Rationale
The current Cochrane review from 2014 concludes “There is no good evidence for or against the effectiveness of OTC medicines in acute cough. This should be taken into account when considering prescribing antihistamines and centrally active antitussive agents in children; drugs that are known to have the potential to cause serious harm.” It included 29 trials (19 in adults, 10 in children) involving 4835 people (3799 adults and 1036 children).
The conclusions of the review reflect the low number of studies identified for each category of cough preparations. The Cochrane review incorporates evidence from 1966 up to 2012 and a new search for recently published evidence is necessary. The review is relevant to Cochrane’s scientific strategy.
Call
We are looking for a new author team to take on this title and prepare a new review. This is an open call although author teams must demonstrate systematic review (ideally Cochrane) experience, topic and methodological expertise, a clear understanding of and plan to deal with potentially problematic studies, and adherence to our conflict-of-interest policy alongside an awareness of any bias they may hold relevant to the topic.
Any proposal will need to identify the comparison(s) of interest, and include a proposed analysis structure to demonstrate how authors will set up comparisons, outcome measures and investigate heterogeneity is relevant.
Timeline: the team taking this on should be ready to begin work within the next quarter with a protocol produced by Q4 2026 and full review by Q4 2027.
Offer
We are not in a position to fund this work. We can offer some support.
- Commissioning support to expedite the proposal acceptance and contact with the Commissioning Editor to assist with queries throughout review production.
- For those who need it, we have information specialist who can re-run the searches and (capacity dependent) may be able to use machine learning to reduce some of the screening burden.
- Covidence premium support, this service involves support from an advisor within Covidence to facilitate data extraction and transfer.
- If required, Evidence Synthesis Development Editors can perform a pre-submission check about 4 to 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 capacity basis.
- Cochrane Engage, our online 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 10th July 2026 including:
- proposal form [.docx]
- full author team list and brief description of each individuals’ background and expected contribution
- conflict of interest forms for author team
- declarations of interest of all published references for all authors
- analysis plan including full list of SoF outcomes, comparisons, subgroups, and sensitivity analyses
- plan for managing potentially problematic studies
- plan for managing author team bias
Panel for assessment
- Commissioning Editor
- Deputy Editor-in-Chief
- Additional editorial staff and experts from the Cochrane Collaboration as required
