TY  - JOUR
N1  - This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR Research Protocols, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.researchprotocols.org, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.
SN  - 1929-0748
ID  - discovery10171795
AV  - public
JF  - JMIR Research Protocols
N2  - Background: The conduct and publication of scientific research are increasingly open and collaborative. There is growing interest in Web-based platforms that can effectively enable global, multidisciplinary scientific teams and foster networks of scientists in areas of shared research interest. Designed to facilitate Web-based collaboration in research evidence synthesis, TaskExchange highlights the potential of these kinds of platforms.//

Objective: This paper describes the development, growth, and future of TaskExchange, a Web-based platform facilitating
collaboration in research evidence synthesis.//

Methods: The original purpose of TaskExchange was to create a platform that connected people who needed help with their Cochrane systematic reviews (rigorous syntheses of health research) with people who had the time and expertise to help. The scope of TaskExchange has now been expanded to include other evidence synthesis tasks, including guideline development. The development of TaskExchange was initially undertaken in 5 agile development phases with substantial user engagement. In each
phase, software was iteratively deployed as it was developed and tested, enabling close cycles of development and refinement.//

Results: TaskExchange enables users to browse and search tasks and members by keyword or nested filters, post and respond to tasks, sign up to notification emails, and acknowledge the work of TaskExchange members. The pilot platform has been open access since August 2016, has over 2300 members, and has hosted more than 630 tasks, covering a wide range of research synthesis-related tasks. Response rates are consistently over 75%, and user feedback has been positive.//

Conclusions: TaskExchange demonstrates the potential for new technologies to support Web-based collaboration in health
research. Development of a relatively simple platform for peer-to-peer exchange has provided opportunities for systematic
reviewers to get their reviews completed more quickly and provides an effective pathway for people to join the global health
evidence community.
IS  - 12
VL  - 7
PB  - JMIR Publications Inc.
A1  - Turner, Tari
A1  - Steele, Emily
A1  - Mavergames, Chris
A1  - Elliott, Julian
A1  - Project Transform Team
Y1  - 2018/12/13/
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/resprot.9285
TI  - Facilitating Web-Based Collaboration in Evidence Synthesis (TaskExchange): Development and Analysis
KW  - Review
KW  -  systematic; intersectoral collaboration; software (10); internet (196)
ER  -