IMSG minutes, 14 December 2001

Minutes approved on 20 March 2002

Present: Gerd Antes, Chris Cates, Mike Clarke, Monica Fischer (convenor), Sonja Henderson, Julian Higgins, Rasmus Moustgaard, Elizabeth Pienaar, Mark Starr, Phil Wiffen.

In attendance: Jacob Riis (minutes).

Contents:
Welcome and apologies
Approval of agenda
Potential conflict of interest
Approval of minutes and matters arising from the minutes of the previous meeting (12 September 2001)
Needs assessment survey
Figures in Cochrane reviews
RevMan 4.2
Matters arising from the RAG meeting
Matters arising from the MAG meeting
Contact database pilot
Update of job description for Monica Fischer
Expenses for the IMSG and advisory groups for 2001
Involvement of developing countries
Any other business
Date of next meeting

Welcome and apologies

Elizabeth was welcomed as a new representative for developing countries and Rasmus was welcomed in his new role as convenor of the Technical Implementation Advisory Group (TIAG).

Approval of agenda

The item 'Involvement of developing countries' was added to the agenda.

Potential conflict of interest

• Gerd Antes: Representing the Steering Group. No potential conflicts known, but possibly in relation to the German Cochrane Centre's responsibility for managing the Collaboration web site.
• Chris Cates: Convenor of the Criticism Management Advisory Group.
• Mike Clarke: Convenor of the RevMan Advisory Group. Representing the Steering Group. Editor of the Reviewers' Handbook.
• Monica Fischer: Convenor of the IMSG. Co-ordinator of software development at the Nordic Cochrane Centre. Had made a proposal that the Cochrane Collaboration should consider publishing its output "in-house".
• Sonja Henderson: Convenor of the ModMan Advisory Group. Review Group Co-ordinator of the largest review group, which desperately requires a tracking system.
• Julian Higgins: Co-convenor of the Statistical Methods Group. Co-editor of the statistical section of the Reviewers' Handbook.
• Rasmus Moustgaard: Convenor of the Technical Implementation Advisory Group. Employed to work on software development at the Nordic Cochrane Centre.
• Elizabeth Pienaar: Representing developing countries. No potential conflicts known.
• Mark Starr: Representing Update Software. Involvement in the development of commercial software, e.g. Metaxis, and software for the Cochrane Collaboration as publisher of The Cochrane Library.
• Phil Wiffen: Representing co-ordinating editors. No potential conflicts known.

Approval of minutes and matters arising from the minutes of the previous meeting (12 September 2001)

Corrections were made to sections 3, 7.b.iii, 7.c.ii and 13.c, whereafter the minutes of the previous meeting were approved.

ComCrits FAQ (item 4.b.i)

Chris has published a document called 'Summary of the Criticism Process' on the Collaboration's web site as a replacement for an update of the more extensive document 'The Comments and Criticisms system - some questions and answers'. A copy of the latter document can be obtained from Chris.

Problems with notification (item 4.b.ii)

Chris reported that the summary (mentioned above) contains a reminder to criticism editors that they should check the comments and criticisms web site regularly for new criticisms.

Attachment of a comment to a review when it is first published (item 4.b.iii)

Mike agreed to discuss this with the Handbook Group. Chris had not yet received any feedback from the Criticism Management Advisory Group. He will pursue this and forward comments to Mike in due course.
Action: Chris

Presentation of summaries of survey results (item 5.b)

Julian had prepared summaries of the responses to the Needs Assessments Survey. Review Group Co-ordinators and Co-ordinating Editors had been shown the data from the survey of Collaborative Review Groups by Sonja and Phil at their respective meetings at the Colloquium. It had been noted at the RGC meeting that many of the Co-ordinating Editors had not been involved in the completion of the editorial base survey

Graphs in Cochrane Reviews (item 7)

Discussed under item 6 on 'Figures in Cochrane reviews' below.

Mirroring of the Cochrane Collaboration's web site (item 12.b)

A proposal for standardising the server infrastructure awaits the employment of a web designer. The post has been advertised through CC-INFO and will be advertised on 15 December 2001 in a German newspaper. It was agreed that if Gerd receives very few - or no - applications, he should forward the advertisement to the members of the IMSG so that they can help to distribute it further (for example, through contacts with universities in the UK).
Action: Gerd

Role of the Quality Improvement Manager (item 13.b)

Mike clarified Nancy Owen's role as Quality Improvement Manager, which is primarily to collect information relevant to the editorial process for Cochrane reviews. Nancy is a member of the Quality Advisory Group (QAG) and works closely with its convenors. It was agreed that, it would be preferable for the IMSG to interact with the QAG concerning quality issues, and where appropriate, the QAG can then involve Nancy.

