We welcome suggestions on new review topics evaluating interventions to improve practice and/or the organisation of care
We strongly suggest that you, before embarking on a review project, consider the time aspect of conducting and maintaining a Cochrane review, as it requires a significant, long-term commitment even after publication since our reviews are updated every two years. Therefore, please make sure that your team members have dedicated time to conduct the review within the set time frame (protocol to be submitted within 6 months from acceptance of a title and the review within 12 months after publication of the protocol, see also Minimum requirement). This will save you time and avoid frustration (Criteria for rejection of a protocol / Criteria for rejection of a review).
If you have an idea for a new review title, please first check that the review topic is within the scope of the EPOC group (Our scope), and when you have verified this, please check for overlap with already published EPOC reviews (Our reviews) to ensure that there are no existing reviews on the same, or a very similar topic.
The next step would be to make sure that your review team, which should include a minimum of 2 people, have the expertise required to conduct the proposed review: an experienced Cochrane review author with statistical and methodological skills, and a topic expert. Please note, Cochrane reviews are written in English, and it is therefore important that you include someone in your team with English either as a first language, or who has a very high standard of written English.
When you have made sure of the novelty of your proposed review, and that your review team has the required time and skill set to conduct the review within the set time frame, please complete the review proposal form and send it to the relevant Managing Editor:
- If your review topic is of relevance to low and middle income countries please submit your review proposal form to the Norwegian EPOC satellite.
- If your review team are based in Australia, or in the South-East Asian region, please submit your review proposal form to the Australian EPOC satellite.
- Otherwise the review proposal form con be submitted to the EPOC editorial base in Oxford, UK.
For further information on preparing an EPOC systematic review please see information and guidelines for authors: the Editorial Process, Cochrane resources for authors, EPOC resources for authors.