21 days
Resubmit with major revisions 21 days 30 days 30 days

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Acceptance and publication

After a maximum of two rounds of revision following peer review, your Managing Editor will confirm if your article is ready to publish. Manuscripts are accepted for publication by a Senior Editor and handed over to production. This means that our editors are satisfied with the scientific content of your submission. You may have further revisions to make related to language and style. At this stage, the status of your manuscript in Editorial Manager will be Accept.

Copyright and licensing

  • When your submission enters production, you will receive an email notification with a link to complete a Licence for publication form. Each author must submit a form to allow the submission to publish once production is complete. See also our policy on Copyright and licence for publication.
  • The Licence for publication form includes details of your open access licence and a link to view the accepted manuscript (prior to copy editing). Contact support@cochrane.org or your Managing Editor as soon as possible if any of the following details are incorrect:
    • Open access licence type: if you have selected a Gold open access licence for a review, either you or your funder must pay the article processing charge (APC). APC waivers and discounts are available. 
    • Author names, affiliations or author order.
    • Interests noted in Authors’ declarations of interest section.
  • Preview all Licence for publication forms.
    • When an author’s contributions are owned by the author’s employer, additional documentation or signatures may be required. View additional requirements.

      Proofs

      • All Cochrane protocols, reviews and updates must be copy edited before publication. Your manuscript will be copy edited by a Cochrane copy editor, excluding the Supplementary materials. You should receive comments and queries from the copy editor within 4-6 weeks of your submission entering production. Follow our step-by-step instructions for authors to review your final proofs and make any requested corrections.Do not make additional corrections to the manuscript. Changes made by the copy editor should not be altered.
      • Before publication your manuscript will have a final proofread. You will be notified when your article is published on the Cochrane Library.

      Review promotion support

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      Publish with us again

      We hope you enjoyed writing your Cochrane review and would like to work with us again. Please propose your next review to build on your experience of using Cochrane methods to produce trusted evidence.

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      Page last updated: Sep 6, 2024