PMID- 33230412 OWN - NLM STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE LR - 20220716 IS - 2047-2382 (Electronic) IS - 2047-2382 (Linking) VI - 9 IP - 1 DP - 2020 TI - Creating and curating a community of practice: introducing the evidence synthesis Hackathon and a special series in evidence synthesis technology. PG - 28 LID - 10.1186/s13750-020-00212-w [doi] LID - 28 AB - Evidence synthesis is a vital part of evidence-informed decision-making, but high growth in the volume of research evidence over recent decades has made efficient evidence synthesis increasingly challenging. As the appreciation and need for timely and rigorous evidence synthesis continue to grow, so too will the need for tools and frameworks to conduct reviews of expanding evidence bases in an efficient and time-sensitive manner. Efforts to future-proof evidence synthesis through the development of new evidence synthesis technology (ESTech) have so far been isolated across interested individuals or groups, with no concerted effort to collaborate or build communities of practice in technology production. We established the evidence synthesis Hackathon to stimulate collaboration and the production of Free and Open Source Software and frameworks to support evidence synthesis. Here, we introduce a special series of papers on ESTech, and invite the readers of environmental evidence to submit manuscripts introducing and validating novel tools and frameworks. We hope this collection will help to consolidate ESTech development efforts and we encourage readers to join the ESTech revolution. In order to future-proof evidence synthesis against the evidence avalanche, we must support community enthusiasm for ESTech, reduce redundancy in tool design, collaborate and share capacity in tool production, and reduce inequalities in software accessibility. CI - (c) The Author(s) 2020. FAU - Haddaway, Neal R AU - Haddaway NR AUID- ORCID: 0000-0003-3902-2234 AD - Mercator Research Institute On Global Commons and Climate Change, Torgauer Str. 19, 10829 Berlin, Germany. GRID: grid.506488.7. ISNI: 0000 0004 0582 7760 AD - Stockholm Environment Institute, Linnegatan 87D, Stockholm, Sweden. GRID: grid.35843.39. ISNI: 0000 0001 0658 9037 AD - Africa Centre for Evidence, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. GRID: grid.412988.e. ISNI: 0000 0001 0109 131X FAU - Westgate, Martin J AU - Westgate MJ AD - Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Acton ACT 2601, Australia. GRID: grid.1001.0. ISNI: 0000 0001 2180 7477 LA - eng SI - figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.12254321 PT - Editorial DEP - 20201119 PL - England TA - Environ Evid JT - Environmental evidence JID - 101744999 PMC - PMC7676418 OTO - NOTNLM OT - Digitisation OT - Efficiency OT - Machine learning OT - Review technology OT - Systematic review tools COIS- Competing interestsNRH and MJW are co-founders and organisers of the Evidence Synthesis Hackathon. NRH is co-leader of the Open Synthesis Working Group. The authors declare they have no financial competing interests. EDAT- 2020/11/25 06:00 MHDA- 2020/11/25 06:01 PMCR- 2020/11/19 CRDT- 2020/11/24 06:05 PHST- 2020/05/07 00:00 [received] PHST- 2020/11/04 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2020/11/24 06:05 [entrez] PHST- 2020/11/25 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2020/11/25 06:01 [medline] PHST- 2020/11/19 00:00 [pmc-release] AID - 212 [pii] AID - 10.1186/s13750-020-00212-w [doi] PST - ppublish SO - Environ Evid. 2020;9(1):28. doi: 10.1186/s13750-020-00212-w. Epub 2020 Nov 19.