Overview
The aim of Veterinary Evidence is to publish content relating to evidence-based veterinary medicine and its application in veterinary practice to enhance the quality of care provided to patients. Evidence-based veterinary medicine means using the best available evidence combined with your professional expertise to make the best possible clinical decisions, taking into account each animal and owner’s individual circumstances.
When Veterinary Evidence publishes Knowledge Summaries or other types of review or evidence summary, it’s because these publications are addressing clinical questions of importance to veterinary professionals. As time passes, new evidence may be published, meaning that summaries or reviews become out of date, and less useful. At Veterinary Evidence, we therefore strive to publish updated Knowledge Summaries or reviews, as the latest evidence becomes available, as far as is possible or desirable.
We describe here our process for updating Knowledge Summaries, the primary article type in Veterinary Evidence.
Knowledge Summaries: choosing when and which to update
It would not be feasible, or necessary, to update all Knowledge Summaries continually, so we have a process for considering which Knowledge Summaries will be updated.
We run an annual report of Knowledge Summaries that have search dates (the date that the search was carried out) that are 3 to 4 years old. For that set of papers, we review the usage metrics (views, downloads, citations) and consider whether the questions remain clinically relevant. On this basis, the Editor in Chief will select the top five papers of interest under each of the main three species categories (small animal, production animal, and equine), and we will aim to publish updates of these summaries.
The updating process
When a Knowledge Summary is updated, the original PICO question is retained. The purpose of the update is to identify and critically appraise the current evidence for the original PICO question, although the search strategy may be adjusted or expanded. An exception is if the PICO was not formulated according to current standards. In such cases the PICO will need to be modified as basis for a new Knowledge Summary.
The original author(s) of the Knowledge Summary will be asked whether they wish to undertake the update. If the original author(s) is not able to work on an updated Knowledge Summary, we will invite other authors to write a new Knowledge Summary based upon the PICO question. In this case, the previous authors’ work will be acknowledged.
If the author(s) find no new evidence, a note is appended to the original article stating that an additional search had been performed with no new evidence found.
If the author does identify new evidence, the prior Knowledge Summary is adapted and written in accordance with current journal guidelines and policies.
When the updated Knowledge Summary is published, it cites the previous knowledge summary and states in the abstract and introduction that it is an update of a previous Knowledge Summary. The prior Knowledge Summary will have a note appended noting that an updated version is available and linking to that version. Where possible, we also ensure this note is added to article metadata and content held on external indexes and databases.
Knowledge Summary updates are new publications. Updates can be made to papers published in Veterinary Evidence by new authors as all content is published open access under a CC BY 4.0 licence. This license allows others to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format. Remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, so long as the original paper is credited appropriately.