2019 Mid-term Cochrane Governance Meeting

Krakow hosted the Cochrane Mid-Year term meeting April 1–5. About 100 delegates from all Cochrane entities gathered together to work on the collaboration’s new developments. Director Stefano Negrini represented Cochrane Rehabilitation. This year’s meeting was distinguished for its teamwork. Apart from the standard meetings of all the different groups’ executives (Review, Methods, Centres, and Fields), the newly created Networks, the Governing Board, the Knowledge Translation Advisory Board, and the Council, a one-day collective meeting for all delegates was organized. The spirit of the collaboration, the democracy of the organization, and its strong principles were once again evident to everybody. The so-called “Cochrane crisis” related to the expulsion of Peter Goetsche became another occasion to appreciate and strengthen the collaboration and its spirit. CEO Mark Wilson was greeted with enthusiastic, if not unanimous, applause after declaring that the almost complete silence of the main Cochrane management was a suffered choice—a decision to respond through the work and to not participate in polemics that had potential to disrupt and harm the collaboration. On the same day, two standing ovations were given to the Chief Editor of the Cochrane Library, David Tovey, who will be retiring in May; the process for his replacement is well under way but not yet finished. A new “Code of conduct” (provisional name) for Cochrane members and authors was discussed. A “Policy makers workshop” was held to bolster Cochrane’s capacity to further development of evidence-based informed policies. Finally, our Director held an important meeting to finalise the introduction of the browsing term “Rehabilitation” into the Cochrane Library, which we expect to happen in 2019.