INTRODUCTION: The Cochrane @entity161 Group (CSzG) has produced and maintained systematic reviews of effects of interventions for @entity161 and @entity221 . Each review has a @entity3180 ( @entity3180 ), for those without specialised knowledge, and an abstract, which are freely available from The Cochrane Library (https://summaries.cochrane.org). Increasingly, evidence is being distributed using social media such as Twitter and Weibo (in China) alongside traditional publications. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: In a prospective two-arm, parallel, open randomised controlled trial with a 1:1 allocation ratio, we will allocate 170 published systematic reviews into the intervention group (tweeting arm/Weibo arm) versus the control group (non-tweeting arm). Reviews will be stratified by baseline access activity, defined as high (>= 19 views per week, n=14), medium (4.3 to 18.99 views per week, n=72) or low (<4.3 views per week, n=84), based on Google Analytics, which will also be used for evaluating outcomes. The intervention group will have three tweets daily using Hootsuite with a slightly different accompanying text (written by CEA and AB) and a shortened Uniform Resource Locator (URL) to the @entity3180 : a) The review title as it appears in summaries.cochrane.org, b) A pertinent extract from results or discussion sections of the abstract and c) An intriguing question or pithy statement related to the evidence in the abstract. The primary outcome will be: total number of visits to a @entity3180 in 7   days following the tweet. Secondary outcomes will include % new visits, bounce rate, pages per visit, visit duration, page views, unique page views, time on page, entrances, exiting behaviour and country distribution. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study does not involve living @entity1 , and uses information available in the public domain. @entity1 are published systematic reviews, hence, no ethical approval is required. Dissemination will be via Twitter, Weibo and traditional academic means. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN84658943.

To tweet or not to tweet about XXXX systematic reviews (TweetSz): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['participants', 'Participants'] @entity221 :: ('MESH:D005334', 'Disease') :: ['related illness'] @entity161 :: ('MESH:D012559', 'Disease') :: ['schizophrenia', 'Schizophrenia'] @entity3180 :: ('MESH:D007806', 'Disease') :: ['PLS', 'Plain Language Summary']
@entity161 :: (MESH:D012559,Disease) :: ['schizophrenia']
