Validation report
This page is for
Organizational subscribers | Individual subscribers | 
Cochrane users
Validation errors and warnings are only relevant to Cochrane authors submitting reviews to Cochrane. RevMan subscribers can disregard validation errors and warnings.
Validation report
You can see validation errors and warnings relevant to your review on the Dashboard. Expand or collapse the Validation menu to view further details.
In Intervention and flexible reviews, validation errors and warnings are also visible in the right-hand Context pane. Use the links to navigate to the next issue you need to address.
You will need to resolve any errors before submitting your work to Editorial Manager.
Validation rules
| Type | Section | Validation rule | Review stage | Description |
1 | Error | Abstract | Abstract cannot exceed 1000 words. | R | The abstract cannot be longer than 1000 words (word count: [count]) |
2 | Error | Figures | Figure should be linked from text. | P + R | Figure is not linked from the text. |
3 | Error | Additional table | Table should be linked from the text. | P + R | Table is not linked from the text. |
4 | Error | Analysis | An active choice of labels for graph axes is required. | R | The default graph label 'Favours [experimental]' must be changed. |
5 | Error | Dates | Date of Search cannot be empty. | R | Date of search is empty. |
6 | Error | Plain language summary | Summary cannot exceed 850 words. | R | The plain language summary cannot be longer than 850 words (word count: [count]) |
7 | Error | Published notes | Cannot be empty for withdrawn reviews. | P+R | Published notes do not contain the reason for withdrawal. Provide brief explanation why the review was retracted. See EPPR. |
8 | Error | Summary title | Default text '[Summary title]' should be modified. | R | The plain language summary title is empty. |
9 | Error | Analysis | Synthesis PICO not completed. | P+R | Synthesis PICO is not completed. The review cannot be checked in until outcome and interventions have been specified. |
10 | Error | What's new | Section cannot be empty unless protocol or review is new. See also Assigning What’s New events to Cochrane Reviews | P+R | What's new is empty. |
12 | Error | Differences between the protocol and review | Field cannot be empty. | R | Differences between protocol and review is empty. |
13 | Error | Main text sections | Mandatory text sections (depending on stage) cannot be empty. See full list of validation of text sections below. | P+R | [Section] is empty. |
14 | Error | Event | Only events relevant to the current stage are allowed. | P+R | Event is not allowed at [Protocol/Full review] stage. |
15 | Error | Event | Description cannot be empty. | P + R | Description is empty. |
16 | Error | Dates | Date of Search cannot be in the future. | R | Date of Search is in the future. |
17 | Error | Dichotomous study data | Events <= Total | R | The number of events cannot be larger than the number of totals. |
18 | Error | What's new | Only one declaration event is allowed. See also Assigning What’s New events to Cochrane Reviews | P + R | More than one declaration event ('New citation' or 'No longer being updated'). |
19 | Error | Event | Withdrawn reviews only support Amended events. | R | Withdrawn reviews only support Amended events. |
| 20 | Error | What's new | If an Updated event is present, there must be a New citation event. See also Assigning What’s New events to Cochrane Reviews | R | An updated event is present without declaring a new citation. |
| 21 | Error | Dates | Assessed as Up-to-date cannot be empty. | R | Assessed as Up-to-date is empty. |
| 22 | Error | Included study, Excluded study | Study should have at least one reference. | R | If a Study ID is inserted in the References to studies section, a reference must be added |
| 23 | Error | Included study | All included studies must be cited in the main article. | R | Included study not cited in the main article, including additional tables. |
| 24 | Error | Dates | Assessed as Up-to-date cannot be in the future. | R | Assessed as Up-to-date is in the future. |
25 | Warning | Studies | All fields in study characteristics should not be empty at the same time. | R | Study characteristics are missing. |
26 | Warning | Additional reference | Reference should be linked from the text. | P+R | Reference is not linked from the text. |
27 | Warning | Figures | The recommended Number of figures has been exceeded | P+R | The recommended maximum number of figures (6) has been exceeded - please remove [n]. |
| 28 | Warning | Figures | Other figures must contain an image file. | P+R | No file uploaded for figure [n] |
| 29 | Warning | Figures | Other figures should be more than 500 pixels wide | P+R | Other figures should be more than 500 pixels wide |
31 | Warning | Additional table | Links to tables should follow a sequential order. | P + R | Additional tables are not linked in sequential order. |
