Cochrane Library

The Cochrane Library is the flagship product of the Cochrane Collaboration. It is an electronic publication that is updated every three months. It is distributed by annual subscription on CD or via the Internet.

The Cochrane Library is a collection of databases on controlled clinical trials in medicine and other health-related areas of information hosted by the Cochrane Collaboration.

The Spanish version, Cochrane Library Plus, can only be consulted on the Internet, and is freely accessible from Spain.

Origin

In 1972, the British epidemiologist Archie Cochrane drew attention to the enormous difficulty that all those involved in health care decision-making have to have access to the clinical research that should inform that decision-making. In 1974, a registry of clinical trials on care during pregnancy and childbirth was started. In 1985, the registry contained around 3,500 references to clinical trials that had enabled 600 reviews to be prepared to provide the best available evidence for decision-making in the field. A. Cochrane suggested that other specialties should follow suit. The Cochrane Collaboration sees itself as the answer to that invitation.

The main databases included are:

1. La Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews (CDSR) (The Cochrane Database of Systematic Revisions).
2. La Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectiveness (DARE)
3. La Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (CCTR)
4. The Cochrane Review Methodology Database (CRMD)

Contents

The Cochrane Library consists of the following databases after significant changes in 2018:

• The Cochrane Database of Systematic Revisions (Cochrane Reviews). It contains all the revised peer reviews and protocols (Cochrane Protocols) developed by the Cochrane Review Groups.
• The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL). CENTRAL is a database that contains details of controlled test articles and other studies of bibliographic database health interventions (mainly MEDLINE and EMBASE) and other published and unpublished sources to which it is difficult to access, including essay tests such as International Clinical Trial Registration Platform (ICTRP) and ClinicalTrials.gov. However, systematic reviewers should look not only at CENTRAL but also at ICTRP and ClinicalTrials.gov to identify unpublished studies.
• Clinical responses Cochrane. These summaries of evidence about a variety of questions of interest to health professionals have an easy-to-use presentation with high-level graphics and findings of the Cochrane revision-based research evidence.
• The Cochrane Library now also presents results of special and editorial collections, as well as an option to link with other revisions compiled by Epistemonikos.

The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, the Cochrane and CENTRAL protocols are produced by Cochrane.

The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

Cochrane reviews take the format of full methodological studies. Cochrane investigators will search health and medical databases, including MEDLINE / PubMed EMBASE PsycINFO CINAHL., etc.; a continuously updated database of trials called the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL); handsearching, where researchers review entire libraries of scientific journals by hand and; Reference checking of retrieved articles to identify additional studies that are relevant to the question they are trying to answer. The quality of each study is carefully assessed using pre-defined criteria and evidence of weak methodology or the possibility that a study may have been affected by bias is reported in the review.

The Cochrane researchers then apply statistical analysis to compare the data from the trials. This creates a review of studies, or a systematic review that provides a comprehensive view of the effectiveness of a particular medical intervention. Completed reviews are available as a full report with diagrams, in summary form, or as a plain language summary, in order to satisfy all review readers.