about the Cochrane Collaboration

The main output of the Collaboration is the Cochrane Library, which is updated quarterly, and is currently being made available to users of SAHealthInfo. The Cochrane Library includes several different databases:

• The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews which contains protocols and reviews prepared and maintained by specialised Review Groups. It includes a Comments and Criticisms System to enable users to help improve the quality of Cochrane Reviews.
• The Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness, assembled and maintained by the NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination in York, England, which contains critical assessments and structured abstracts of other systematic reviews, conforming to explicit quality criteria.
• The Cochrane Controlled Trials Register which contains bibliographic information many thousands of controlled trials, including reports published in conference proceedings and many other sources not currently listed in other bibliographic databases.
• The Cochrane Review Methodology Database which contains references to articles and books on the science of reviewing research. The Cochrane Library also contains a handbook on how to conduct a systematic review, and a glossary of terms.
• The Cochrane Collaboration section in the Cochrane Library contains contact details and other information about Review Groups and other contributing entities within the Cochrane Collaboration.
• The South African Cochrane Centre is one of 13 Cochrane Centres forming part of the Cochrane Collaboration. It contributes to the Cochrane Library in various ways including: MeSH indexing of Cochrane Reviews, identifying trials by handsearching journals and preparing systematic reviews of high priority to developing countries. The SA Cochrane Centre has created (and is maintaining) a specialised database known as the African Trials Register (ATR) which contains information on all published trials conducted anywhere in Africa.  It is the intention to add to this database, in the future, trials that are on-going and not yet published. The ATR is available to users of The health knowledge network.
• The SA Cochrane Centre is collaborating with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine to produce and disseminate short, simply written synopses for those who do not have the time to full-length Cochrane reviews.  These synopses, known as Effectiveness Updates, focus on problems that are important to people in developing countries and are also made available via The health knowledge network.