Plain English Summary
Background and study aims
Twitter is an online media dissemination tool. We, the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group (CSzG), currently have 500+ followers on Twitter and we use Twitter to disseminate links to our systematic reviews. The aim of this study is to assess whether 'tweeting' a link to the Plain Language Summary (PLS) Cochrane website (summaries.cochrane.org) increases access to the full text of The Cochrane Library review.
Participants
Full reviews by the CSzG published in The Cochrane Library but also appearing in the PLS Cochrane website.
What does the study involve?
All similar full reviews by the CSzG have been paired (83 pairs). On the three days of highest Twitter 'traffic' (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday) one randomly selected review in the pair will be tweeted three times on that day, in three different formats - in each case with a link to the PLS within summaries.cochrane.org. Seven days after the link to the PLS has been tweeted outcomes will be gathered from routine data within Google Analytics.
What are the possible benefits and risks of participating?
Participants are reviews and not people. Benefits for the review should be wider dissemination, and citation. We envisage no clear risks to reviews being tweeted - it is, we suppose possible, that dissemination could result in the review being dismissed by the readership and longer term access and citation declining.
Where is the study run from?
The University of Nottingham, UK
When is the study starting and how long is it expected to run for?
November 2013 to June 2014.
Who is funding the study?
The University of Nottingham (UK).
Who is the main contact?
Miss Angelique Bodart
Angelique.bodart@nottingham.ac.uk
Trial website
Contact information
Type
Scientific
Primary contact
Miss Angelique Bodart
ORCID ID
Contact details
Cochrane Schizophrenia Group
Division of Psychiatry
Institute of Mental Health Building
C floor
University of Nottingham Innovation Park
Triumph Road
Nottingham
NG7 2TU
United Kingdom
+44 (0)115 823 1274
angelique.bodart@nottingham.ac.uk
Additional identifiers
EudraCT number
ClinicalTrials.gov number
Protocol/serial number
N/A
Study information
Scientific title
Measuring the impact of tweeting Cochrane Schizophrenia Group systematic reviews
Acronym
TweetSz
Study hypothesis
Tweeting Cochrane systematic reviews about schizophrenia increases the number of 'views' of the full text, compared to not tweeting.
Ethics approval
None required
Study design
Non-blinded parallel-arm randomised controlled trial
Primary study design
Interventional
Secondary study design
Randomised parallel trial
Trial setting
Other
Trial type
Other
Patient information sheet
N/A
Condition
Schizophrenia
Intervention
Intervention. Two groups of reviews, the Tweet group and the control or Non-tweet group. Systematic reviews in the Tweet group will have a link to their Plain Language Summary (PLS) in summaries.cochrane.org tweeted in Twitter with text about the review. Each review will be tweeted three times on the same day at 10:30, 12:30 and 2:30. The text for each of the three tweets will be in the form of: the title of the review as it is in summaries.cochrane.org; a modified extract from the results or discussion sections of the abstract; a question formulated from the contents of the PLS.
Randomisation: Cochrane Schizophrenia Group systematic reviews were paired (non-blinded) with similar reviews (based on subject relevance or clinical relevance) as best as possible. The order of the pairs on the spreadsheet were randomised within Excel (RAND). The reviews in the pair were then randomised to decide which group they should be ascribed to using an online randomisation tool (http://www.randomizer.org/). Both were completed blindly by another member of the study. The day on which the Tweet group reviews were disseminated on Twitter was also randomised using an online randomisation tool (http://www.randomizer.org/), again blindly by another member of the study.
Intervention type
Other
Phase
Not Specified
Drug names
Primary outcome measure
All gathered using Google Analytics for each pair of reviews.
1. 'Unique page views' and 'Entrance' to PLS pages
2. 'Unique page views' for the external link to full Cochrane review in 'thecochranelibrary.com'
The results, measured through Google Analytics, will be recorded one week after each review has been tweeted.
Secondary outcome measures
All gathered using Google Analytics for each pair of reviews.
1. 'Page views' to PLS pages
2. 'Page views' for the external link to full Cochrane review in 'thecochranelibrary.com'
Overall trial start date
12/11/2013
Overall trial end date
30/06/2014
Reason abandoned (if study stopped)
Eligibility
Participant inclusion criteria
Published full text Cochrane Schizophrenia Group (CSzG) systematic reviews that appear in thecochranelibrary.com and with a Plain Language Summary (PLS) in summaries.cochrane.org.
Participant type
Other
Age group
Other
Gender
Not Specified
Target number of participants
166
Participant exclusion criteria
1. Unpublished CSzG reviews
2. Published protocol CSzG reviews that appear in thecochranelibrary.com
3. Any CSzG review that is not relevant to schizophrenia
Recruitment start date
12/11/2013
Recruitment end date
30/06/2014
Locations
Countries of recruitment
United Kingdom
Trial participating centre
Cochrane Schizophrenia Group
Nottingham
NG7 2TU
United Kingdom
Sponsor information
Organisation
Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust (UK)
Sponsor details
Duncan Macmillan House
Porchester Road
Nottingham
NG3 6AA
United Kingdom
-
abc@email.com
Sponsor type
University/education
Website
Funders
Funder type
University/education
Funder name
The University of Nottingham (UK) - intramural funding
Alternative name(s)
Funding Body Type
Funding Body Subtype
Location
Results and Publications
Publication and dissemination plan
Not provided at time of registration
Intention to publish date
Participant level data
Not provided at time of registration
Basic results (scientific)
Publication list
1. 2015 protocol in: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26159452
2. 2016 results in: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26956164