If you have queries about any aspect of this guidance, please contact support@cochrane.org
- Background
- Notifications to authors
- View authors' declarations in Editorial Manager
- Authors' 'Declarations of interest' section in reviews
- Access to Convey for editorial teams
- Declarations of Interest within the editorial process
1. Background
Cochrane uses Editorial Manager to process submitted reviews. Within Editorial Manager, authors’ Declarations of Interest (DoIs) are requested and completed via Convey, a not-for-profit Declaration of Interest management system provided by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC).
Convey allows Cochrane to support the requirements of the Conflict of Interest policy for Cochrane Library content (2020), including assessment of author declarations at article submission; and to send automated annual reminders to authors to update their declarations while their review is in progress.
Cochrane’s revised Conflict of Interest policy for Cochrane Library content (2020) runs in parallel with the previous Commercial Sponsorship policy (2014) which is applicable to protocols, reviews and updates in progress before 14 October 2020. All authors submitting work to Editorial Manager answer the same questions and declare their interests in the same way in Convey regardless of which policy applies; editorial staff then assess these declarations against the applicable policy.
Preview the author form. (Please note this preview version should not be used for declaring interests. All declarations of interest must be made through Convey). See also Guidance for authors on using Convey.
2. Notifications to authors
A. New submissions
All authors will receive an email from AAMC following their submission to Editorial Manager, asking them to create an account and log in to Convey and declare any relevant interests. This email will come from ‘Do_Not_Reply@aamc.org’ and will contain the title of the review and the Editorial Manager manuscript number. The email is triggered for new submissions (not revisions), for draft protocols, reviews and updates. Please note that authors may receive this email up to 7 working days after submission. Authors then have 30 days to complete their disclosures.
The submission confirmation email to authors contains the following text:
Cochrane uses Convey, a service run by the Association of American Medical Colleges to facilitate the collection of Declarations of Interest. You will shortly receive an email from ‘Do_Not_Reply@aamc.org’ asking you to complete a Declaration of Interest for this submission. Please check your junk and spam folders in case this email is misdirected. Please follow the instructions in the email to declare all relevant interests. If you have not used Convey previously, select 'Create Account' on the Convey login screen. When you have created your Convey account, you will be redirected to the Declaration of Interest form for your review. |
B. Reminder emails
Weekly reminders
The initial email gives authors a deadline of seven days to complete their declaration. Authors who do not complete their declaration by this date will receive a weekly reminder email from Convey, asking them to do so. Author queries on Convey emails, Convey account login and any other issues should be sent to support@cochrane.org
Annual reminders
Authors of protocols, reviews and updates in progress, will receive an automated annual reminder to review and update their DoI statement. Authors can use the link in their original request email from Convey to update their interests at any time; they can also log into Convey and update the relevant disclosure. Authors are also asked to let the editorial team know of any relevant changes by email. See instructions to authors on contacting Review Groups.
Ad hoc reminders
Editorial teams can also send reminder emails to authors from within Convey. See 5A below.
3. View authors’ declarations in Editorial Manager
A. View DoI information in Editorial Manager
Authors’ declarations made in Convey, are visible within Editorial Manager, as part of the submission details. Editorial staff do not need to log in to Convey to view DoI details.
When you receive a new submission, view the Details from the Action menu. If the automated email to authors has been sent, the link to View CoI Disclosure will be visible in the Conflict of Interest section. Please note that it may take up to 60 minutes after authors submit their work, for the automated request to be sent. When authors have received the emails, when you click View CoI Disclosure the status will show as Requested.
If the Corresponding Author has not listed all co-authors when submitting, you can Edit Submission to add co-authors and trigger notifications.
Click View CoI Disclosure to open the summary report from Convey.
Use the arrows on the right-hand side to expand and collapse each author’s record. Show Full Details shows the author’s responses to Cochrane’s CoI form within Convey. Please note that you should always click Show Full Details and should not rely on the information shown under ‘Summary of interests’ as this will not show the answers to any questions asked in Convey that are specific to Cochrane’s policy.
