Cochrane Library

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The Cochrane Library is the online library of the international organization Cochrane . It comprises three scientific databases (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Clinical Answers) that contain scientific evidence on questions from all areas of health care as well as on methodological aspects of evidence-based medicine and evidence-based health care. In addition, the Cochrane Library contains special collections ( Special Collections ) and editorials on selected topics and the possibility of the database Epistemonikos to search for systematic reviews to use. The Cochrane Library has been operated by John Wiley & Sons since 2003 . It is accessible free of charge in Switzerland , but is chargeable to the public in Germany and Austria . The current Impact Factor (2019) of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews is 7,890.

development

The beginnings that led to the establishment of the Cochrane Library go back to 1974 when efforts were made to create a database for medical clinical studies , especially in neonatal medicine . In subsequent years, the first ones were systematic reviews ( reviews ) created and the software developed.

In 1988 the first overview series appeared under the title Oxford Database of Perinatal Trials (ODPT) . In 1993 the new edition of the ODPT was presented to the public as an electronic journal under the name The Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Database (CCPC) using updated software . In the same year, the Cochrane Collaboration was launched at the first Cochrane Colloquium in Oxford .

In 1994 the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews was presented under improved software . In 1995 the British Minister of Health officially announced the creation of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Furthermore, the Cochrane Collaboration was entered in the public register as a non-profit company with no financial interests and is therefore subject to English law. The Cochrane Library was finally born a year later, when the new software appeared for the first time on a revised CD-ROM, which was subsequently updated quarterly. In addition to the systematic reviews , this included a database with the scientific summaries ( abstracts ) of non-Cochrane reviews.

In 1998 the Cochrane Library was made available on the Internet . The Dutch company Ovid Technologies , based in New York , which has a large collection of paid databases, introduced so-called Evidence Based Medicine Reviews at the same time and added the Cochrane Reviews to this product.

In 2002, access to the library was made available free of charge to the population of Australia , Finland , Great Britain and other countries through the sale of country licenses ; other countries followed (see under Access ).

In 2003 the Cochrane Collaboration signed a contract with John Wiley & Sons ( Wiley ) and thus opened up the commercial market, but is still non-profit oriented. Since then, Wiley has been selling the Cochrane Library for a fee.

In 2018 the Cochrane Library was introduced in a completely redesigned form. In the course of further development, some of the databases previously contained in the Cochrane Library for many years, including the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects ( DARE ) and the Health Technology Assessment Database ( HTA ), were removed.

Cochrane Reviews

Cochrane Reviews are systematic reviews (with or without meta-analysis ) in which the available scientific evidence on questions from all areas of health care is summarized in accordance with the standard of the Cochrane Collaboration. The aim of the Cochrane Reviews is to provide a compact yet comprehensive overview of research results , mainly from randomized controlled trials . While initially only Cochrane reviews were created on therapeutic issues ( interventions ), which still make up the majority of Cochrane reviews, there are now also Cochrane reviews on diagnostic , methodological , qualitative and prognostic questions. In addition to the classic Cochrane reviews, there have been "Overviews of Reviews" for some years now, in which the available evidence from Cochrane reviews (sometimes supplemented by other systematic reviews) is summarized on a question. Further review formats are being developed. The first Cochrane "Rapid Reviews" appeared in spring 2020 in the wake of the Covid 19 pandemic .

The creation of the Cochrane Reviews follows the Cochrane standard, i.e. a uniform formal and structural procedure (shown in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions). Each Cochrane review is preceded by the creation of a protocol in which the previously defined methodological procedure is described in detail and which is also published in the Cochrane Library. A separate software, the Review Manager ( RevMan ), is available for creating the reviews . The decision to create a systematic review as a Cochrane Review is made before a title is registered. The starting point of every Cochrane review is a clearly formulated question, for example: “Are antibiotics helpful in children with acute otitis media?” Based on this question, relevant research results and studies are identified, selected, evaluated, summarized and in the form of a review online in the Cochrane Library released.

