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Dear list members
I am writing to respond to Jon's email, on behalf of Cochrane and the Embase project team, with the following message:
We have always tried to be clear with what the Embase project set out to do, namely identify trials from Embase and feed them into Cochrane’s central database of controlled trials (CENTRAL). The description from the old platform and the new one says:
Why is this task important?
We need these citations screened. They feed a unique and very important product to the world of evidence based medicine: the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CENTRAL. This product helps us to find trials quickly and easily which in turn helps to answer vitally important questions about the effects of a treatment. The more up-to-date and comprehensive CENTRAL is, the more effective we can be in answering those questions quickly and accurately. Considered as a task on its own, it can be difficult to see just how important it is, but it is fundamental to what we do. Without identifying the trials, we cannot appraise them, assess them, meta-analyse them; we cannot accurately answer those questions about the effectiveness of new treatments or interventions.
[http://crowd.cochrane.org/faq.html]
Our volunteers have done, and continue to do, an amazing job with this task. They have helped to identify thousands of reports of randomised trials that we have been able to submit to CENTRAL.
You are right, not everyone has access to CENTRAL but it is a resource used by Cochrane and Cochrane review authors worldwide to help them produce Cochrane reviews. If you are based in the UK you do have free access to CENTRAL.
We’re in the process of rolling out our new platform: http://crowd.cochrane.org, so do go and take a look if you get a chance and let us know what you think and how we can make the contributor experience as positive as possible.
Thanks and best
Nancy Owens
Nancy Owens
Cochrane Communications and External Affairs
-----Original Message-----
From: Evidence based health (EBH) [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of EVIDENCE-BASED-HEALTH automatic digest system
Sent: 03 May 2016 09:01
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: EVIDENCE-BASED-HEALTH Digest - 1 May 2016 to 2 May 2016 (#2016-88)
There are 4 messages totaling 649 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. Cochrane's EMBASE screening project - did you participate? (4)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 2 May 2016 09:42:28 +0100
From: Jon Brassey <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Cochrane's EMBASE screening project - did you participate?
Hi All,
I was happy to see Cochrane's EMBASE screening project <http://community-archive.cochrane.org/news/news-events/current-news/embase-screening-project-six-months-old-and-going-strong>
as it was an innovative project and used the power of the 'crowd' to identify controlled trials in EMBASE.
As the project was powered by volunteers I was curious to what extent Cochrane would share these efforts. When asked I got this reply:
*References to trial reports identified as part of the Embase Project are republished in CENTRAL under a licencing agreement between Wiley and Elsevier. As such, we are not permitted to share those records with any other parties.*
If you took part in identifying trials through this project were you aware your efforts were going to be restricted and used solely at the discretion of Cochrane? I ask as typically, in the world of crowdsourcing, the efforts are for the wider public good (eg Wikipedia). It now appears volunteers are helping boost the profits of private companies. Am I the only one disturbed by this precedent?
Best wishes
jon
--
Jon Brassey
Director, Trip Database <http://www.tripdatabase.com> Honorary Fellow at CEBM <http://www.cebm.net>, University of Oxford Creator, Rapid-Reviews.info
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 2 May 2016 08:57:11 +0000
From: healingjia Price <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Cochrane's EMBASE screening project - did you participate?
I find this troubling, lack of transparency and wonder if volunteers knew. I was certainly not informed. Can any of you get into CDSR, we can't and we are Uk resident and Cochrane authors is the NICE Agreement still in place
Best
AMy
Sent from my iPhone
On May 2, 2016, at 9:42 AM, Jon Brassey <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Hi All,
I was happy to see Cochrane's EMBASE screening project<http://community-archive.cochrane.org/news/news-events/current-news/embase-screening-project-six-months-old-and-going-strong> as it was an innovative project and used the power of the 'crowd' to identify controlled trials in EMBASE.
As the project was powered by volunteers I was curious to what extent Cochrane would share these efforts. When asked I got this reply:
References to trial reports identified as part of the Embase Project are republished in CENTRAL under a licencing agreement between Wiley and Elsevier. As such, we are not permitted to share those records with any other parties.
If you took part in identifying trials through this project were you aware your efforts were going to be restricted and used solely at the discretion of Cochrane? I ask as typically, in the world of crowdsourcing, the efforts are for the wider public good (eg Wikipedia). It now appears volunteers are helping boost the profits of private companies. Am I the only one disturbed by this precedent?
Best wishes
jon
--
Jon Brassey
Director, Trip Database<http://www.tripdatabase.com>
Honorary Fellow at CEBM<http://www.cebm.net>, University of Oxford Creator, Rapid-Reviews.info<http://Rapid-Reviews.info>
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 2 May 2016 12:41:44 -0500
From: Susan Fowler <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Cochrane's EMBASE screening project - did you participate?
Were you hoping to provide access via TRIP? Is that the issue?