B. Update DoI information in Editorial Manager
Updates to declarations will not automatically show up in Editorial Manager. However, you can use the Request Updated COI Data link to pull any additional information authors have added to Convey since their last disclosure. Please note that this does not send a request email to authors. You can refresh DoI information in Editorial Manager via the Request Updated COI Data link:
- If authors contact you to let you know their DoI information has changed
- Prior to publication
C. Flag DoI status
If one or more authors have not yet completed their declarations, click on the Flag icon next to Details and add a Submission Flag Missing DOI. Continue to check daily until all authors have submitted their DoIs. You can then add additional flags, DOI Complete and/or Author indicates conflicts to show the submission’s status in the system.
D. DoI collection for Amendments
In line with the Conflict of Interest policy for Cochrane Library content (2020), DoIs should be collected for all Amendments that require a new citation version. For Amendments, you will need to manually trigger the request to authors to complete a DoI form in Convey. To do this, once the Amendment has been submitted to Editorial Manager, view the Details from the Action menu and click on Initiate CoI Disclosure Retrieval. When authors have received the emails, when you click View CoI Disclosure the status will show as Requested.
4. Authors’ 'Declarations of interest’ section in reviews
The DoI form in Convey does not ask individual authors to write a DoI statement, but to declare all relevant interests. The ME is responsible for checking compliance of the author team with the CoI policy. Please note that, if the protocol exceeds 12 months to write or publish, the ME is responsible for checking any subsequent changes to authors’ DoI form responses and ensuring the ‘Declarations of interest’ section of the protocol is updated accordingly.
The review Contact Person (Corresponding Author) may draft a statement for all authors, based on the information in the submitted forms. The Corresponding Author has permission to view forms for the whole author team in Editorial Manager. You may prefer to draft this statement within the editorial base. The statement drafted by editorial staff, can be included in the invitation email asking authors to begin work on their protocol. Authors can then add the statement to the ‘Declarations of interest’ section of the protocol.
When checking authors’ statements, or drafting your own, please follow the below guidelines.
Declarations in reviews governed by the Conflict of Interest policy for Cochrane Library content (2020) must include all financial and non-financial relationships that are relevant to the topic of the review (see definition of ‘relevant’) that existed in the period beginning 36 months prior to protocol submission, review submission (if submitted to Cochrane directly with a prospective protocol registered elsewhere), or update submission, through to publication of the review or review update.
- All interests declared in the DoI form must be included in authors’ DoI statements.
- A DoI statement for each author must be provided even if an author has not declared any interests.
- If the information provided by an author in the DoI form is incomplete, unclear, or contradictory, the author should be asked to provide/clarify the information and update their DoI form. The DoI statement must be updated when any changes are made to the DoI form.
Statement template text | Example | |
No interests declared | XX: has declared that they have no conflict of interest. | FR: has declared that they have no conflict of interest. |
Financial interests declared | Payments to institution: XX: reports ‘relationship/activity’ from ‘company/organisation name’; paid to institution. |
GM: reports consultancy fees and travel expenses from Pfizer; paid to institution. SB: reports grant for research from Bayer; paid to Ottawa Hospital. |
Personal payments: XX: reports ‘relationship/activity’ from ‘company/organisation name’; personal payment. | HY: reports ownership of stocks in AstraZeneca; personal payment. | |
Non-financial interests declared | XX: reports ‘relationship/activity’ that is related to the topic of this review + ‘company/organisation name’. |
SG: reports being the PI of a study that is eligible for inclusion in the work; the study was funded by GSK but the researchers retained complete control over the study design, methods, data analysis and reporting. RK: reports declaring an opinion on the topic of the review in the BMJ. |
In future, the following text will also appear in the ‘Authors’ Declarations of Interests’ section of reviews in RevMan Web, to notify authors that they should not provide any information in this section which does not appear in their DoI forms. We will keep MEs updated on the implementation timetable for this.
The statement entered here must accurately reflect all interests declared by authors in their individual Declaration of Interest (DoI) forms. Please do not add any new information in this section. If your circumstances have changed, please contact your editorial team.
