RevMan Web is Cochrane's cloud-based systematic review platform that replaces RevMan 5, providing collaborative editing, integrated risk-of-bias and GRADE support, and a direct path to publishing in the Cochrane Library. This walkthrough covers what changed in the move from desktop to cloud, how to access the platform, the navigation that matters in daily review work, the collaboration model, and the import paths from RevMan 5, Covidence, and EPPI-Reviewer 6. It is written for review teams that have committed to the Cochrane workflow and need to be productive in RevMan Web quickly, and for teams evaluating whether the platform is the right fit before committing.
What Changed When Cochrane Moved From Desktop to Cloud
The single most important change is that RevMan now lives in the browser. RevMan 5 ran locally on Windows, macOS, or Linux, stored reviews in proprietary .rm5 files on the reviewer's machine, and shared work between authors by emailing or syncing the file. RevMan Web stores the review on Cochrane servers, opens in any modern browser, and allows multiple authors to edit simultaneously.
The second change is that the platform is now actively maintained rather than legacy software. RevMan 5 reached end of active development in 2020 and has received only compatibility updates since. RevMan Web receives regular feature releases and bug fixes, and Cochrane has positioned the platform as the long-term home of Cochrane review production rather than a short-term replacement.
The third change is integration with adjacent Cochrane systems. RevMan Web connects directly to Cochrane's editorial management, to GRADEpro for Summary of Findings tables, and to the Cochrane Library publication pipeline. The friction that RevMan 5 authors experienced at the editorial stage, exporting files, uploading to Cochrane portals, reformatting for production, is largely absorbed inside RevMan Web.
The fourth change is updated risk-of-bias tooling. RevMan 5 supported the original Cochrane risk-of-bias tool but lacked native support for RoB 2, the second-generation tool that Cochrane now recommends for randomized trials. RevMan Web supports RoB 2 in-place, alongside ROBINS-I for non-randomized studies and QUADAS-2 for diagnostic accuracy studies, with the signaling questions and domain judgments rendered directly in the platform.
For Cochrane fundamentals on the software family that RevMan Web sits inside, see our companion piece on RevMan Cochrane fundamentals, which covers the licensing, history, and feature scope at the platform level.
Browser Support and Accessibility
RevMan Web is built for current versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari. Cochrane recommends keeping the browser updated to the most recent stable release, since the platform relies on modern web standards that older browsers do not fully implement.
The platform is designed to be accessible under the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Keyboard navigation is supported throughout the editing experience, screen-reader announcements are provided for state changes such as saved drafts and conflict resolution, and color contrast in the default theme meets the AA conformance level. Authors who need screen-reader workflows or keyboard-only navigation can produce a full Cochrane review without using a mouse.
The platform does not have an offline mode. RevMan Web requires a live connection to Cochrane servers, and authors who work in environments with intermittent connectivity should plan around that constraint. A short connection drop is handled gracefully with automatic reconnection and conflict-free merging when the connection is restored. Longer offline work requires either an alternative workflow or scheduling sessions around predictable connectivity.
The platform supports multiple language interfaces and is internally localized for the most common Cochrane author languages. The review content itself can be written in any language the editorial group accepts.
Account Access for Cochrane Authors and Non-Cochrane Users
For active Cochrane authors, account access is provided automatically through the Cochrane editorial group that owns the review. The same login that authenticates to the Cochrane Author Hub authenticates to RevMan Web, and authors are added to a specific review by the editorial group when the protocol is registered.
For non-Cochrane researchers, access is available through an institutional license that Cochrane sells to universities, training programs, and individual researchers. The institutional license provides the full RevMan Web feature set, including the risk-of-bias tooling and the Summary of Findings table support, but does not provide the editorial integration that is reserved for Cochrane reviews. Institutional licensees can produce a complete review in RevMan Web and export the output for submission to a non-Cochrane journal.
For training and short-term access, Cochrane provides limited free accounts through specific workshops and methods groups. These accounts have a defined expiration and are intended for hands-on practice rather than for production review work.
The single most common access confusion is what happens when a Cochrane author's editorial group reassigns or withdraws the review. The author's RevMan Web access for that specific review ends when the editorial relationship ends, although the author's general Cochrane account persists. For non-Cochrane teams the access is tied to the institutional license rather than to a specific review.
Navigating the RevMan Web Interface
RevMan Web's left sidebar organizes the review into eight main sections, each corresponding to a structural part of a Cochrane review. Authors typically work in the sections in roughly the order listed but jump between sections as the project evolves.
Title and authors. The review header, including title, author list, contact author, contributions of authors, and editorial group affiliation. This section is also where corrections, declarations of interest, and acknowledgments are entered.
Background and methods. The narrative sections at the top of the review, edited in a rich-text editor with citation support. These sections cover the rationale, the research question, the eligibility criteria, the search strategy summary, the data collection process, and the analysis methods.
Studies and references. The list of included studies, excluded studies, ongoing studies, and studies awaiting classification. Each study has a structured characteristics of included studies table with fields for methods, participants, interventions, outcomes, and notes.
Risk of bias. The risk-of-bias assessment for each included study, using RoB 2, ROBINS-I, or QUADAS-2 templates as appropriate for the study type. The signaling questions are rendered in-place and the domain-level judgments propagate to the summary figures.
Comparisons and outcomes. The structured analysis backbone of the review, organized as nested comparisons with one or more outcomes each. The data tables for each outcome accept dichotomous, continuous, or generic inverse-variance data depending on the outcome type.
Analyses. The forest plots, subgroup analyses, and sensitivity analyses generated automatically from the comparisons and outcomes section. Authors select the meta-analytical method (Mantel-Haenszel, inverse variance, Peto) per outcome, with fixed-effect or random-effects model selection.
Summary of Findings tables. The GRADE-aligned tables that integrate with GRADEpro to present absolute and relative effects with certainty ratings and footnotes. The tables can be generated entirely in RevMan Web for simple cases or built in GRADEpro and imported for complex cases.
Discussion and conclusions. The narrative sections at the bottom of the review, including the summary of main results, the overall completeness and applicability of evidence, the certainty of the evidence narrative, potential biases in the review process, and the implications for practice and research.
Real-Time Collaboration: Editing, Comments, and Version History
The collaboration model is the feature most likely to change daily working habits for review teams. Multiple authors can edit the review simultaneously, with changes appearing live in each author's browser. The platform handles conflict-free merging for non-overlapping edits and prompts for resolution when two authors edit the same content at the same time.
Comments can be attached to any section, paragraph, or table cell. A comment thread persists until it is resolved, which means review-level discussions about a specific data extraction or a specific risk-of-bias judgment are preserved alongside the content rather than scattered across email threads. Authors are notified by email when a comment is added or replied to on a section they have edited.
Version history is automatic and complete. Every edit is timestamped and attributed to the author who made it, and earlier versions of any section can be restored with a few clicks. This replaces the manual file-versioning that RevMan 5 authors maintained through naming conventions and shared folders.
Roles and permissions are managed at the editorial group level for Cochrane reviews and at the institutional level for non-Cochrane reviews. The standard roles include contact author, contributing author, and reviewer, each with appropriate edit, comment, and view permissions.
The collaboration features change the texture of team communication. With RevMan 5, weekly team meetings were typically the synchronization point. With RevMan Web, asynchronous review of edits and comments often replaces some of the synchronization meeting time, and the meetings shift toward decision-making rather than status updates.
