Cochrane endorsed the Intervention Synthesis Questions (InSynQ) checklist as optional for prospective authors following a recommendation from the Methods Executive and relevant experts across Cochrane.

Cochrane's Methods Support Unit (MSU) is pleased to announce the launch of a series of  articles that will appear in the new Cochrane Evidence Synthesis and Methods journal. The series is called 'Methods and Statistics Tutorials' and will develop into a collection of resources for systematic reviewers.

Cochrane Methods are pleased to announce the publication of new guidance on the ROBINS-I tool which is used to assess the risk of bias in non-randomised studies of interventions. Rachel Richardson, Methods Support Unit Manager, stated,  'We welcome this practical conduct and reporting guidance, which will be a valuable resource for Cochrane authors and editors. More and more Cochrane reviews are including non-randomised studies of interventions and so this guidance is very timely. Congratulations to Theresa Moore, Kerry Dwan and Ella Flemyng for their work on this project'

Cochrane Methods is pleased to welcome Matt Page to the Cochrane Methods Executive!

The Methods Support Unit is pleased to announce that we have updated our RoB 2 Frequently Asked Questions web page with lots of new information specific to all five domains of RoB 2. Please check out the page! We can also help if your question is not answered on this page: please email rrichardson@cochrane.org. https://methods.cochrane.org/risk-bias-2-faqs Posted by Rachel Richardson

In June 2023, Leslie Choi from the Methods and Evidence Synthesis Team at Cochrane gave a web clinic on Considering scope at the review planning stage. The recording is available here Posted by Rachel Richardson

In April 2023, Sofia Tsokani and Afroditi Kanellopoulou from the Methods Support Unit discussed how to handle heterogeneity in Cochrane reviews. Recording is available here

Posted 19-04-2023 by Ingrid Arevalo-Rodriguez (Methods Implementation Editor)

Questions in medicine are becoming more complex which may tempt authors to embark on too much when planning a systematic review. It is essential that reviews are targeted to specific questions relevant to stakeholders and are scoped correctly so that the reviews are not only feasible but can be delivered in a timely manner. This web clinic will address how the scope of a review can be set in the review planning stage through considerations of PICO inclusion criteria, planning analyses, and structuring of ‘Summary of Findings’ tables.

In a systematic review and meta-analysis heterogeneity is defined as any variation among the studies and is categorized as clinical, methodological, and statistical. There are multiple methods suggested in the literature to identify and estimate statistical heterogeneity. However, it is often difficult to deal with its presence, while misconceptions may lead to wrong interpretation of review findings.