FAQ-1: Which RCC does my project fall under? 

The Regional Coordinating Centres share the responsibility of overseeing projects in COHERE.  Those projects falling under the Prognosis and the effect of ART Theme and the Socio-economic inequalities Theme are managed by the Bordeaux Regional Coordinating Centre. Those projects falling under the Hepatitis, Opportunistic Infections, Malignancies, and Late Presenters Themes are supported by the Copenhagen Regional Coordinating Cenre. See contact page for Study Coordinator contact details. 

FAQ-2: I would like to submit an abstract to a conference, what must I consider/do?

1.       Check to see that you’ve adhered to the authorship guidelines for abstracts: The rule of thumb is 1 author per collaboration.  If your poster is only on behalf of COHERE, it should read  "<AUTHOR> on behalf of COHERE in EuroCoord".

2.       Ensure that the Project Working Group has received and review the abstract well ahead of submission.

3.       Plan to send the abstract to the supportive RCC Coordinator (see FAQ 1) at least 1 week prior to submission so that this can be circulated for comments.

FAQ-3: My abstract was accepted for a presentation/poster, what now?

1.       Inform the supportive-RCC Study Coordinator.

2.       Download the latest COHERE Collaboration slide template including the acknowledgement, here, or the acknowledgements, here.

3.       Download the EuroCoord and European Commission Logos, (here & here), to include in your presentation and poster.

4.       Ensure that you’ve adhered to the authorship guidelines for abstracts detailed in FAQ 2.

5.       Plan to send to the abstract to the supportive-RCC Coordinator (see FAQ 1) at least 1 week prior to submission to allow for the presentation to be circulated to the EC/SC for comments. 

FAQ-4 : I would like to submit a manuscript to a journal, what must I do first?

1.       Check to see that the Project Working Group is complete, meaning: at least one representative per cohort that submitted data to the analysis and a representative from each Regional Coordinating Centre (2 total) are present.  See FAQ 5 if you have questions about COHERE’s Authorship Policy for manuscripts.

2.       Ensure that you’ve held at least one meeting/teleconference with your Project Working Group to share the results and plans for dissemination. 

3.       Download COHERE’s Acknowledgements, here & download COHERE's recommendations on submitting your manuscript for publication, here.

4.       Add a sentence to the methodology section reading: “Data for this analysis were merged in COHERE in EuroCoord in <YEAR>”.

5.       Circulate the manuscript to the complete Project Working Group for comments.

6.      Once points 1-5 have been completed, you may now submit the manuscript to the supportive-RCC (see FAQ 1) for review by the COHERE Executive Committee and Steering Committee.  Please note that this process takes 3 weeks.

FAQ-5: Does COHERE have an authorship policy for manuscripts ?

Yes, COHERE has an authorship policy for both manuscripts and abstracts that has been laid out in the COHERE Manual of Operations.  

COHERE’s authorship policy favours grouped over named authorship, in the following format :

“The (name of the project) Project Working Group for the Collaboration of Observational HIV Epidemiological Research Europe (COHERE) in EuroCoord”. 

The authorship policy dictates that:

•  all cohorts who contributed data to the analysis be represented
•  1 representative from each RCC be included in the Project Working Group
•  the order of authors in the PWG should be based on the relative contribution of data to the analysis.

Non-standard authorship:  It is required that all requests for non-standard authorship be made as soon as possible as these must be approved by the COHERE EC on a case-by-case basis.  All requests for non-standard authorship must be justified.  Such requests must go through the supportive RCC Study Coordinator and be approved by the EC.