I am preparing to send a complaint about Cochrane Editor-in-Chief Karla Soares-Weiser for allowing Cochrane authors to ignore an explicit instruction from arbitrator Gordon Guyatt to highlight in the amended Exercise Therapy for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome that exercise has no important effect on fatigue.
I have written to Cochrane CEO Catherine Spencer for more detail about how my complaint will be investigated to ensure transparency and independence, as the details on the Cochrane complaints page give no detail about the procedure. My letter to Catherine is below.
3 January 2023
Dear Catherine
I am writing in a personal capacity and not as a representative of my employer.
I wish to make a complaint about Dr Karla Soares-Weiser, Editor in Chief of the Cochrane Library. Your procedure stipulates that the complaint should be directed to you. In the past I have complained both to and about the Editor-in-Chief, including the previous incumbent, Dr David Tovey.
In a quest for an independent investigation I have (I think) twice appealed to a committee called the Cochrane Library Oversight Committee. When it was formed in around 2014 it seemed to be the ideal way for complaints about the Editor in Chief to be dealt with independently. Now the Editor in Chief has been made a member of that committee so the independence is gone. I would be interested to know what if any issues have ever been resolved by this committee. I don’t understand why minutes from their meetings are not made available. Please could you chase up my question about its membership which still does not include “at least one health consumer advocate” despite assurances that this was being addressed (see attached email correspondence. I have not had any response since May 2021 despite polite chasing)
Please can you let me know how a complaint about the Editor in Chief will be investigated independently? I need more information than “Cochrane will be guided by COPE’s core practices and guidelines when handling complaints”. Please point me to the exact COPE practice guidelines you will follow when you investigate my complaint. I think it would be a good idea to develop this more explicitly and post it on the complaints page to aid people wishing to raise concerns. The HRA seem to have a reasonably good procedure in place.
As advised on your complaints page, I have also appealed to COPE on a related but separate complaint which was not handled independently, and it seems COPE ensure journals have followed their own procedures and investigating editorial misconduct is beyond their remit.
Once I have assurance the complaint will be investigated independently and how it will be conducted, I will submit it to you.
With best wishes
Caroline