The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

A descriptive analysis of child-relevant systematic reviews in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

BACKGROUND Systematic reviews (SRs) are considered an important tool for decision-making. There has been no recent comprehensive identification or description of child-relevant SRs. A description of existing child-relevant SRs would help to identify the extent of available child-relevant evidence available in SRs and gaps in the evidence base where SRs are required. The objective of this study ...

Cochrane systematic reviews in acupuncture: methodological diversity in database searching.

BACKGROUND Since the early 1970s, the efficacy of acupuncture for treating clinical conditions has been evaluated in several hundred randomized trials. Results from these trials have been synthesized in systematic reviews. A well-designed systematic review provides the highest level of evidence for establishing the efficacy of a clinical intervention. OBJECTIVES The present study assesses the...

The Cochrane Collaboration and systematic reviews.

Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions

s and other grey literature have been shown to be sources of approximately 10% of the studies referenced in Cochrane reviews (Mallett 2002). Over one-half of trials reported in conference abstract never reach full publication, and those that are eventually published in full have been shown to be systematically different than those that are never published in full (Scherer 2003). In addition, gr...

The origins, evolution, and future of The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) evolved in response to Archie Cochrane's challenge to the medical profession to assemble "a critical summary, adapted periodically, of all ... relevant randomized controlled trials". CDSR has been an electronic publication from its inception and this has meant that Cochrane reviews (i) need not be constrained by lack of space; (ii) can be updat...