Dear Editors and Authors,

We are writing to update you on some changes underway for the Sexually Transmitted Infections Cochrane Review Group (STICRG). From July 2022 the Universidad Nacional de Colombia will no longer house the Sexually Transmitted Infection Cochrane Group. The STI CRG will be based at the Center for Reproductive Medicine, Amsterdam UMC, at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The Clinical Research Institute of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia took this decision in agreement with the Gynecology and Fertility Cochrane Group, and the Cochrane Editorial Unit. Several factors have led to this determination. Firstly the new Cochrane policies related to the new production model based on thematic groups will reduce the current 52 groups into 20 groups and the new Cochrane Evidence Synthesis Units. These changes will represent for us more expenses and more workloads for our team at a moment when the Covid 19 pandemic has produced everywhere relevant challenges from the economic and social points of view, but with more impact on middle and low-income countries, placing people in the impossibility of working alone in a collaborative model. This situation was not sustainable. Due to the above reasons, we would like to communicate that the Gynaecology and Fertility Satellite based at Amsterdam UMC will assume editorial duties in the STI group from July 2022. The satellite is led by co-ordinating editor Madelon van Wely with managing editor Elena Kostova.

 We finished an adventure that was initiated in 2012 with the support of Cindy Farquhar and David Tovey (the editor in chief of the Cochrane Library at that time). We gave the best of our experience with enthusiasm and generosity in order to achieve our goals. We would like to thank the authors that have worked with us during this period, the Cochrane STI Review Group staff, the editorial committee, the peer reviewers, and the Gynaecology and Fertility Group for their commitment and the support that they gave to us in the last years and to all the Cochrane community. Thank you so much for sharing with us your experience and friendship. We have greatly enjoyed and appreciated this time.

 During the next weeks, we will do everything possible to wrap up our duties and transfer to the team of Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility Satellite in the Netherlands. Please let us know if there’s anything else we can do to aid during the transition and don’t hesitate to inform the co-ordinating editor Madelon van Wely (m.vanwely@amsterdamumc.nl) or the managing editor, Elena Kostova (e.b.kostova@amsterdamumc.nl).

We desire the new editorial team of the STI group, located in Amsterdam, success in this new task, they will be handling Systematic Reviews about STIs that affect more frequently, but not uniquely, diverse, excluded and poorest people and showing that nclusion and diversity policies inside Cochrane are more than a rhetoric.

Sincerely,

Hernando Guillermo Gaitán Duarte MSc

Professor Gynecology and Obstetrics

Department Clinical Research Institute

National University of Colombia

Co- Ed. Sexually Transmitted Infections

Cochrane Review Group

Phone: 57-1-3165000 ext 15186-15168

hggaitand@unal.edu.co