The Cochrane Methodology Review Group is the Cochrane Review Group responsible for Cochrane methodology reviews, which provide evidence on various methods for conducting and using health and social care research.

Cochrane methodology reviews are a special type of Cochrane review, examining the evidence on methodological aspects of systematic reviews, randomised trials and other evaluations of health and social care. They are published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews in the Cochrane Library, alongside Cochrane reviews of the effects of interventions, diagnostic test accuracy, prognosis and overviews of Cochrane reviews. Cochrane invites prospective authors to propose new Cochrane Reviews by submitting a proposal in Editorial Manager. Please see the Cochrane Library information for authors for further details.

The Methodology Review Group has no dedicated funding. The editorial base for the Cochrane Methodology Review Group is in the Northern Ireland Methodology Hub in Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland. If you would like to find out more about the Group, please contact the Co-ordinating Editor, Mike Clarke (m.clarke@qub.ac.uk).

COVID-19 pandemic and its impact: The Cochrane Methodology Review Group has identified reviews that might be relevant to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the pandemic and its associated measures on health and social care research. This includes our reviews on the effects of strategies to improve recruitment and retention in randomised trials, which may be relevant to trials for (1) patients with COVID-19, (2) other areas of health and social care impacted by the pandemic, and (3) other areas struggling to start, continue or complete research.

Some of our most relevant reviews are listed below and you can jump to them by clicking on the title:

Strategies to improve recruitment to randomised trials

Strategies designed to help healthcare professionals to recruit participants to research studies

Factors that impact on recruitment to randomised trials in health care: a qualitative evidence synthesis Podcast available here

Strategies to improve retention in randomised trials Podcast available here

Information from these reviews is used in Trial Forge Evidence Packs to help those designing and conducting trials. These provide up-to-date summaries of evidence for trial process interventions and are available free here.

We also work with Evidence Aid to provide special summaries for hundreds of systematic reviews relevant to COVID-19. These are available free at www.evidenceaid.org/coronavirus-covid-19-evidence-collection, alongside summaries of reviews relevant to other major emergencies and disasters.