Welcome to May's digest! This month we are bringing you up to date with what's been happening with the developments you've submitted to ideas.cochrane.org. We've also news about the Global Evidence Summit and Cochrane Council, and we're highlighting a new resource for sourcing open access content online. If there's anything you'd like us to share with the CIS Community in the June edition of the digest, get in touch with us: cis-support@cochrane.org.
CRS Update
New ideas
The CIS Support Team met with Metaxis earlier this month to look at some of the developments CRS users had requested via ideas.cochrane.org. Newer ideas submitted in the year to March 2017 have all been considered, and many are planned, in progress or even completed! We are now working through the backlog that accumulated when development work was not happening on stand-alone. Most of these older items relate to the stand-alone system exclusively and may not be relevant for CRS Web. If you submitted an idea in the past that you think is still really important, go to ideas.cochrane.org to check the status of your idea, if it has been listed as "Unclear", please let us know more details! We will continue to monitor ideas and we meet regularly to discuss them with Metaxis, so keep sending us your CRS Web developments.
Retractions in CRS Web
One of the ideas submitted in the new round was a mechanism for automating retractions in CRS Web, i.e. the CRS could flag records from PubMed that have been retracted.
Although we thought this was a really great idea, unfortunately because of the way the information is recorded in PubMed it isn't possible to automate the process. CISs are encouraged to search for retractions and keep a record in their register, while identifying when these affect the studies included in published reviews. Although there are methods to search for these, there is no automatic way of tagging these records as relevant to a study, and therefore a review.
Another idea submitted was to have the ability to save a search under a different name, so you can edit and tweak a search. Although there isn't a "Save as" option within CRS Web, this is still technically possible.
You can go to your saved search list, and click the "copy" icon:
This will allow you to copy the original search and save it with a new name. The copied search with the new name will then appear in your saved searches list, and when you click on it, you can go into it, edit any lines and re-save.
CRS Webinar - date for your diary
The CIS Support Team and Metaxis are providing a "drop in" webinar on 26 May at 10am BST (11am CET). This will be a small virtual session aimed primarily at those using CRS Web, currently migrating or about to migrate. It is an opportunity for you to raise any queries you have about the software, or to request demonstrations of specific functionality. It would be really helpful if you could email cis-support@cochrane.org beforehand with questions or topics that you would like us to cover.
To register for the webinar, click here. After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about how to join.
Global Evidence Summit
Workshop at Cape Town Meeting, and stipends available!
The Global Evidence Summit in Cape Town will kick off with a one day symposium especially for information specialists on 12 September. This event will look at technology and tools to help Cochrane Information Specialists, including CRS Web, Centralised Search, PICO Annotator and Cochrane Crowd. More details will follow soon!
There will also be a meeting for Cochrane Information Specialists during the conference.
The CIS Executive have also announced that up to 8 stipends are available to cover CIS or Assistant CIS registration at the event. The stipend comprises the registration fee only, this means that travel and accommodation costs have to be self-funded. The registration has to be settled by 30th June, as stipends are only available for the early bird price.
If you wish to apply, please reply to Maria-Inti Metzendorf by the 26th of May by writing a short email containing:
- your name and group
- your reasons for applying (3-5 sentences)
- would you still be able to attend if you do not receive this stipend?
The Exec will let you know the outcome during the first week of June.
Training opportunity
WHO ATC methodology webinar - how to classify drugs
As part of the PICO annotation project a Cochrane vocabulary is being developed. One of the ontologies which has been used for this is the WHO ATC/DDD classification system.
The Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification system and the Defined Daily Dose (DDD) as a measuring unit have become the gold standard for international drug utilization research.
A one hour webinar will be held on the 30th May at 3pm BST (4pm CET) to give Cochrane Information Specialists a chance to learn more and ask any questions.
The webinar gives an introduction to the ATC classification system and will cover the following:
Background, overview and development of the ATC methodology
Impactstory, a non-profit organization who work to make science more open have created a new service called Unpaywall. It is supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in the US.
The idea is to bring open access content to users around the world. Content is gathered from thousands of open access repositories worldwide, including PubMed Central, Google Scholar, BASE and Crossref. Many have been uploaded by researchers. It is free and legal to use, and might be worth checking if you're struggling to source a full-text paper.
A word of caution: it's still under active development, so you may find some bugs while using it.
Course on literature searching for mixed methods systematic reviews
The University of Leeds in the UK is offering a one day course on 29th June for information specialists, librarians and researchers.
The course aims to develop your skills so you can plan and initiate the searching for the best possible evidence base for a mixed methods review, and be able to manage search results.
It will cover:
how searching affects a review’s integrity by tackling potential bias
appropriate search methods for mixed methods e.g. exhaustive vs targeted searches, topic searches, citation searches
practicing supplementary searches techniques e.g. citation snowballing and berry picking
how to tailor an EndNote library to manage large numbers of references
Cost: £125 for non-University of Leeds staff and students.
£50 for University of Leeds staff and students.
More details on how to register can be found here.
News from the Exec
Election for CIS Council Representatives
The Cochrane Information Specialists’ (CIS) Executive are inviting candidate nominations for the election of a Cochrane Information Specialist representative on the Cochrane Council.
The deadline for receiving nominations is Thursday 25 May 2017.
Who is eligible to stand?
Active members of the Cochrane community (any Cochrane Field, Centre or Review Group) are eligible to stand for a position on the Council. The CIS representative is defined as having an Active role in the Archie database of either Information Specialist or Assistant Information Specialist before Friday 12 May 2017. Members of the Central Executive Team (CET) staff (defined as any employee, contractor or seconded staff working at least 0.2 FTE for the CET) are not eligible to stand, except for members of the CIS Support Team, who are eligible.
You can nominate a colleague or you can nominate yourself.
Who can vote?
All members of the Cochrane community having an active Archie Role of Information Specialist or Assistant Information Specialist are eligible to vote in the election. Every member has one vote.
How to nominate
Please submit your nomination by email to Denise Mitchell by the deadline of Thursday 25 May 2017. The names and statements of nominated candidates will be made available in the Information Specialists’ Forum folder in Archie.
Candidates must submit a paragraph of no more than 250 words (to be shared with eligible voters) stating why they wish to run for a position on the Council and what skills, experience, or qualities they would bring to Council, and acknowledge that they are aware of the commitment required to participate in the Council and its work.
A confidential poll will be opened on Friday 26 May 2017 for voting by active Information Specialists, with the successful candidate announced on Friday 9 June 2017.
The Exec has a new co-covenor. Sam Cox will be taking over from Rene Spijker in the role. The Exec and CIS Community would like to thank Rene for his work with the Exec over the years, and thanks to Sam for taking on the role.
Contact us...
Don't forget, previous editions of the Cochrane Information Specialist Support Team digest are available on the CIS Portal
Contact the Support Team for help with any Cochrane Information Specialist related issue (including CRS technical support): cis-support@cochrane.org
The Cochrane Information Specialist Support Team:
Charlene Bridges | Sam Cox I Ruth Foxlee
Anne Littlewood I Doug Salzwedel