On Mon, May 2, 2016 at 3:57 AM, healingjia Price <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I find this troubling, lack of transparency and wonder if volunteers
> knew. I was certainly not informed. Can any of you get into CDSR, we
> can't and we are Uk resident and Cochrane authors is the NICE
> Agreement still in place
>
> Best
> AMy
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On May 2, 2016, at 9:42 AM, Jon Brassey <[log in to unmask]
> <[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> I was happy to see Cochrane's EMBASE screening project
> <http://community-archive.cochrane.org/news/news-events/current-news/e
> mbase-screening-project-six-months-old-and-going-strong>
> as it was an innovative project and used the power of the 'crowd' to
> identify controlled trials in EMBASE.
>
> As the project was powered by volunteers I was curious to what extent
> Cochrane would share these efforts. When asked I got this reply:
>
> *References to trial reports identified as part of the Embase Project
> are republished in CENTRAL under a licencing agreement between Wiley
> and Elsevier. As such, we are not permitted to share those records
> with any other parties.*
>
> If you took part in identifying trials through this project were you
> aware your efforts were going to be restricted and used solely at the
> discretion of Cochrane? I ask as typically, in the world of
> crowdsourcing, the efforts are for the wider public good (eg
> Wikipedia). It now appears volunteers are helping boost the profits
> of private companies. Am I the only one disturbed by this precedent?
>
> Best wishes
>
> jon
>
> --
> Jon Brassey
> Director, Trip Database <http://www.tripdatabase.com> Honorary Fellow
> at CEBM <http://www.cebm.net>, University of Oxford Creator,
> Rapid-Reviews.info
>
>
>
--
Susan Fowler, MLIS
Medical Librarian
Coordinator, Systematic Review Services
Evidence at Becker:
http://beckerguides.wustl.edu/ebm
Systematic Reviews Guide:
http://beckerguides.wustl.edu/SystematicReviews
Becker Medical Library, Washington University in St. Louis
314-362-8092
[log in to unmask]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 2 May 2016 18:55:40 +0100
From: Jon Brassey <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Cochrane's EMBASE screening project - did you participate?
I was thinking that the volunteers efforts could be maximised if their outputs were shared. So, inclusion of Trip (free version) would have been good. But there are lots of other initiatives which could have benefited.
On 2 May 2016 at 18:41, Susan Fowler <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Were you hoping to provide access via TRIP? Is that the issue?
>
>
> On Mon, May 2, 2016 at 3:57 AM, healingjia Price <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
>> I find this troubling, lack of transparency and wonder if volunteers
>> knew. I was certainly not informed. Can any of you get into CDSR, we
>> can't and we are Uk resident and Cochrane authors is the NICE
>> Agreement still in place
>>
>> Best
>> AMy
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On May 2, 2016, at 9:42 AM, Jon Brassey <[log in to unmask]
>> <[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I was happy to see Cochrane's EMBASE screening project
>> <http://community-archive.cochrane.org/news/news-events/current-news/
>> embase-screening-project-six-months-old-and-going-strong>
>> as it was an innovative project and used the power of the 'crowd' to
>> identify controlled trials in EMBASE.
>>
>> As the project was powered by volunteers I was curious to what extent
>> Cochrane would share these efforts. When asked I got this reply:
>>
>> *References to trial reports identified as part of the Embase Project
>> are republished in CENTRAL under a licencing agreement between Wiley
>> and Elsevier. As such, we are not permitted to share those records
>> with any other parties.*
>>
>> If you took part in identifying trials through this project were you
>> aware your efforts were going to be restricted and used solely at the
>> discretion of Cochrane? I ask as typically, in the world of
>> crowdsourcing, the efforts are for the wider public good (eg
>> Wikipedia). It now appears volunteers are helping boost the profits
>> of private companies. Am I the only one disturbed by this precedent?
>>
>> Best wishes
>>
>> jon
>>
>> --
>> Jon Brassey
>> Director, Trip Database <http://www.tripdatabase.com> Honorary Fellow
>> at CEBM <http://www.cebm.net>, University of Oxford Creator,
>> Rapid-Reviews.info
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Susan Fowler, MLIS
> Medical Librarian
> Coordinator, Systematic Review Services
>
> Evidence at Becker:
> http://beckerguides.wustl.edu/ebm
>
> Systematic Reviews Guide:
> http://beckerguides.wustl.edu/SystematicReviews
>
> Becker Medical Library, Washington University in St. Louis
> 314-362-8092
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
--
Jon Brassey
Director, Trip Database <http://www.tripdatabase.com> Honorary Fellow at CEBM <http://www.cebm.net>, University of Oxford Creator, Rapid-Reviews.info
------------------------------
End of EVIDENCE-BASED-HEALTH Digest - 1 May 2016 to 2 May 2016 (#2016-88)
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