2020 Spring Forum: Anna Noel-Storr

The 2020 UHMLG Spring Forum is focusing on getting involved with systematic reviews. With six presentations, it promises to be an interesting and informative day. With the opportunity to network with colleagues from across the HE and NHS sectors, it’s a great value event for all health and medical librarians.

Cochrane Crowdsourcing Challenge

At a time when research output is expanding exponentially, citizen science, the process of engaging willing volunteers in scientific research activities, has an important role to play in helping to manage the information overload. It also creates a model of contribution that enables anyone with an interest in health to contribute meaningfully and in a way that is flexible.

In May 2016 Cochrane launched Cochrane Crowd, its citizen science platform. Here, contributors from around the world help to identify health evidence for Cochrane systematic reviews. To date over 100,000 trials have been identified by the crowd. This dataset has not only enriched Cochrane’s central repository of trials, it has enabled the creatiion of machine learning classifiers. These classifiers now paly an important role in helping Cochrane keep pace with the rate of research publication.

This talk will describe the Cochrane’s crowdsourcing and machine learning innovations and how they are helping to make the review production process more efficient without compromising on quality.

Biography: Anna Noel-Storr

Anna Noel-Storr joined Cochrane in February 2008 as an Information Specialist for the Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group, Oxford University. She still holds this position, but since 2016 has led the Cochrane Crowd initiative, a crowdsourcing platform where willing contributors can dive into needed tasks aimed at helping to identify and describe health evidence. This work has had a major impact on Cochrane’s ability to keep up with the deluge of information.