Editorial notes
Relevant to the Cochrane Library editorial policies on managing potentially problematic studies and withdrawal of published articles, as well as other use cases.
Definition and policy
Definition
An Editorial note is a short text statement that can be added to a Cochrane review or protocol. On the Cochrane Library the Editorial note displays in a text box above the abstract.
Policy
Editorial notes should be used only for the following purposes:
| # | Purpose | When to use | Approval required |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | To add a statement by the Editor in Chief about the status or context of a Cochrane review or protocol. | Usually initiated by the Editor in Chief. | Must be approved by the Editor in Chief before publication. |
| 2 | To publish an Expression of Concern about a review or protocol. | May be used
| Should be agreed with Cochrane's Research Integrity team (emd@cochrane.org) before publication. |
| 3 | To direct readers to a more recent review or protocol that has been published independently of the current review (not as an update or amendment). | May be used
| Available for use by Cochrane editors without approval by the Editor in Chief. |
| 4 | To inform readers that a protocol will not progress to review stage. | Used in cases where, prior to March 2022, a protocol would have been withdrawn. Since March 2022, protocols must no longer be withdrawn for any reason other than serious error. (For more information on withdrawing protocols for serious error, see the withdrawal policy.) | Available for use by Cochrane editors without approval by the Editor in Chief. |
| 5 | To inform readers that a review is stable and will no longer be updated. | Available for use by Cochrane editors without approval by the Editor in Chief. |
Editorial actions
Decisions and communication
Before publishing an Editorial note, editors should
- consult the Editorial notes policy above;
- determine the type of Editorial note required; and
- contact the Editor in Chief or the Research Integrity team for prior approval as necessary.
After publishing an Editorial note, editors must
- notify the Evidence Production & Methods Directorate (emd@cochrane.org) with a link to the review or protocol, and
- notify David Hives at Wiley (dhives@wiley.com) with a link to the review or protocol.
Following notification, David will
- manually update the PubMed version of the article (the Editorial note will display witihin 24 hours of the update), and
- if the full text of the review is on PubMed Central (PMC), send the Editorial note to PMC Support, who will update the PMC version of the article (this can take up to two weeks).
Specifications for publishing and display
Editorial notes are created and managed in RevMan using the Published notes section. For details on how to add or edit an Editorial note, see the RevMan knowledge base.
Editorial notes are published as part of a standard publication workflow. To add an Editorial note to a published review – making no other changes to the review – use the 'Amended' What's new event (no new citation) (see Dates and events in RevMan Knowledge Base for implementation instructions). During the publication process, the Editorial note is extracted from the published notes and displayed separately.
When published, the Editorial note will display in the Cochrane Library as a text box above the abstract online and in the PDF version, and above the Plain Language Summary on https://www.cochrane.org/evidence. As noted above, editors must contact Wiley to initiate manual changes to the PubMed and PubMed Central version(s) of the article.
Template text
Redirecting readers
Editorial notes that direct Cochrane Library users to a more recent review should be addressed to a general reader (who may have found the review by a Google search, for example) and should include the DOI in URL form for the newer review or protocol.
Examples:
There is a more recent Cochrane review on this topic: https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD00XXXX.pub2
This review question is now being addressed according to a new protocol: https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD00XXXX
See https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD00XXXX for a more recent review that covers this topic.
Protocol progression
As stated in the policy, Editorial notes can be used to inform readers that a protocol will not progress to review stage.
Éxamples:
This protocol will not progress to review stage as it no longer meets Cochrane's methodological standards.
This protocol will not progress to review stage as there has been no progress with the review in XX months/years. New authors are being sought to take this topic forward.
This protocol will not progress to a review because the topic is no longer considered a priority.
To minimize research waste, this protocol will not progress to review stage because another review on this topic [is already in progress/has already been published] (provide DOI if published).