Robust and innovative methods are the lynchpin of Cochrane and remain the basis of its reputation as the home of high-quality systematic reviews. The future sustainability of the organisation is reliant on Cochrane’s ability to attract and work closely with a diverse community of pioneering methodologists and to ensure that methods are implemented wisely and accurately in Cochrane Reviews. 

 

Methodologists are essential to Cochrane as authors, peer reviewers, editors and advisers through defined roles such as statisticians and information specialists with editorial teams, and in existing methods structures such as Methods Groups and the Methods Executive, and project-specific working groups. In particular, methodologists run Cochrane Methods Groups dedicated to specific methods relevant to Cochrane Reviews. Methods Groups  are usually led by a small group of senior and experienced methodologists with a wider membership of experienced and/or interested researchers. Cochrane’s Methods Network is the combined membership from across all of the Methods Groups. Altogether, the various structures and roles bring together a broad church of methodologists drawn from different disciplines and backgrounds.