Posted on 28 October 2020, by Froeks Kamminga (Methods Liaison Officer)

A new update to the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions as well as to the Methodological Expectations of Cochrane Intervention Reviews (MECIR) has been approved by the Editors.

It relates to the upgrade of MECIR Conduct standard C56, Ensuring results of outcomes included in ‘Summary of findings’ tables are assessed for risk of bias, from Highly desirable to Mandatory. 

The update is reflected in the MECIR section on Assessing risk of bias in included studies (C52-C60) and in Handbook Chapter 7, section 7.3.2, MECIR box 7.3.c.

As a new version of the Handbook was released earlier in October, this update is marked as pending and will be fully integrated with the next version updates of both the Handbook and MECIR.

The change is tracked on the version and changes pages of both the Handbook and MECIR.