Crowdsourcing uses online platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk to distribute simple tasks to many workers. Zooniverse is a platform that uses crowdsourcing for scientific research projects, ensuring tasks contribute to real research. Citizen science websites like SciStarter allow volunteers to participate in various science projects. Cochrane could use crowdsourcing to speed up reviewing literature for systematic reviews by breaking tasks into smaller pieces distributed to many volunteers, as long as tasks are clinically relevant and volunteers are motivated and supported.

1. Crowdsourcing and Cochrane
Draw me a sheep…

2. Crowdsourcing is…
very popular

3. Crowdsourcing is…

4. Amazon Mechanical Turk
HITs = Human Intelligence Tasks

5. Draw me a sheep
TheSheepMarket.com is a collection of 10, 000 sheep made by
workers on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.

6. Using the crowd for science
Zooniverse
www.zooniverse.org

7. Biology

8. Biology
• One single account
• “dive on in”

9. Biology
• One single account
• “dive on in”
“this commitment to producing real research – so that you know
we’re not wasting your time – is at the heart of everything we do”

10. Citizen science
http://www.scistarter.com/

11. Slick process
1
2
3

12. Why consider it
Producing vast
amounts of evidence
Quality vs Speed vs Capacity

13. How could it work?
One BIG task Smaller tasks Nano tasks
Clinically
relevant
question
which
needs an
answer

14. Where are we headed?
Embase: becomes an integral part of your day
Screen 5 citations per day x 31 000 contributors

15. Currently…
QReview
group
The life of a clinically relevant question

16. Could try…
QReview
group
The life of a clinically relevant question

17. Or this…
Q
The life of a clinically relevant question
Review
group
T
a
s
k

18. Or this…
QReview
group
T
a
s
kQReview
group
The life of a clinically relevant question

19. QReview
group
T
a
s
kQReview
group
T
a
s
k
T
a
s
k
T
a
s
k
The life of a clinically relevant question

20. QReview
group
T
a
s
kQ
T
a
s
k
T
a
s
k
T
a
s
k
Q
Review
group
Review
group
The life of a clinically relevant question

21. 3 key ingredients
Needed
Doable
Motivated
Supported
Slick
Versatile

22. Thank you

23. Acknowledgements
Rupert McShane
Caroline Struthers
Kit Huckvale