32 | Warning | Figure | Links to figures should follow a sequential order. | P + R | Figures are not linked in sequential order. |
33 | Warning | Appendix | Links to appendices should follow a sequential order. | P + R | Appendices are not linked in sequential order. |
34 | Warning | Reference | All fields should not be empty at the same time. | P+R | Reference is empty. |
35 | Warning | Reference | Required fields should not be empty. | P+R | [Field name] is empty. |
36 | Warning | What's new | If a New citation event is present, there should usually also be an Updated event. See also Assigning What’s New events to Cochrane Reviews | R | A new citation is declared without the review being updated |
37 | Warning | Cochrane review reference, Cochrane protocol reference | The DOI identifier should be specified correct. | P + R | DOI should be corrected according to these examples: 10.1002/14651858.CD123456 or 10.1002/14651858.CD123456.pub2 |
38 | Warning | Cochrane review reference, Cochrane protocol reference | SO field should be 'Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews'. | P + R | Journal/Book/Source should be Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. |
39 | Warning | Cochrane review reference, Cochrane protocol reference | Should have DOI identifier. | P + R | DOI is missing. |
40 | Warning | Comparison | Should not have empty analyses. | R | One or more analyses have no associated study data. |
41 | Warning | Inverse variance analyses or subgroup | Option to enter number of participants has been selected, but no data have been entered for any studies. | R | The option to enter number of participants has been selected, but no data have been entered. |
42 | Warning | Other data type analyses | No column heading should be empty. | R | One of the column headings is empty. |
43 | Warning | What's new | If an Updated event is present, the Date of search should be less than 12 months old. See also Assigning What’s New events to Cochrane Reviews | R | The What’s new Event 'Updated' is selected but the Date of search is more than 12 months ago. |
44 | Warning | Sources of support | Section could not be empty. | P+R | No sources of support listed. |
R= Full Review stage
P= Protocol stage
Validation of empty text sections
For full review stage:
| Error or warning if empty | Text section |
|---|---|
| Error | (Abstract) Background |
| Error | (Abstract) Objectives |
| Error | (Abstract) Search methods |
| Error | (Abstract) Selection criteria |
| Error | (Abstract) Data collection and analysis |
| Error | (Abstract) Main results |
| Error | (Abstract) Authors' conclusions |
| Error | Plain language summary |
| Error | Objectives |
| Error | Types of studies |
| Error | Types of participants |
| Error | Types of interventions |
| Error | Electronic searches |
| Error | Searching other resources |
| Error | Selection of studies |
| Error | Data extraction and management |
| Error | Assessment of risk of bias in included studies |
| Error | Measures of treatment effect |
| Error | Unit of analysis issues |
| Error | Dealing with missing data |
| Error | Assessment of heterogeneity |
| Error | Assessment of reporting biases |
| Error | Data synthesis |
| Error | Subgroup analysis and investigation of heterogeneity |
| Error | Sensitivity analysis |
| Error | Summary of findings and assessment of the certainty of the evidence |
| Error | Results of the search |
| Error | Included studies |
| Error | Excluded studies |
| Error (if all subheadings are empty) | Risk of bias in included studies |
| Error | Effects of interventions |
| Error | Summary of main results |
| Error | Overall completeness and applicability of evidence |
| Error | Potential biases in the review process |
| Error | Agreements and disagreements with other studies or reviews |
| Error | Implications for practice |
| Error | Implications for research |
| Error | Differences between protocol and review |
| Error | Acknowledgements |
| Error | Contributions of authors |
| Error | Declarations of interest |
| Warning | Description of the condition |
| Warning | Description of the intervention |
| Warning | How the intervention might work |
| Warning | Why it is important to do this review |
| Warning | Types of outcome measures |
| Warning | Primary outcomes |
| Warning | Secondary outcomes |
| Warning | Description of studies |
| Warning | Quality of the evidence |
| Error if Risk of bias in included studies is empty | Allocation (selection bias) |
| Error if Risk of bias in included studies is empty | Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) |
| Error if Risk of bias in included studies is empty | Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) |
| Error if Risk of bias in included studies is empty | Selective reporting (reporting bias) |
| Error if Risk of bias in included studies is empty | Other potential sources of bias |
| No validation | Background (top level) |
| No validation | Data collection and analysis |
| No validation | Discussion (top level) |