All reviews contain a freely accessible scientific summary ( abstract ) and a plain language summary ( PLS ) that is also freely accessible to laypersons . All Cochrane reviews are written in English. However, many of the abstracts and summaries that can be understood by laymen have now been translated into various languages, including German (see also Access - Cochrane Evidence in German).

The review articles are created by authors who, depending on the topic and the question of their review, are assigned to one of currently 53 Cochrane Review Groups ( CRGs ) (as of October 2019), each of which is responsible for a specific topic. Each Cochrane Review group is led by a coordinating editor and consists of a team of diverse experts including clinicians, information specialists , methodologists and statisticians , among others . The task of the review groups is to support the authors during the entire process of preparing the review in terms of continuous quality management. In addition, the review groups coordinate the editorial process up to the publication of the review in the Cochrane Library. Two Cochrane Review Groups are based in Germany: Cochrane Haematological Malignancies , based in Cologne, and Cochrane Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders , based in Düsseldorf. Since 2018, each Cochrane review group has been assigned to one of eight higher-level Cochrane review group networks .

Databases provided

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR, Cochrane Reviews)

In June 2020, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) contained around 8,300 systematic reviews that deal with a specific health-related issue (see above) or with methodological aspects . In addition to the completed Cochrane Reviews, the review protocols are also published in the CDSR. In June 2020, the CDSR contained around 2,400 Cochrane review protocols. The CDSR is continuously updated ( publish as ready ), but divided into twelve monthly issues .

Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, Trials)

The CENTRAL database contained over 1.6 million reports on randomized (and quasi-randomized) controlled clinical trials in June 2020. In addition to the bibliographical information , many of the entries contain a freely accessible summary of the article. However, CENTRAL does not contain full article texts. Most of the entries in CENTRAL come from the medical databases MEDLINE , Embase and CINAHL as well as the study registers ClinicalTrials.gov and ICTRP. In addition, however, there are the entries in the specialized registers of the Cochrane groups, which contain clinical studies that are identified by Cochrane authors using hand searches in individual specialist journals. The aim is to provide the largest possible number of studies available worldwide that can be used in the context of evidence-based medicine. CENTRAL is published or updated monthly.

Cochrane Clinical Answers (CCAs)

Cochrane Clinical Answers (CCAs) provide quick, concise access to Cochrane evidence on relevant clinical issues. A CCA consists of a clinical question, a brief answer and information from a Cochrane Review that is considered particularly relevant for practicing health professionals (e.g. doctors, nurses, therapists), the target group of CCAs. The information is presented in a user-friendly tabular format consisting of text, data and links to graphics. The CCAs were developed by Cochrane Innovations and Wiley.

Additional resources and content

Research in the database Epistemonikos (Other reviews)

In addition to the Cochrane Reviews contained in the CDSR, users of the Cochrane Library have the option of searching for systematic reviews in the Epistemonikos database founded in 2009. Epistemonikos contains both Cochrane Reviews and non-Cochrane Reviews.

Special Collections

Cochrane Special Collections are compilations of Cochrane Reviews on selected health-related topics and are part of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Current examples are seven special collections on COVID-19 , in which the available Cochrane evidence is compiled on relevant topics and questions relating to the COVID-19 pandemic . As of June 2020, the Cochrane Library contained 36 special collections.

Editorials

From time to time, editorials are written in the Cochrane Library that address various aspects of Cochrane reviews and methodological issues. In June 2020 there were around 130 editorials in the Cochrane Library.

Access

Wiley provides paid access to the entire Cochrane Library. The (scientific and layman-understandable) summaries as well as some additional information on all Cochrane reviews are freely available. In addition, the full texts of all Cochrane Reviews published since February 2013 are freely accessible from one year after their publication. Some Cochrane Reviews are already freely accessible when they are published. Some countries finance free access to the content of the Cochrane Library as part of a national license for all citizens. Switzerland is so far the only German-speaking country in which (since 2016) all citizens have free access to the Cochrane Library. Such a national license does not yet exist in Germany and Austria. In Germany, the members of the German Network of Evidence-Based Medicine and various universities in Germany also have free access, as the respective institutions have acquired a license. The North Rhine Medical Association has been giving its members free access to the Cochrane Library since 2008. Other portals and institutions also offer access to parts of the database.

