The People’s Review – opening science up to the wider public

It is difficult to make health decisions. We are exposed to a huge amount of information available 24/7 on our smartphones, in the media, from family and friends, you name it. It is easy to find all sorts of news, figures, and advice about healthcare. However, it’s not so easy to find reliable sources of information based on the best available evidence. So what can we do about this? Well, systematic reviews can help.

A systematic review is a tool used by researchers, clinicians, and others to find all the evidence that has been published about a healthcare treatment. Systematic reviews use clear and careful steps to find relevant studies, assess the trustworthiness of the studies, and put together the results of those studies. This method gives patients the best evidence available about whether a healthcare treatment works or not. However, systematic reviews are complex and hard to understand. So, The People's Review aims to give the public an opportunity to learn about systematic reviews, by doing a systematic review.

So, what is The People's Review?

The People's Review is an online citizen science project inviting members of the public to take charge of a systematic review. It is a systematic review for the public, and importantly, by the public. It is an opportunity for researchers, and the public to work together for the good of science to try and answer a question about a healthcare treatment, using the most reliable method – a systematic review! It is about opening up research, to the public, to help the them understand what systematic reviews are, why they are important and how they can be used to make everyday health choices.

Read the full blog here.

Sign-up to the Open Research Forum on Citizen Science here.