Correspondence with Cochrane about the Exercise for CFS review July 2019-February 2020

This correspondence started after a meeting with new Editor-in-Chief Karla Soares-Weiser on Tuesday 16 July 2019. Karla has not responded in a substantive way to any of my emails. My main concern after the amended review was published in October, that there was no indication on the review itself that an update was planned. I …

Correspondence with Cochrane about the Exercise for CFS review July 2019-February 2020

This correspondence started after a meeting with new Editor-in-Chief Karla Soares-Weiser in July 2019.  Karla has not responded in a substantive way to any of my emails.  My main concern after the review amendment was published in October 2019 was that there was no indication that a new version of the review was planned.  I …

Correspondence between Cochrane Editor-in-Chief David Tovey and Trygve Ottersen, Acting Director of Norwegian Institute of Public Health October-November 2018

Below is a link to the email exchange between Cochrane and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in response to Robert Courtney's complaint of 2016. It was made available via the Norwegian Digitization agency https://einnsyn.no/ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UMSqpzxYpBEy7deu2aUEIbhxVKd1gpLe/view?usp=sharing

Correspondence between Cochrane Editor-in-Chief David Tovey and Atle Fretheim, Director of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health late May 2019

Below is a link to the email exchange about the Exercise for CFS review between Tovey and Fretheim just before Tovey’s retirement on 31 May.  It was made available via the Norwegian Digitization agency https://einnsyn.no/ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UMSqpzxYpBEy7deu2aUEIbhxVKd1gpLe/view

PubMed Commons comments on Cochrane Exercise for CFS review (2015)

91422567492414/02/2015 16:49Ellen MGoudsmitI had contact with the main author to alert her to certain misconceptions published earlier.   Sadly, I found I had wasted my time. For example, we can not tell how many, if any, patients in the PACE trial met the London criteria. Having read that the researchers planned to select individuals with ME …

Comment on RoB 2: a revised tool for assessing risk of bias in randomised trials (September 2019)

On 27 September I submitted a rapid response to the BMJ article RoB 2: a revised tool for assessing risk of bias in randomised trials.  On the advice of their lawyers, they wouldn't publish it until I took out references to the PACE Trial and the Cochrane Exercise Review.  I have posted the original version …

How Cochrane could help improve the quality of primary research (2018)

Below is a slightly abridged version of a proposal for collaboration between EQUATOR and Cochrane made in September last year. It is an idea which is not dependant on Cochrane's involvement, but it might be a good way for Cochrane to make progress on its stated goal to advocate for evidence, and improve the primary …

June correspondence with Cochrane about the Exercise for CFS review (2019)

On 6 June I followed up on the response to my complaint from Martin Burton and Marguerite Koster, Co-Chairs of the Cochrane Governing Board. In their response they had expressed full support for the Editor-in-Chief's decisions regarding the review, and confidence that he had acted in the best interests of Cochrane, and in a manner …

Correspondence with the Charity Commission (April-May 2019)

After the complaint submitted to the Cochrane Board in November was passed back to the Editor in Chief in December, I decided to send it also to the Charity Commission. The reasons for serious complaint are listed here https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-charity If a charity is, for example: not doing what it claims to do losing lots of …

Response from the Co-Chairs of the Cochrane Governing Board (May 2019)

On 30 April I wrote to the Cochrane Board to ask them to review David Tovey's response to my complaint about the Exercise for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome reviews.  Their response is below. 8 May 2019 Dear Ms Struthers, Thank you for your correspondence, which we have carefully considered.  We fully support the Editor-in-Chief and the editorial …