Cochrane evidence in German

The plain language summaries ( PLS ) of many Cochrane reviews are also available in German. The availability of a German summary for a review is shown in the online version of the review in the Cochrane Library above the English summary. Available German translations are now also automatically displayed, depending on the country in which the Cochrane Library is currently being used or which settings a user has made. All available German Cochrane summaries - there were around 2,000 in June 2020 - are available on the Cochrane Compact platform, which also provides further information on the Cochrane Library in German.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 2019 Journal Impact Factor of the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Retrieved July 28, 2020 (English).
  2. ↑ Redesign of the Cochrane Library 2018. Accessed June 16, 2020 .
  3. ^ Systematic reviews by Cochrane. Retrieved June 16, 2020 .
  4. ^ Types of Cochrane Reviews. Retrieved June 16, 2020 (English).
  5. ↑ https://methods.cochrane.org/cmi/overviews-of-reviews
  6. ↑ https://www.cochrane.org/cochranes-work-rapid-reviews-response-covid-19
  7. ^ Cochrane Handbook - Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. In: https://training.cochrane.org/handbook . JPT Higgins, J. Thomas, J. Chandler, M. Cumpston, T. Li, MJ Page, VA Welch (Editors); John Wiley & Sons, 2019, accessed June 16, 2020 .
  8. ↑ What is a Cochrane Review Protocol? Retrieved October 21, 2010 .
  9. ^ Registering a title for a Cochrane Review. Retrieved June 16, 2020 (English).
  10. ^ Cochrane translations. Retrieved June 16, 2020 (English).
  11. ^ Cochrane Review Groups. Retrieved June 16, 2020 (English).
  12. ^ Cochrane Review Group Networks. Retrieved June 16, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Number of Cochrane Reviews contained in the Cochrane Library. Retrieved June 16, 2020 (English).
  14. ↑ Number of Cochrane Review Protocols contained in the Cochrane Library. Retrieved June 16, 2020 (English).
  15. ↑ Provision of the Cochrane Library in 12 monthly editions. Retrieved June 16, 2020 (English).
  16. ↑ Number of entries contained in CENTRAL. Retrieved June 16, 2020 (English).
  17. ↑ CENTRAL - Sources. Retrieved June 16, 2020 (American English).
  18. ↑ A. Blümle, G. Antes: Hand search for randomized controlled studies in German medical journals . In: DMW - German Medical Weekly . tape 133 , no. 6 , 2008, ISSN  0012-0472 , p. 230–234 , doi : 10.1055 / s-2008-1017501 ( thieme-connect.de [accessed on June 16, 2020]).
  19. ↑ Via Cochrane Clinical Answers. Retrieved June 16, 2020 (English).
  20. ↑ Development of the Cochrane Clinical Answers. Retrieved June 16, 2020 .
  21. ^ Cochrane and Epistemonikos partnership. Retrieved June 16, 2020 (English).
  22. ↑ Cochrane Special Collctions. Retrieved June 16, 2020 (English).
  23. ↑ Number of editorials in the Cochrane Library. Retrieved June 16, 2020 .
  24. ↑ Countries with free access to the Cochrane Library. Retrieved June 16, 2020 .
  25. ↑ Free access to the Cochrane Library in Switzerland. Retrieved June 16, 2020 .
  26. ↑ North Rhine Medical Association - free access to the Cochrane Library for members. Home page. Retrieved June 16, 2020 .
  27. ↑ Access to the Cochrane Library in Germany. Retrieved June 16, 2020 .
  28. ↑ Cochrane Compact. Retrieved June 16, 2020 .