5. Access to Convey for editorial teams
Authors’ DoI information is visible in Editorial Manager, and no direct access to Convey is needed to check disclosures. However, editorial staff may log in to Convey to:
- Send ad hoc reminder emails to authors
- Update an author's email address
- Subscribe to summary notifications for a submission
Please note: If the Corresponding Author has not listed all co-authors when submitting, you can Edit Submission in Editorial Manager to add co-authors and trigger notifications. Adding an author in Editorial Manager will automatically update the submission list in Convey and send an email notification to the author.
If you need to access Convey, please let Cochrane Support know which email address you would prefer to use to access Convey as a Disclosure Manager. You will receive an automated message from Do_Not_Reply@aamc.org, inviting you to create a Convey account as a Disclosure Manager. If you have not received this email or a new member of staff needs access to Convey, please contact support@cochrane.org.
Convey is not linked to the Cochrane Account system. You will need to create a separate account.
A. Send ad hoc reminder emails to authors
Authors who do not complete their declaration will receive a weekly reminder email from Convey, asking them to do so. You can re-send requests and reminders to authors manually if needed.
- Log into Convey and select Manage Discloser Lists. Search for the list using the Global Manuscript ID. This is visible on the submission Details in EM.
- Tick to select author(s) who have not yet submitted disclosures, and click Send Email.
- Select Message on the email screen to re-send a previous message or to compose a new message. Selecting Most recent message will give you the option to re-send a reminder.
- Please do not add a 'From' address (email address for replies). Leaving the 'From' field blank will result in the email being sent from 'do_not_reply@aamc.org', which is the default.
- Edit the opening paragraph of the message on the email screen as needed and Review and Confirm.
- Confirm and Send and then the confirmation pop-up appears, choose Yes, send the Email.
- You will see an onscreen notification that the reminder was sent.
B. Update an author's email address
If authors change their email address after declaration of interest notifications have been sent from Convey for a submission, the email address will also need to be updated on the Convey list linked to the submission. You can contact support@cochrane.org for assistance or follow the instructions below to update the email address in Convey.
- Log into Convey and select Manage Discloser Lists. Search for the list using the Global Manuscript ID. This is visible on the submission Details in EM.
- Expand the dropdown menu to the right of the relevant author's name and select Edit.
- On the Edit Discloser screen, amend the author's email to match the primary email in Editorial Manager and Cochrane Account and click Update.
- Resend the notification email to the updated address (see Section 5A above for instructions).
C. Subscribe to summary notifications
In Convey you can select to receive notifications each time an author completes a disclosure related to a list, or a daily summary of new disclosures.
- Log into Convey and select Manage Discloser Lists. Search for the list using the Global Manuscript ID. This is visible on the submission Details in EM.
- Click the checkboxes to the left of the specific discloser list names. Then click the Actions button and select either Real-Time Notification or Summary Notification. The envelope icon indicates notifications are on.
D. View and export author disclosures
Author disclosures are visible in Editorial Manager (see Section 3A above). You should not need to view these in Convey. Cochrane Support may export disclosures to support the transfer of submissions within Editorial Manager. To export disclosures as a zip file, log in to Convey as a Disclosure Manager and select Manage Disclosures on the top toolbar.
Select List from the Discloser List dropdown and locate the submission by its Global Manuscript ID.
To export DoIs for an author or an author team, select the relevant authors using the tickboxes on the left-hand side of the screen and click the blue Export Disclosures button.
Tick to export Disclosure with Supporting Documents and Disclosure with Additional Questions and click the blue Export button.
The zip file of exported disclosures can be added to the File Inventory on the relevant submission in Editorial Manager.
E. Deceased authors
In the case of a deceased author, any disclosures that were previously requested via Convey should be downloaded from Convey and added as attachments to the File Inventory on the relevant review in Editorial Manager (see Section 5B above for instructions).
Please also contact Convey Support conveysupport@aamc.org to request closure of the author’s Convey account.
6. Declarations of Interest within the editorial process
In accordance with the Conflict of Interest policy for Cochrane Library content (2020), the key timepoints for authors to declare their interests are:
- At protocol submission
- At review submission
- At update submission
- At the point an author's involvement begins if joining the author team after article submission
- Annually until publication
- Prior to publication
A. New review proposal submitted
Authors are no longer asked to declare their interests when submitting a review proposal. Instead, author DoIs are first collected and checked at article submission.
