Cochrane Engage helps evidence newcomers

Cochrane Engage (formerly known as TaskExchange) has new features, especially for evidence newcomers!

Past last updated 22 March 2023.

Cochrane Engage is Cochrane’s online platform that connects people needing help on health evidence projects (Cochrane and non-Cochrane) with people who have the time and skills to help out. So far, hundreds of people have gained experience on real health evidence projects through Cochrane Engage. Will you be next?

Evidence newcomers can now browse beginner tasks directly from the Cochrane Engage homepage. And all beginner tasks are marked with a green leaf, so they can be easily identified in the general task list. When searching for tasks, you can also filter by skill level, selecting ‘entry level only’.

‘Many of our contributors join Cochrane Engage to build skills in evidence production,’ says Tari Turner, Co-Lead of Cochrane Engage. ‘They may be medical or allied health students, Cochrane Crowd members, or people with a general interest in evidence but little or no hands-on experience. We wanted to make it easy for these people to start contributing to evidence. On Cochrane Engage, evidence newcomers can now access appropriate tasks directly from the homepage. They no longer need to wade through tasks requiring significant prior experience. This will make it much easier for them to get involved.’

These changes have been well received at Students 4 Best Evidence. ‘At Students 4 Best Evidence, we’re really excited to learn about this new feature, which aims to make it clear which tasks are suitable for students’, explains Selena Ryan-Vig, former Students 4 Best Evidence facilitator. ‘Not only will this make it easier for students to contribute to the work of Cochrane, but it also offers them the opportunity to gain really valuable experience and knowledge along the way. Hilda Bastian, one of the founding members of Cochrane, once said ‘young people are the most striking phenomenon. They’re bringing a blast of energy, enthusiasm…and cutting-edge scientific work with them. It’s fantastic that Cochrane Engage is finding new ways to try and harness this.’

If you’d like to gain evidence skills, visit Cochrane Engage today and browse the tasks for beginners!

Get in touch: engage@cochrane.org



Cochrane Engage helps evidence newcomers by Selena Ryan-Vig

is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

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