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Developing a review with PaPaS

Cochrane Reviews are high-quality, relevant and up-to-date synthesized research evidence and should help people make practical decisions about health care. 

Once the protocol is published, the authors can begin preparing the first draft of the review in RevMan. Our Information Specialist can provide support in performing the searches and de-duplicating the results, if required.

We expect the first draft to be submitted within nine months of publishing the protocol (12 months at most). Automatic reminders of submission deadlines will be sent to the Contact Person via our database, Archie. The Contact Person is expected to keep in touch with the workflow manager and inform them of any delays or potential delays. If we judge that the review is making no progress, we reserve the right to withdraw the published protocol from the Library.

To ensure a high-quality product in accordance with Cochrane standards, the editorial team will complete validation checks and minor copy editing amendments. We compare the review against the protocol to check for any differences, and we check for adherence to the Cochrane Style Manual, Cochrane Handbook and MECIR Reporting Standards. We will ask for the review to be revised if these standards are not met. See our "Useful links" page for more information, and our "Step by step" page for details of the review development process. Cochrane provides a range of information, resources and training covering the steps involved in conducting a Cochrane Review (see our "Useful links" page).

We ask author teams to bear in mind that PaPaS does not have the resources or capacity to provide open-ended support to novice author teams. Authors are expected to be familiar with the principles of systematic reviewing and to demonstrate that they have the capacity to complete a Cochrane Review. 

The workflow manager is available to answer any queries at any point during the development of the review; if we do not know the answer, or we do not have the available resources to help, we will endeavour to point you in the right direction.

We aim to publish all reviews within two years of publishing the protocol. All reviews must be published within 12 months of the latest search. 

We reserve the right to stop working on the review and withdraw the published protocol if the review does not meet the expected standards, for example standards of timeliness or quality (see the Cochrane Rejection Policy). We always aim to resolve any disagreements between the author team and the editorial team through discussion. Authors are free to appeal editorial decisions via the Cochrane Appeals Policy.