Tips on start-up

Modified on Mon, 22 Jul at 12:39 PM

The platform has a lot of features, and new authors can find this daunting and not know where to start. Here are some tips to get going. Please note, some features are only available for guideline Admins (which we will specify in the article).

You can find the full set of features explained here.

1. Look through the three content tabs (Recommendations, Evidence, References)

You will notice that there are three tabs on top of the guideline: Recommendations, Evidence (PICOs) and References.

These three tabs are only visible for authors: the public/people without editing permission for the guideline view only the content in the Recommendations tab - the Evidence and References tabs are the "back end" that include supporting content. You can connect content together, so that PICOs are linked to the Recommendations they are supporting, and References are linked to PICOs or Recommendation, or used as citations in text.

When a guideline is created, it will automatically have one section (entitled "Write section name here") in the Recommendations tab to get you started.

2. Look through the Settings menu (the little wheel/gear icon on top right of the guideline)

General: Write Disclaimer, Description and Funding statements.
General (Admins only): Change guideline name, status, and contact information.
Guideline customizations (Admins only): Enable subscriptions to the guideline, show first lines of text instead of the "View section text" button, allow Feedback in Recommendations to show in published versions, set default track changes for authors, auto-number sections/sub-sections, show banner descriptions of recommendation strength, show certainty in recommendation strength labels, and choose 4-factor or 7-factor Key information framework for recommendations.
Permissions: Add admins, authors, and reviewers for your guideline. For details, see who can do what. (Only Admins can add/remove users)
Conflict of interest management (Admins only): Use the comprehensive feature for tracking/reporting COI.
Publishing, version history, and subscription: Publish your guideline, view previously published versions, and manage your subscribers list; for more details see publishing feature. (Only Admins can publish)
Milestones and checklists: Use these optional tools to manage workflow.
Voting and Delphi tool: Create polls for the guideline. To create polls for specific recommendations, use the option tab in the recommendation. (Only Admins can create/manage polls)
Tags: Create tags for recommendations, to allow filtering.
Export all recommendation comments: Export all Feedback from recommendations (e.g. after peer review).
MS Word: Create a Word document of the guideline.
Create, view, and customize PDF: Create PDFs with various customizations, including custom covers, styling, PICO display options, showing track changes, and more.
View latest PDF.

3. Know where the activity log is and how it works (the bell icon on the top right of the guideline)

The activity log shows every edit anyone has made in the guideline. When you start to edit content, you can go to look at it again and then you see all the changes done.

The activity log can be filtered on anything, e.g. author or type of content. The activity log of each Recommendation, PICO, and Reference can also be accessed via their Options menus.

4. Add a few sections, to get a little framework to work with

These sections can later be re-named, moved, or deleted, so you can use them as a temporary test framework. You can also make subsections using the drag-and-drop feature of moving content.

5. Add Section text

You can add general text under any section, sub-section, or sub-sub section (e.g. background information). Click the pencil to open the text editor. If you don't see a pencil right away, then you have to click "View section text" first (note: you can decide if you want to view the first lines of text or click View section text in the guideline customization options).

6. Add a Recommendation

Add a recommendation using the option menu in the section where you want it to be. You can later move or delete it, so don't be afraid to play around.

Look at the content in the Recommendation tabs by clicking on them (lower part of the recommendation), so you know what information can be written where.

Look at the options menu for the Recommendation, so you know what are the possible choices to make.

7. Add a PICO

Add a PICO using the option menu in the section where you want it to be. You can later move or delete it, so don't be afraid to play around.

Look at the content in the PICO tabs (lower part of the PICO), so you know what information can be written where.

Look at the option menu, so you know what are the possible choices to make.

To start creating your evidence profile, click on the "Evidence profile" tab.

Add an outcome and look at the author possibilities in each column (small pens). There are three types of outcomes: dichotomous, continuous, and non-poolable/narrative. Once you choose the type of outcome, you cannot change it to another type.

8. Add a Reference

You can add a manual reference, import from PubMed or import a RIS file (EndNote or other reference management software). You might want to check all options, so you know how they work. You can later move or delete them, so don't be afraid to play around.

Now you are ready to add real content.

If you have a pre-existing guideline you want to put into MAGICapp, you simply work through the content piece by piece.

If you have pre-existing content, we suggest that you add all the sections/sub-sections first and then all the References, because then you can start linking your content with these immediately.

We would also suggest that you add PICOs and references to one section first, so you get familiarized with the features, before you move on to add the rest.