Intellectual property rights (IPR) (item 13.c)

Mark is awaiting feedback from Peter Langhorne about the issue of ownership of synopses. When he has received this, he will prepare a brief paper for the IMSG about how IPR affects the Information Management System. Monica will put this on the agenda for the next meeting.
Action: Mark, Monica

Needs Assessment Survey

Analysis of data

Suggestions for additional analyses of the survey responses should be sent to Julian by 11 January 2002. Julian will e-mail the members of the working group that developed the Needs Assessment Survey, to ask for their suggestions.
Action: Everyone, Julian

Recommendations for the next generation of the Information Management System

A small ad-hoc working group, consisting of Mike (convenor), Julian, Phil and a Review Group Co-ordinator (to be identified) will meet in Oxford towards the end of January (probably on 23 January). This group will try to interpret the results prepared by Julian in response to suggestions and will prepare a report for the IMSG as soon as possible. When the IMSG has agreed on this report, it will be used to make recommendations about the future development of the Information Management System, which will be provided to the Cochrane Collaboration Steering Group for its next meeting in Chengdu (11-12 April 2002). A final report should be available in time for the Colloquium in Stavanger in July 2002.
Action: Mike, Julian, Phil, RGC[TBA]

The ad-hoc working group would welcome suggestions from other members of the IMSG about how the data might be interpreted and what additional information should be included in their report.
Action: Everyone

Distribution of survey results

It was agreed that the data and analyses should be made available through the IMS web site. Interpretation of analyses should not be made available until the final report is ready in July 2002.
Action: Mike, Jacob Riis

Figures in Cochrane reviews

The discussion about additional figures in Cochrane reviews began with item 7 of the minutes of the 12 September 2001 meeting. Where appropriate, the number for the minute from that meeting has been added in brackets to the subtitle.

Statistical Methods Group (SMG) guideline for figures in Cochrane reviews (item 7.a)

The document entitled 'Considerations and recommendations for graphs of statistical data included in Cochrane reviews' will be ready by mid-January 2002. It was clarified that the document complies with MetaView 4.1. Rasmus queried whether the document needed to contain more detail about the specific look of a Cochrane figure, but it was accepted that the current level of detail was probably sufficient. The finished document will be sent to the Handbook Advisory Group, with a suggestion that it should be considered for inclusion as an appendix in the Reviewers' Handbook.
Action: Julian

Any further comments should be e-mailed to Julian before 31 December 2001.
Action: Everyone

When the IMSG and the Handbook Advisory Group have agreed on the document, it will be presented to the Steering Group - hopefully in time for its meeting in April 2002.
Action: Monica, Mike

Storage and IPR of raw data (item 7.b.i)

The policy that raw data stored in RevMan should be available for manipulation by user of Cochrane reviews was reaffirmed. It was also agreed that the raw data should be regarded as part of the review and thus is covered by the copyright of Cochrane reviews.
Monica will wait for the SMG's response to the recommendation agreed at the 12 September 2001 meeting: "Versions of analysis graphs where outcome data entered into RevMan cannot be manipulated may be published, provided that the data being plotted are presented alongside the graph and that the complete set of data from which these summaries were calculated can be obtained somehow.", before bringing the full proposal to the Publishing Policy Group.

It was agreed that raw data should be made easily accessible in a generic format by the publisher, for example as text files.

Action: Monica

Guidance about the availability of the data for additional figures should be included in the SMG guidelines for figures in Cochrane reviews.
Action: Julian

Generation of graphs in the Cochrane Library (item 7.b.ii)

For the time being, Update Software prefers to generate graphs based on the raw data in Cochrane reviews rather than using images generated in RevMan. This means that Update Software will either need to update MetaView or produce a separate program that can recalculate and draw the Generic Method (previously referred to as the Inverse Variance Method). Testing of the Generic Method will be undertaken by Update Software and the Nordic Cochrane Centre, based on comparisons of images generated from Update Software's routine and the new statistical module (RevMan Analyses), which will be included in RevMan 4.2. The Cochrane Collaboration should request the implementation of the Generic Method in an official letter to Update Software. Mike will send this letter.
Action: Mike

The next generation of the Information Management System should provide the publisher with calculated data so that they only have to plot calculated data, not re-analyse raw data. This should be added to the wish list for RevMan.
Action: Rasmus

Additional figures (item 7.c)

The IMSG will recommend to the Steering Group that additional figures should be allowed in Cochrane reviews (this recommendation should be included in the IMSG's bi-annual report to the Steering Group, in March 2002). It will however be for the Steering Group to decide if there should be rules for which types of images/multimedia files can be included. When this has been agreed, the Technical Implementation Advisory Group (TIAG) should be asked to assess the technical issues which will need to be dealt with in relation to system stability, practical use and quality. Sonja stressed that it will be important to consider the implications for the workload of Collaborative Review Groups if additional figures can be included in Cochrane reviews.
Action: Monica

Consideration should be given to how additional figures should be presented as part of the Cochrane reviews in The Cochrane Library. At the moment, Update Software plans to publish additional figures in the data section of The Cochrane Library.

