‘What’s new’ events in Review Manager (RevMan) become the Version History of a protocol or a review when it is published on the Cochrane Library.
Use ‘What’s new’ events in Review Manager (RevMan) to describe the changes to the protocol or review since it was last published. What’s New events are used to help readers understand the type of change made to a new version of a Cochrane Review (or protocol for a Cochrane Review), such as an amendment, an update, and whether the conclusions have been changed or not. This is to ensure that the history of changes to a review remain with the review as new versions are published.
The information you enter as a description in RevMan is visible to readers. Please explain changes clearly and concisely.
It is essential to select the appropriate What's New events as set out in the table below. The reasons for this are:
- To ensure a new citation is applied when appropriate.
- Note that assigning a new citation generates a new digital object identifier (DOI) and citation in external databases, including PubMed. Changes to the following details can be updated manually in PubMed by Wiley, following an amendment with no new citation: Author order; Author names; Joint authorship; Title; Abstract. Cochrane Support can notify Wiley of relevant changes once the amended review is published. For further information contact support@cochrane.org.
- To give readers clear information on what has changed between versions.
- To select the appropriate what’s new events before publication because these cannot be changed after publication (e.g. it is not possible to ‘undo’ a new citation).
RevMan guidance: You can include a maximum of two new ‘What’s New’ events in RevMan. Only information about the changes since the last published version should be in the ‘What’s New’ table.
‘What’s New’ events from previously published versions must be moved to the 'History' table in RevMan.
The 'Date' field in RevMan must be populated with the date of publication (or as close to it as possible).
Also see: Digital object identifier (DOI) and website address (URL) of a Cochrane Review and Citation versions: DOIs and URLs.
‘What’s New’ events for Cochrane Reviews and protocols
Use case | Article type | Type of change | Conclusions changed? | New citation version? | ‘What’s new’ events to select in RevMan | Wording displayed for event on the Cochrane Library | ‘What’s new’ description to add in RevMan |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A | Review |
| Yes | Yes | (1) Updated AND (2) New citation: conclusions changed | (1) New search has been performed (2) New citation required and conclusions have changed | If a new search was conducted, the search date can be added to the description of the 'Updated' 'What's New' event |
No | Yes | (1) Updated AND (2) New citation: conclusions not changed | (1) New search has been performed (2) New citation required but conclusions have not changed | ||||
B | Review |
| Yes | Yes | (1) Amended AND (2) New citation: conclusions changed | (1) Amended (2) New citation required and conclusions have changed | Concisely describe what has changed and any resulting change to conclusions, including direction and magnitude of effect and certainty of evidence (1-2 sentences maximum). For example: Amendment to Analysis 1.2 due to prior data entry error. GRADE rating for [comparison, outcome] amended from moderate certainty evidence to low certainty evidence. |
No | Yes | (1) Amended AND (2) New citation: conclusions not changed | (1) Amended (2) New citation required but conclusions have not changed | ||||
C | Protocol |
| Not applicable | Yes | (1) New citation: major change | (1) New citation required and major changes | |
D | Review or protocol |
| No | No | (1) Amended | (1) Amended |
* Studies are fully incorporated into the Cochrane Review if added to the included studies, excluded studies, ongoing studies, or studies awaiting classification (only if all reasonable efforts to integrate it into included, excluded, or ongoing have failed), or no new studies identified in search. Studies are not fully incorporated if studies identified by the search are added to studies awaiting classification only (see exception above). See ‘Reporting search dates’ for further information.
Withdrawing published Cochrane Reviews
The withdrawal of a published Cochrane Review or a protocol for a Cochrane Review automatically creates a new citation version. To withdraw, see the policy. guidance, and process.