Rationale
The current Cochrane review from 2013 has been prioritized for update due to scoring highly on impact metric data, frequent citation in guidelines, and relevance to Cochrane’s scientific strategy.
There are two major types of pneumococcal vaccine - polysaccharide vaccines (PPV) and conjugate vaccines (PCV). The 2013 Cochrane review only covered polysaccharide vaccine. Polysaccharide vaccine is still used globally, but in high-income countries is mostly being replaced by conjugate vaccines. There are now several types of conjugate vaccines that cover 10, 13, 15, 20, 21 and more strains.
Call
We are looking author teams to take on a new Cochrane review in this area. Teams should be prepared to address the complexities inherent in reviews of pneumococcal vaccines, including the wide range of vaccine valencies available and the variation in vaccination schedules across countries. These differences can make it challenging to draw firm clinical conclusions and to develop broad public health recommendations, particularly for outcomes beyond invasive pneumococcal disease.
A new protocol will be required which incorporates this change in PICO and is up to date with current Cochrane methodology.
We particularly welcome applications from teams that include early career researchers and researchers based in low- and middle-income countries, recognizing the importance of developing capacity and ensuring diverse perspectives in evidence synthesis.
Timeline: the team taking this on should be ready to begin work within the next quarter with a protocol produced by Q1 2027 and full review by Q1 2028.
What support is available?
There are no funds to pay authors to conduct these reviews. However, Cochrane can offer the following:
- Commissioning support. Working with the Commissioning Editor means expedited proposal acceptance and respond to queries throughout review production.
- Search support. For those who need it Cochrane Information Specialists can run the searches and (capacity dependent) may be able to use machine learning to reduce some of the screening burden.
- Support from Covidence. For priority intervention reviews, Cochrane can refer authors for Covidence premium support. This service involves support from an advisor within Covidence to facilitate data extraction and transfer (capacity dependent).
- Pre-submission support. If required, one of our Evidence Synthesis Development Editors can perform a pre-submission check about 4–6 weeks prior to submission. If you would like this service, you will need to request it several months before you intend on submitting and it will be provided on a first come, first serve, capacity basis.
- Cochrane Engage. Our online Engage platform can be used to find volunteers for various aspects of the work including volunteer co-authors.
Application
To apply, please send an expression of interest to the Commissioning Editor (rparker@cochrane.org) by 30th November including:
- Proposal form [.docx]
- Analysis plan:
- Full list of summary of findings table outcomes
- Comparisons
- Subgroup analyses planned
- Sensitivity analyses planned
- Short description of suitability of the author team for the proposal – 300 words max.
Panel for assessment
- Commissioning Editor
- Deputy Editor-in-Chief
- Additional editorial staff and experts from the Cochrane Collaboration as required
Producing an impactful review
This review has been commissioned because we think the topic is important and we think there is sufficient new evidence to support a meaningful synthesis. But until we run the search, we don’t know that the synthesis will be meaningful and impactful. If you run your search and discover that there isn't much evidence to synthesize, please reconnect with me and we will explore whether it is worth continuing with a full Cochrane systematic review or not. It may be that your work can be written up as a shorter piece of work for a different journal such as Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods.