It was recognized that it might not be possible to reach consensus on which additional figures to allow and to produce appropriate guidelines in time for the release of RevMan 4.2. If this is the case, reviewers and Collaborative Review Groups will be asked not to make use of the functionality until the official guidances is available.
Action: Monica, Rasmus

Inclusion and testing of the new statistical module in RevMan 4.2 (item 7.d.ii)

It was confirmed that the statistical module, RevMan Analyses, will replace MetaView 4.1 in RevMan 4.2. RevMan Analyses will be tested against MetaView 4, except for the Generic Method which will need to be tested against another statistical package. Update Software's implementation of the Generic Method will be tested against RevMan 4.2.

RevMan 4.2

Rasmus agreed to send to Mike a list of changes in the review data structure in RevMan 4.2, which have implications for The Cochrane Library. Mike, in his role as Liaison Officer between the Cochrane Collaboration and Update Software, will formally write to Update Software to request that they implement these changes and to provide a time schedule for their implementation. The letter should also include the request that Update Software should be able to generate graphs calculated using the Generic Method from raw data (see item item 6.c).
Action: Mike

Matters arising from the RAG meeting

Minutes and other resources on IMS web site

Agendas are now made available on the IMS web site - along with supporting background papers. The RevMan Advisory Group had agreed that, in the future, all background papers should be made available to members as a single PDF file to make it easier to print these. This will also be adopted for IMSG meetings. However, as background materials in some cases might be considered confidential, the IMSG agreed that the background papers from the IMSG and its advisory groups should not be made publicly available. It was also agreed that members of its advisory groups should have access to the agenda for the IMSG meeting but not the background papers. It would be the responsibility of the advisory group convenors to e-mail the agenda to their members. The final agenda and background material should be made available to members of the IMSG through a private web site, ideally a week before each meeting. Communication about the draft agenda prior to this date would be by e-mail. However, announcements of new meetings should still be posted on a public section of the IMS web site along with a request to users of the site to submit agenda items to the convenor of the relevant group.

At each meeting, it should be considered whether a background paper should be made publicly available at the same time as the provisional minutes are published on the IMS web site.

It had also been suggested that summaries of minutes on specific issues might be prepared and published on the web site, for instance a summary of the recommendations concerning additional figures.

Jacob, Monica and Rasmus will work on re-structuring the IMS web site, to divide it into a private and a public section and to allow publication of summaries of minutes. They will also keep a log of the resources involved in using the IMS web site as the main channel of communication.
Action: Jacob, Monica and Rasmus

RevMan 4.2, RevMan Analyses and MetaView 4.1

The IMSG supported the recommendation of the RevMan Advisory Group that RevMan 4.2 should include a hidden version of MetaView 4.1, which could serve as a back-up for the new statistical module in RevMan 4.2, RevMan Analyses.
Action: Rasmus

Matters arising from the MAG meeting

ModMan 4.1

The release of ModMan 4.1 seemed to have gone smoothly. No technical problems were detected during the November module submission. ModMan 4.0 will not be supported after December 2001.

ModMan 4.2

ModMan 4.2, which will include better reporting facilities for tracking, will be released for testing by the end of January 2002.

Tracking software

Jan Arve Dyrnes at the Norwegian Branch of the Nordic Cochrane Centre has been evaluating a number of commercial tracking systems. He will next evaluate the systems currently in use by Collaborative Review Groups. These will be forwarded to Jan Arve by Nancy Owens who will identify suitable systems during her visits to entities. It was agreed that Sonja should circulate the preliminary report prepared by Jan Arve to the IMSG for information.
Action: Sonja

Membership of MAG

The ModMan Advisory Group is considering transparency of the membership of the group and its remit. The IMSG will be consulted as appropriate.
Action: Sonja

Contact database pilot

Rationale and security issues

Jacob, who is project manager for the contact database pilot, described the rationale behind the Internet-based contact database pilot. Concerns were raised about the protection of the data contained within the system, and it was agreed that it should be of high priority to ensure a secure system where contact details were protected against unauthorised access. Rasmus was asked to discuss this with the Technical Implementation Advisory Group.
Action: Rasmus

