Archive
Official meetings
25th Official Meeting - Monday 17th September 2018, Edinburgh, UK (35 attendees)
Ian White - A comparison of seven random-effects models for meta-analyses that estimate the summary odds ratio (pdf)
Guido Skipka - Methods for evidence synthesis in the case of very few studies (pdf)
Argie Veroniki - Methods to calculate the uncertainty in the estimated overall effect size under the random-effects model (pdf)
23rd Official Meeting - Monday 24th October 2016, Seoul, South Korea
Statistical methods for reliably updating meta-analyses: update on Cochrane Methods Innovation Fund project Julian Higgins (on behalf of Mark Simmons)
Introducing the new IT Development Manager Gert van Valkenhoef
New risk of bias tool for randomised trials Julian Higgins
22nd Official Meeting - 6th October 2015 - Vienna
21st Official Meeting - September 2014 - Hyderabad
20th Official Meeting - 23rd September 2013 - Quebec (24 attendees)
[minutes available pdf]
Presentations:
Elie Akl and Shanil Ebrahim: Addressing missing trial participant data in Cochrane systematic reviews: Update on a Methods Innovation Fund Project (pdf)
Argie Veroniki: Estimating the heterogeneity variance and inference on the meta-analysis summary effect (pdf)
Marialena Trivella: New statistical methods in RevMan 6 (A few slides)
19th Official Meeting - 2012 - Auckland
17th Official Meeting - 19th October 2011 - Madrid
16th Official Meeting - 21st October 2010 - Keystone
This meeting was held jointly with the Bias Methods Group. It was a discussion of early stopping of trials.
15th Official Meeting - 13th October 2009 - Singapore (over 65 attendees)
This meeting was held jointly with the Bias Methods Group.
[minutes available]
14th Official Meeting -1 October 2008 - Freiburg
Note, no meeting was held at the Sao Paulo Colloquium
13th Official Meeting -24 October 2006 - Dublin
12th Official Meeting -25 October 2005 - Melbourne (32 attendees)
[minutes available]
11th Official Meeting - 5 October 2004 - Ottawa (about 30 attendees)
[minutes available]
10th Official Meeting - 27/28 October 2003 - Barcelona (22 attendees)
The business meeting discussed many issues, including updating Section 8 of the handbook and statistical support for CRGs.
[minutes available]
9th Official Meeting - 5 July 2002 - Oxford (26 attendees)
Several methodological issues were discussed at this meeting, including cross-over trials, combining studies with different designs and methods for dealing with heterogeneity.
[minutes available]
8th Official Meeting - 10/12 October 2001 - Lyon (31 attendees)
A business meeting addressed progress of the SMG and a research meeting discussed fixed versus random effects meta-analysis and intention-to-treat analysis. Julian Higgins joined Doug Altman and Jon Deeks as a co-convenor.
[minutes available]
7th Official Meeting - 26/27 October 2000 - Cape Town (16 attendees)
David Moher and Ken Schulz stepped down as convenors of the group leaving Doug Altman and Jon Deeks as co-convenors. One meeting was devoted to a revision of the statistics section of the Reviewers' Handbook and to statistical peer review. At the other meeting, recommendations for additional figures in Cochrane Reviews, Topic Action Groups and the possibility of a training course for Cochrane statisticians were discussed.
[minutes available]
6th Official Meeting - 21 October 1999 - Rome (21 attendees)
There was discussion of the planned complete rewrite of section 8 of the handbook, co-ordinated by the convenors. A proposed outline of the new Section 8 was well received. There were several offers of help in writing and reviewing the new sections. David Moher and Ken Schulz would be organising an update of Section 6 concerning trial quality. It was noted that the new section 8 should render unnecessary the production of separate (and possibly conflicting) statistical guidelines produced by or for different Cochrane Review Groups.
[minutes available]
5th Official Meeting - 23 October 1998 - Baltimore (38 attendees)
There had been discussion for a long time about creating small groups within the SMG whose members shared an interest in a particular methodological issue. It was agreed to move ahead with these groups, to be designated Research Action Groups (RAGs) (later renamed Topic action groups, TAGs). There was discussion of the quality assessment of protocols and completed reviews, with concern expressed about quality control and the potential workload for SMG members.
[minutes available]
4th Official Meeting - 9/11 October 1997 - Amsterdam (30 attendees)
At these meeting the merger of the Statistical Methods Working Group and the Reporting and Quality Assessment of RCTs Methods Group was finalised, and issues around training, quality control, research action sub-groups and observational studies were discussed.
[minutes available]
3rd Official Meeting - 24 October 1996 - Adelaide (16 attendees)
This meeting reviewed the activities of the year, and attempted to clarify the scope of the Statistical Methods Group.
[minutes available]
2nd Official Meeting - 6 October 1995 - Oslo (18 attendees)
The second official meeting was held at the 3rd Annual Cochrane Colloquium in Oslo. The meeting discussed the roles and functioning of the group, and methodological issues.
[minutes available]
1st Official Meeting - 16 July 1993 - Oxford
The first meeting of a group of 12 statisticians and other interested individuals was organised by the UK Cochrane Centre. Several members of this group went on to form the Statistical Methods Working Group (later Statistical Methods Group). The meeting discussed the range of statistical methods that the collaboration could use in undertaking meta-analyses and noted a lack of consensus in appropriate methods.
Ad-hoc meetings
4th Ad Hoc Meeting - 25 March 2004 - Edinburgh (20 attendees)
The meeting discussed issues relating to the quality assessment of trials, in particular relating to revision of Section 6 of the Handbook and how RevMan might need to be updated.
Minutes available.
3rd Ad Hoc Meeting - 3 June 1998 - Oxford
A meeting was held to discuss issues related to cluster randomised trials in systematic reviews.
2nd Ad Hoc Meeting - 3 September 1996 - Oxford (15 attendees)
This meeting was specially convened to discuss issues relevant to the analysis of ordinal data, in response to queries arising in several of the review groups.
1st Ad Hoc Meeting - 25 April 1996 - Oxford (7 attendees)
This meeting met and discussed an eclectic set of issues relating to the development of the MetaView software and various methodological issues which were being raised by Cochrane Review Groups.
[Minutes available]