Any individuals can contribute to the activities of the Group by becoming:

A member
Membership is open to anyone who has an interest in breast cancer. To become a member, simply complete and return the membership form to us at cochrane@ctc.usyd.edu.au. Members receive the breast cancer group newsletter twice a year, notification of Cochrane specific training and workshops and information relating to the annual Cochrane Colloquim and relevant cancer meetings.

An author
To become an author of a breast cancer Cochrane review, you should first complete and submit the membership form to cochrane@ctc.usyd.edu.au. The Group will register your details and your wish to conduct a review. If you already have a review question in mind, you should also complete a submission of question form.

If your question form is accepted by the editorial base and editorial board, the Group will provide authors with a review package and detailed information of the process involved. The editorial base will support you through the review process and can assist you with various tasks such as searching the Specialised Register.

A referee
Referees represent a range of disciplines such as clinicians, methodologists, researchers and consumers. It is up to each individual as to how much they referee and there is no obligation to accept work when approached. Referee comments are anonymous and referees may choose to review changes made as a result of their comments or leave this in the hands of the editorial base. Referees provide their expertise and time on a voluntary basis.

The Cochrane Breast Cancer Group has designed a generic chekcklist to guide referees when providing feedback. Full guidelines for referees including the policies of the Group in relation to refereeing are available.

A handsearcher
Handsearchers are any interested person who volunteers their time to search for journal articles. Hand searching (or full text searching) is an activity undertaken by all Collaborative Review Groups within the Cochrane Collaboration in an effort to identify literature that has not been indixed to the major biomedical databases. The objective of handsearching is to search selected journals for all randomised controlled trials (RCTs) covering a range of health areas.

Those articles identified as relevant to breast cancer will then be included on the Specialised Register of breast cancer trials. Those relating to other areas are forwarded to the relevant review group.

Handsearching can be done at a time suitable to the individual. A short training session is available to assist new hand searchers with the task. For further details on headsearching consult the Cochrane Handsearcher Training Manual. To volunteer as a handsearcher contact cochrane@ctc.usyd.edu.au