Consideration should also be given to whether it should be possible to set contact details to "private", so that the details would only be available to the contact person him/herself and the administrator(s) from his/her entity/entities.
Action: Jacob

Adopting the Internet-based system in the Cochrane Collaboration

The IMSG agreed in principle that the new system should be adopted as the Cochrane Collaboration's new contact database (and thus replace HIREx). The transition from HIREx to the new system will need to be carefully planned, and the process for the administration of the new contact database should also be addressed. The IMSG should recommend the new system to the Steering Group but the report should note that a number of issues need to be resolved before the system can go live.
Action: Jacob, Monica

Updating information in the Internet-based system

Discussion took place about how best to keep information up-to-date in the database. Jacob recommended that information should first be updated directly on the internet-based system, and then secondly on entity-based systems. Sonja asked for the opposite approach to be considered, that the Internet-based system was updated on the basis of information entered into entity-based systems. Jacob agreed to raise this for discussion on the contact e-mail discussion list (contact@cochrane.de).
Action: Jacob

Client software

Development of local client software should be considered when planning the next generation of the Information Management System. In the meantime, Jacob agreed to circulate a list of client software suitable for exchanging data with the Internet-based system.
Action: Jacob

Mirroring

The Internet-based contact database is currently based on a server in Copenhagen, connected to the Internet through a fast, direct line. Mirroring of the database should be considered once the system is in regular use in the Collaboration.

ModMan for other entities

It was agreed that ModMan for other entities (method groups, fields, centres and the Consumer Network) should be included as part of the system. The system should generate XML files suitable for publication in The Cochrane Library. Mark agreed to provide document type definitions (dtd) for these types of modules.
Action: Jacob, Mark

Update of job description for Monica Fischer

As part of an accreditation programme, the State University Hospital in Denmark, where Monica is based, is rewriting job descriptions for all its employees using a new structured template. It had therefore been agreed that the content of Monica's job description should be revisited at the same time, and Monica was seeking input from the IMSG and, subsequently, the CCSG. Monica offered to leave the meeting during the discussion, but because it was agreed that the job description should be general and not specific to her, this was not deemed necessary.

Mike had drafted a job description for the director of the Information Management System, which was discussed. Mike agreed to make the changes that were suggested and send the amended job description to the Steering Group.
Action: Mike

Expenses for the IMSG and advisory groups for 2001

Monica summarised the expenses of the IMSG, RAG and MAG during 2001. When the final invoices for the calendar year of 2001 have been processed, Monica will send a copy of the accounts to the convenors of the advisory groups for information.
Action: Monica

Involvement of developing countries

Developing countries survey

Elizabeth listed the three main problems for developing countries involvement in the Cochrane Collaboration: language, technology and funding. These should be kept in mind when planning the next generation of the Information Management System. Elizabeth plans to develop a survey for individual reviewers, which will be translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and French. She will identify reviewers by going through list of participants from past Cochrane Colloquia and by contacting Collaborative Review Groups.

The developing countries survey could be based on the results from the Collaboration-wide Needs Assessment Survey. These results should also help in developing ways to collect more qualitative information.
Action: Elizabeth

Developing countries contributors' meeting

Elizabeth would like to organise a meeting for Cochrane contributors in developing countries. Such a meeting would be to minimise costs for the participants, lead to better understanding of needs in developing countries, and would focus on issues solely of interest to developing countries. Phil also suggested that it could be linked to a major training event, where reviewers could attend workshops relevant to their needs. Organisations like the WHO might be interested in providing funding for the proposed meeting. Elizabeth agreed to raise the idea with other members on the newly established e-mail discussion list for people interested in working on strategies for raising the involvement of people in developing countries (devcountries@cochrane.de).
Action: Elizabeth

Any other business

Access to The Cochrane Library on the Internet

Mark confirmed that all IMSG members can obtain access to the Cochrane Library on the Internet, if they do not already have this.

Improvement of the comments and criticisms web site

Chris explained that a new threaded system for comments and criticisms, where replies from the reviewer will appear under comments, would be implemented in the near future on the comments and criticisms web site (http://www.update.co.uk/feedback/introduction.htm). When it is ready, Chris will inform Collaborative Review Groups and reviewers.
Action: Chris

Date of next meeting

It was agreed that the next IMSG meeting should be on 20 March 2002 at the UK Cochrane Centre. The RevMan Advisory Group is also likely also to meet on that day. The UK Cochrane Contributors' meeting will be on 22-23 March (with 21 March serving as a day for entities to have their own private business meetings).

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