The Cochrane Library

The background

The Cochrane Collaboration and its output have grown rapidly since the organisation was established in 1993. The first issue of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR), the main product of the Collaboration, was published at the beginning of 1995, and included 36 Cochrane reviews.

There were 500 Cochrane reviews in 1999, and CDSR now contains the full text of more than 3000 Cochrane reviews, each of which will be kept up to date as new evidence accumulates.

The Cochrane Library

The Cochrane Library is available on the Internet and on CD-ROM published by John Wiley and Sons Limited, and is available without charge in some countries thanks to national licences.&nbs24-Fév-2009

Other databases within The Cochrane Library

The Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, assembled and maintained by the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination in York, UK, contains critical assessments and structured abstracts of other systematic reviews, conforming to explicit quality criteria.

The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) contains bibliographic information on hundreds of thousands of studies, including those published in conference proceedings and many other sources not currently listed in other bibliographic databases.

The Cochrane Methodology Register contains bibliographic information on articles and books on the science of reviewing research, and a prospective register of methodological studies. The Cochrane Library also contains links to a handbook on how to conduct a Cochrane review, and a glossary of terms.

The Cochrane Collaboration section in The Cochrane Library contains contact details and other information about Cochrane Review Groups and the other contributing groups within The Cochrane Collaboration.