Get involved

Some of the ways in which visitors to the site can get involved with the Cochrane ENT Disorders Group are listed below, as well as descriptions of important roles within the Group - please use our 'Getting involved' form at the bottom of the page if you wish to register your interest and details.

Systematic Review

• Prepare and maintain a systematic review (or support and encourage a more junior member of the team to do so)

Promotional

• Promote awareness and understanding of the value of systematic reviews and their role in the formulation of clinical practice guidelines
• Encourage the involvement of students and professional trainees
• Encourage the involvement of consumers of health care, e.g. patients and their families/friends, policy makers, etc.
• Help to remove the institutional barriers to people contributing
• Facilitate linkages between individuals throughout the world
• Help the Review Group Co-ordinator to obtain financial and other kinds of support

Advisory

• Volunteer to help peer review the systematic reviews produced by members of the Group
• Provide the Review Group Co-ordinator, editors and review authors with methodological support
• Provide technical advice on analysis
• Suggest topics requiring review
• Assess protocols to ensure they can be understood by non-specialists
• Use The Cochrane Library and comment on it

Searching

• Help improve the Cochrane ENT Disorders Group Trials Register by handsearching journals and abstract books, or by lending us abstract books/conference proceedings for handsearching
• Do an electronic search of a specialised database
• Help develop and test search strategies
• Help review authors by providing additional information about a trial
• Translate articles for review authors
• Help review authors identify unpublished data
  

Description of roles

Contact author / Contact person

A contact person, named in the review/protocol, takes overall responsibility for the liaison between the authorial team and the editorial base. The contact person is often, though not necessarily, a main author in the team.
 
Author

An author is a member of the review team, and carries out tasks involved in the writing of the review as agreed with the other members of the team / editorial base.
 
External peer referee

An external peer referee comments on the draft of the protocol or full review during the peer review process.  All Cochrane Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders Group protocols and reviews are commented on by both an expert in a relevant field and a consumer.
 
Consumer

Consumers are involved in the Cochrane Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders Group in a variety of ways.  A consumer is someone that has (or has had) a particular ear, nose or throat disorder (including cancer of the head and/or neck), or is the relative or carer of a person with a particular condition.  Typically, consumers participate in the same way as peer referees, although they may carry out any of the other roles as well.
 
Statistical advisor

We are always grateful for offers from experienced statisticians to join our team of statistical advisors.
 
Handsearcher

Handsearching involves systematically searching through journals or stand-alone conference proceedings for trials relevant to ear, nose and throat disorders and head and neck cancer for inclusion in the Cochrane Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders Group’s Specialised Register. New handsearchers are trained by the Trials Search Co-ordinator (TSC) and journals that will be handsearched are registered with the Collaboration through the TSC in advance.
 
Translator

Translators are normally asked to translate the titles of articles published in a language other than English and/or assess whether they contain information that might be relevant to a particular review.  In some cases they are also asked to extract data.  We do not ask for the complete text of articles to be translated.
 
Advisory/Consultative member

Advisory/consultative members may be contacted from time to time by the Cochrane Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders Group for advice on issues arising from reviews of topics that fall within their area(s) of expertise.  If they wish to, advisory/consultative members may also propose topics for review and participate in discussions regarding Group policies, priority topics and so forth.