2.2.2 Cochrane Reviews (converting Protocols, updating/withdrawing)

A Cochrane Review is a systematic, up-to-date summary of reliable evidence of the benefits and harms of health care interventions. Cochrane Reviews are intended to help people make practical decisions. For a review to be called a 'Cochrane Review' it must be submitted to 'Archie' by the editorial team of a registered Cochrane Review Group, after being peer refereed. The specific methods used in a Cochrane Review are described in the text of the Review. Cochrane Reviews are prepared using Review Manager (RevMan) software provided by The Cochrane Collaboration, and adhere to a structured format that is described in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. In brief, this format consists of:

• A ‘cover sheet’, giving the title and citation details of the Review; the names, addresses and other contact details, both of the authors and of the editorial team responsible for the Cochrane Review Group to which the authors belong; and the sources of support for preparing and updating the Review.
• A structured report of the Review, consisting of background information, the objective, the materials and methods used, the results of the Review, discussion and conclusions about implications for practice and research.
• Full citations of reports of the studies incorporated in the Review, and of reports of those studies that were potentially eligible, but which the authors decided to exclude (with reasons for the exclusions).
• Tabulations of the characteristics of the trials included in the Review, including information relevant to an assessment of the methodological quality of each of the studies included.
• Tabulation of the results of the Review, with presentation of statistical syntheses (meta-analyses), when these were both possible and appropriate.

To ensure that the results of their work can be widely and freely disseminated, authors prepare and maintain their Reviews for inclusion in The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews on the understanding that they will not be subject to any exclusive copyright arrangements, and that they may be used in one or more of the specialised databases compiled using a selection of reviews contained in The Cochrane Library.

Subheadings in this section