• The Cochrane Library
• Cochrane reviews
• Review abstracts & plain language summaries
• Related products of The Cochrane Collaboration
• Comments & criticism (Feedback)
• Further reading


• Databases included in The Cochrane Library
• How to access The Cochrane Library
• Impact of Cochrane evidence
• The Cochrane Book Series

Looking for a review? Search & browse free abstracts and summaries

The Cochrane Library

It is a difficult task for practitioners to keep up-to-date with the relevant evidence in their field of interest: the major bibliographic databases cover less than half the world's literature and are biased towards English-language publications; textbooks, editorials and reviews that have not been prepared systematically may be unreliable; much evidence is unpublished, but unpublished evidence may be important; and more easily accessible research reports tend to exaggerate the benefits of interventions.

The Cochrane Library solves many of these problems. It consists of a regularly updated collection of evidence-based medicine databases, including The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. This database includes systematic reviews of healthcare interventions that are produced and disseminated by The Cochrane Collaboration. The The Cochrane Library is published on a quarterly basis and made available both on CD-ROM and the Internet (see How to access The Cochrane Library). It is the best single source of reliable evidence about the effects of healthcare. The review abstracts are available to browse and search free of charge on this website. The full text of all Cochrane databases are available to subscribers via our publisher Wiley. The Cochrane Library Users' Group (CLUG) provides a forum for discussion of usability, readability, searchability and formatting issues related to the use of The Cochrane Library.

Cochrane reviews

Based on the best available information about healthcare interventions, Cochrane reviews explore the evidence for and against the effectiveness and appropriateness of treatments (medications, surgery, education, etc) in specific circumstances. Designed to facilitate the choices that doctors, patients, policy makers and others face in health care, the complete reviews are published in The Cochrane Library four times a year. Each issue contains all existing reviews, plus an increasing range of new and updated reviews. A complete Spanish version of each issue is published three month after its English publication date in La Biblioteca Cochrane Plus.

What is a Cochrane review? Information on the structure of a review and on the process of developing a review (courtesy of the Cochrane Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders Review Group)

Sample review Example of a Cochrane Review

Review abstracts and plain language summaries

The abstracts of Cochrane reviews are available free of charge on this website and provide a valuable source of healthcare information. Where available, plain language summaries are also provided. These are short synopses of the reviews' core findings, with a minimum of technical terms. All abstracts and summaries are also available in Spanish, and a selection is available in German.

You can search the abstracts for a particular word or words, see a full alphabetical list by title or browse by Cochrane Review Group & topic: e.g., for reviews about pregnancy, choose the Pregnancy and Childbirth Group; for reviews about smoking, choose the Tobacco Addiction Group.

Related Products of The Cochrane Collaboration

La Biblioteca Cochrane Plus
The Cochrane Library in Spanish is the principal source of reliable healthcare evidence published entirely in Spanish.

Reproductive Health Library (RHL)
An electronic review journal focusing on evidence-based solutions to reproductive health problems in developing countries (available free in developing countries)

Feedback on Cochrane Reviews (Comments & criticism)

To ensure the highest quality of Cochrane reviews, those who find gaps or faults in reviews are encouraged to submit feedback. The Cochrane Library includes a system for submitting feedback on the records published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. This acts as an electronic 'letters to the editor'. With the help of Criticism Editors, Cochrane authors update their reviews according to this feedback. Published comments and criticisms for each review can be viewed within the text of the review. More information ...

Further reading

Starr M, Chalmers I. The evolution of The Cochrane Library, 1988-2003. (also available as PDF) This article documents the evolution of The Cochrane Library and its structure.

Systematic reviews and The Cochrane Collaboration. by Mike Clarke, Steering Group Co-Chair and Director of the UK Cochrane Centre. An article about the rationale and future of The Cochrane Collaboration

Other introductory documents

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Comments for improvement or correction are welcome.
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