3.4.2.3 Core functions of Fields

Core functions
(This section was updated by the Cochrane Operations Unit on 19 September 2011, as the result of the Operations and Finance Committee approval of certain changes, on 2 August 2011)

Advocacy for evidence-based health care

All Fields must carry out the activities in the following Sections I and II, and at least one activity from Section III.

I. Relation with Field's constituents

In order for Fields to carry out their 'bridging' work, they must have strong relationships in place with Cochrane entities and with external stakeholders within their area of specialty. All Fields, therefore, must be able to demonstrate that they are building and maintaining relationships with relevant Cochrane entities and with external stakeholders, including practitioners, policy-makers, and healthcare users/consumers in the Field’s area. The metric to demonstrate the Field’s support from its area of health care should be chosen a priori by the Field itself in its business plan, and may be one or more of the following: number of members, measurable support from professional organizations, international partnerships, or funding support.

II Recognition of Field's systematic reviews

Each Field is responsible for identifying and tagging in Archie (The Cochrane Collaboration’s Information Management System) the reviews, protocols and titles that are relevant to the Field’s scope. This work serves three purposes. First, tagging serves as a communication mechanism with Cochrane Review Groups that the Field is interested in, and willing to support as possible, particular reviews. Second, it permits the Field to generate a list of Cochrane reviews, protocols and titles that are relevant to its scope. This list can then be disseminated to stakeholders. Third, it enables the Field to identify gaps in Cochrane evidence readily.

III. Dissemination activities

Activities by which Fields will carry out their mission of advocacy may also include one or more of the following, as chosen by an individual Field based on its scope and resources:

a)  Reformatting or summarizing Cochrane reviews within the Field’s scope and disseminating these summaries to stakeholders;

b)  Advising or assisting authors of reviews within the Field’s scope with publishing Cochrane reviews in journal article format in specialist journals;

c)  Working with stakeholders to identify priorities for review topics, and bringing these priority topics to the attention of Cochrane Review Groups.

Elective functions

Each Field must carry out at least one activity from this section. Fields will choose one or more of the following areas in which to focus their efforts. This choice will be identified a priori in the Field’s business plan, and the Field’s work in the area(s) of choice will be recorded in its reports to the Cochrane Monitoring and Registration Committee. 

1)   To promote the production of relevant and high-quality systematic reviews, in conjunction with Cochrane Review Groups, through one or more of the following activities:

a)   Providing resources (time and/or money) for the production of systematic reviews within the Field’s scope;

b)   Submitting to the appropriate Review Groups registrations for review titles or review updates on topics within the Field’s scope;

c)   Maintaining a register of trials within the Field’s scope, and submitting this register to CENTRAL;

d)    Introducing, supporting or linking to Review Groups editors, peer reviewers, or authors with Field-relevant expertise.

2)  To train those in the Field’s area of expertise about Cochrane reviews, and to train those in the Cochrane Collaboration about the Field’s content, in conjunction with Cochrane Centres, through one or more of the following activities:

a)    Training stakeholders in the production or interpretation of systematic reviews within the Field’s scope;

b)    Training stakeholders in interpretation of systematic reviews within the Field’s scope;

c)    Providing training to persons involved in production of systematic reviews about specific issues (for example, characteristics of the interventions or population represented by the Field) relevant to reviews within the Field’s scope.

3)  To participate in the development of methods for the production or dissemination of evidence-based medicine, in conjunction with Cochrane Methods Groups, through one or more of the following activities:

a)  Conducting methodological work addressing the PICOS (population, intervention, comparison, outcome, study design) relevant to the Field’s scope;

b)  Developing and disseminating methods for identifying evidence within the Field’s scope (e.g. search filters);

c)  Conducting methodological work in development of methods for overviews of reviews within the Field’s scope;

d)  Conducting methodological work that will maximise dissemination of information to users of reviews (i.e. knowledge translation research).