2.2.5.3 Responding to feedback

It is essential that efficient arrangements are available for amending reviews in the light of new evidence and valid feedback. To achieve this, The Cochrane Collaboration’s working methods include a commitment to timely updating and concurrent reporting of feedback and other responses. The Cochrane Collaboration has established an iterative system through which successive versions of each review reflect not only the emergence of new data, but also valid feedback, solicited or unsolicited, from whatever source. Successive versions of a particular review, together with any intervening feedback, are being archived.

The Cochrane Collaboration’s commitment is made clear on the cover sheet for each review contained in The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, which gives the names, addresses and other contact details (telephone, fax, and electronic mail) both of the contact author and of the editorial team responsible for co-ordinating the Cochrane Review Group to which he or she belongs.

These requirements of The Cochrane Collaboration, taken together with the practical experience acquired by a group of authors in preparing and maintaining systematic reviews of controlled trials in pregnancy and childbirth, lie behind The Cochrane Collaboration’s adoption of electronic media as a primary means of assembling and disseminating Cochrane reviews. Complementary arrangements will be needed to ensure that other publication forms that use Cochrane reviews are aware of substantive updates.