B. New protocol, review or update submitted for editorial approval
Task | Further information |
Authors submit draft to Editorial Manager. | |
Authors receive DoI request email from Convey and submit DoI. | |
ME receives submission and adds flag Missing DOI. | View authors’ declarations in Editorial Manager |
ME checks daily for completed forms and checks DoI in Editorial Manager when all forms received. | View DoI information in Editorial Manager |
If necessary, ME adds flag Author indicates conflicts and refers queries to Research Integrity Editor CoI Panel using current processes. | Conflict of Interest panel |
If no prohibitive conflicts, ME adds flag DOI Complete. | Flag DoI status |
ME asks authors to update DoI statement in RevMan file if required. | Declaration of interest statements |
C. Revised protocol, review or update submitted for editorial approval
Task | Further information |
Authors submit draft to Editorial Manager. | |
Authors receive acknowledgement email from Editorial Manager asking them to update declarations in Convey if needed and inform editorial team by email. | |
ME refreshes interests in Editorial Manager using Request Updated COI Data link. | Update DoI information in Editorial Manager |
ME asks authors to update DoI statement in RevMan file if required. | Declaration of interest statements |
D. Protocol, review or update accepted for publication
Task | Further information |
Authors submit final draft to Editorial Manager. | |
Authors receive acknowledgement email from Editorial Manager asking them to update declarations in Convey if needed and inform editorial team immediately by email. | |
ME refreshes interests in Editorial Manager using Request Updated COI Data link. | Update DoI information in Editorial Manager |
When sending for copy-edit, ME adds note to ask copy-editor to update DoI statement in RevMan file if required. | Set Final Disposition |
E. Annual reminders if over 12 months since last submission, for protocols, reviews or updates in development where there is a previous submission in Editorial Manager
Task | Further information |
Authors receive annual reminder emails from EM, if it has been over 12 months since their last submission. Reminder email asks authors to contact editorial team to report any change in DoI. | |
Authors update declarations in Convey if needed and inform editorial team by email. | |
ME refreshes interests in Editorial Manager using Request Updated COI Data link. | Update DoI information in Editorial Manager |
If necessary, ME adds flag Author indicates conflicts and refers queries to CoI Panel using current processes. | Conflict of Interest panel |
If no prohibitive conflicts, ME adds flag DOI Complete. | Flag DoI status |
ME asks authors to update DoI statement in RevMan file if required. | Declaration of interest statements |
F. Amendment requiring new citation version submitted to Editorial Manager
Task | Further information |
Amendment submitted to Editorial Manager. | |
ME manually triggers DoI request for from Editorial Manager. | DoI collection for Amendments |
Authors receive DoI request email from Convey and submit DoI. | |
ME checks daily for completed forms and checks DoI in Editorial Manager when all forms received. | View DoI information in Editorial Manager |
If necessary, ME adds flag Author indicates conflicts and refers queries to CoI Panel using current processes. | Conflict of Interest panel |
If no prohibitive conflicts, ME adds flag DOI Complete. | Flag DoI status |
ME asks authors to update DoI statement in RevMan file if required. | Declaration of interest statements |
Editorial staff and group editors
The Conflict of Interest policy for Cochrane Library content (2020) applies to everyone involved in the editorial process. From January 2021 the role-based DoI forms for editorial staff and group editors will collect information required to assess compliance with the revised policy.
Editorial DoI forms will not move into Convey. Editorial staff and group editors should continue to complete these in their Cochrane Account. MEs can review the forms submitted by editorial staff and editors in their group by filtering the review group list on the Organisational Chart of Declarations of Interest.
Newly-appointed editors must be free of relevant financial interest from the date of appointment. Editors already in post have five years from policy launch to divest themselves of any financial interests relevant to the group’s topic area. If they have relevant financial interests, during the five years from policy launch, they should not undertake peer review, be a contact editor or provide sign-off on Cochrane Reviews to which their conflicts relate. Editors should not acquire any new relevant financial interests during the five year grace period, so that by October 2025 they will be free of any relevant financial interests.
Click here for a recording of a training session on using Editorial Manager / Convey to collect author declarations of interest. The slides from the session are also available here.