2012 New Year message to all contributors to The Cochrane Collaboration

Dear Colleagues –

Happy New Year. We hope that many of you have been able to enjoy some well-earned time off over the holiday period, in preparation for another busy and exciting year ahead as contributors to The Cochrane Collaboration.

2012 looks set to be another significant year for the Collaboration as it builds on the successes of 2011, which included:

• The publication of 414 new, and 464 updated, Cochrane Reviews in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR). 2011 marks the fourth consecutive year that updated reviews have outnumbered new reviews, demonstrating the commitment of author teams to keeping their reviews relevant and based on the best available evidence.
• A 16.8% increase in global usage of The Cochrane Library.*
• The establishment of Official Relations with the World Health Organization, the public health arm of the United Nations. Official Relations provide the opportunity for the Collaboration to  influence the way in which research evidence is created and used by the WHO by improving the foundation of reliable health information on which they base their policies.
• The launch of summaries.cochrane.org, a consumer-friendly site for Cochrane evidence. Just a few weeks after the launch of the Beta site in November, the site received a Web Award at the 2011 Plain English Campaign’s annual awards, which celebrates the provision of clear and concise information in all forms. On receiving the award, Catherine McIlwain, Consumer Co-ordinator for the Collaboration, said, “The Cochrane Collaboration believes that information is the building block of change. For that change to occur, evidence of the effects of medical treatments (or the lack thereof) must be available to the public. Cochrane Summaries provide those details in plain language so that consumers can make informed decisions about their health care.”
• The appointment of Miranda Cumpston and Jackie Chandler, as Training and Methods Co-ordinators respectively, to manage the Collaboration’s activities in these core areas.

You can read more about the Collaboration’s achievements in 2011 in the Annual Report.

In 2012, the Steering Group and core management teams will be focussing their energies, on your behalf, on ensuring the quality, stability and efficiency of the Collaboration’s organisational structure, and of its products, in order to support you better, and to continue to meet the needs of users, by:

• Continuing to lead the review of the Collaboration’s publishing arrangements for its products, and, based on this review, conducting a process to engage a publishing partner from 2014, when our current publishing contract expires.
• Leading a strategic session on ‘Cochrane Content’ at the mid-year meetings of the Collaboration’s management committees, in Paris, in April. The recommendations from this session will inform the development of The Cochrane Library, including the CDSR and Cochrane Reviews, over the next five years. You can read more about the session here.
• Seeking and developing alternative funding sources for the Collaboration.
• Enhancing the organisation’s monitoring and management functions, particularly of individuals, groups and functions which receive core Collaboration funding and/or use the Cochrane brand.

As ever, in looking to achieve these aims, we will rely on your support, enthusiasm and commitment to the Collaboration’s vision and principles. We want your input at all stages and are maintaining a discussion forum on cochrane.org where you can ask us a question, or post a suggestion, about any topic at any time.

In closing, we would like to pay respect to our friend and colleague, Alessandro Liberati, who died on New Year's day after a prolonged battle with multiple myeloma. Alessandro was the founding director of the Italian Cochrane Centre and a major contributor to the Collaboration since its inception. Admirably, he used his own illness to promote better outcomes for patients by vigorously promoting a research agenda which matched the priorities of patients, and not just funders and researchers. He has left a big hole in the lives of many friends and colleagues within the Collaboration and our thoughts go out to his wife, Mariangela; his children, Valeria and Elisa; and his colleagues at the Italian Cochrane Centre and worldwide.

With best wishes,

Jonathan Craig and Jeremy Grimshaw,
Co-Chairs of the Cochrane Collaboration Steering Group

*Usage figure for 2010, reported in 2011. Usage includes access, search and downloading on The Cochrane Library platform.