The Cochrane Rapid Review Methods Group is leading an important piece of methodological research and need your help.
Does it make a difference whether abstracts are screened by one or two people to find relevant studies for a systematic review? How many relevant studies will be missed when abstracts are reviewed by only one person? Can the Cochrane RCT-classifier, a machine-learning tool for classifying RCTs and the Cochrane Crowd, do this accurately? The Cochrane Rapid Review Methods Group and the Cochrane Crowd Team have developed a study to try to answer these questions.
The study is made up of three ‘arms’ – three different groups that participants to the study could be assigned to. If you already have experience screening search results for a review, you will be randomly assigned to review a set of 100 abstracts and classify them as "Relevant" or "Not Relevant" to a particular research question from a search for either a pharmacological review or for a public health review. If you have no experience screening for reviews, you will be assigned to the "Crowd" arm where you can screen as many records as you like for the pharmacological review.
We are looking for participants:
- with and without experience of screening search results for a review
- willing to spend around 2 to 3 hours screening 100 abstracts over the next three weeks
- over 18 years of age
To join, just follow these 4 steps:
- If you don't have a Cochrane Crowd account yet, register here first and continue with step 2. If you already have a Cochrane Crowd account, you can go straight to step 2:
- Click on this link that will launch the brief participant questionnaire [updated: link removed as the questionnaire is now closed]
- Once you have completed the questionnaire, log in to Cochrane Crowd as usual
- Near the top of your task dashboard you will see the task called Rapid, Rapid, Rapid. This is the task you will have been randomly assigned to. Complete the training and get screening your 100 records!
You don’t have to screen all 100 records in one go. We will keep the study running until Friday 14th June so there should be plenty of time for you to chip away at your 100 records.
If you are able to take part, you will be named on a conference poster about the study at the Cochrane Colloquium, receive a certificate of participation, and enter a prize draw for one of five gift vouchers worth $100.
Happy citation screening!
