THE ORGANISATION

WHAT IS THE COCHRANE COLLABORATION?

The Cochrane Collaboration is an international, non-profit, independent organisation, established to ensure that up-to-date, accurate information about the effects of healthcare interventions is readily available worldwide. It produces and disseminates systematic reviews of healthcare interventions, and promotes the search for evidence in the form of clinical trials and other studies of the effects of interventions. Documents about its history include a chronology of the organisation, and an article describing the evolution of The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and The Cochrane Library between 1988 and 2003. This shows how Cochrane Reviews were conceived as electronic publications from the outset, and designed to take advantage of features unique to electronic publishing. The constitution of The Cochrane Collaboration is contained in its Memorandum and Articles of Association.

THE MEANING OF THE NAME

The Cochrane Collaboration was established in 1993, and named after the epidemiologist, Archie Cochrane (1909-1988), a British medical researcher who contributed greatly to the development of epidemiology as a science. The organisation benefits from thousands of contributors worldwide, working collaboratively from within many independent groups of people ('entities'). For this reason, the term 'collaboration' is used. The Cochrane Collaboration's principles include fostering good communication, open decision-making and teamwork; reducing barriers to contributing; and encouraging diversity. These things cannot be achieved without people co-operating with each other, setting aside self-interest, and working together to provide evidence with which to improve health care.

WHAT THE ORGANISATION DOES

The Cochrane Collaboration prepares Cochrane Reviews and aims to update them regularly with the latest scientific evidence. Members of the organisation (mostly volunteers) work together to provide evidence to help people make decisions about health care. Some people read the healthcare literature to find reports of randomised controlled trials; others find such reports by searching electronic databases; others prepare and update Cochrane Reviews based on the evidence found in these trials; others work to improve the methods used in Cochrane Reviews; others provide a vitally important consumer perspective; and others support the people doing these tasks. The Cochrane Collaboration website provides information on a variety of ways of registering interest or becoming directly involved.

SIZE AND GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD

Data from The Cochrane Library in 2004 show that there are more than 11,500 people working within The Cochrane Collaboration in over 90 countries, half of whom are authors of Cochrane Reviews. The number of people has increased by about 20% every year for the last five years. The increase in the number of contributors from low, lower-middle and upper-middle income countries has been even greater, to more than 1000 (9.3%) in 2004 - up by 42% since 2003, and by 248% since 2000. See 'Reference Centres by country', and a world map showing the locations of the Cochrane Centres. See also a helpful document for dealing with language barriers.

STRUCTURE AND MANAGEMENT

The members of The Cochrane Collaboration are organised into groups, known as 'entities', of which there are five different types:

• Cochrane Review Groups are made up of people who prepare, maintain and update Cochrane Reviews, and people who support them in this process. Each Group has an 'editorial base' where a small team of people supports the production of Cochrane Reviews. These Groups focus on particular areas of health (for example, Breast Cancer, Infectious Diseases, Multiple Sclerosis, Schizophrenia, Tobacco Addiction).
  
• Cochrane Centres (some of which have additional branches) support people in their geographic and linguistic area. Dependent on available resources, some Centres are able to provide training, help with translations, networking, etc. Newcomers are encouraged to contact their local Cochrane Centre for information about The Cochrane Collaboration; this can save a lot of time and effort.
  
• Methods Groups are made up of people who develop the methodology of Cochrane Reviews.
  
• Networks (some are called 'Fields') focus on dimensions of health care other than specific health problems, such as the setting of care (for example, primary care), the type of consumer (for example, older people), or the type of intervention (for example, vaccines).
  
• The Consumer Network provides information and a forum for networking among consumers (mostly patients), and a liaison point for consumer groups around the world.

The Cochrane Manual contains detailed descriptions of the responsibilities of each of these groups of people ('entities'). Cochrane entities receive their funding from different sources, but agree to follow the policies and practices of The Cochrane Collaboration (also contained in The Cochrane Manual).

The development and implementation of policy affecting The Cochrane Collaboration are the responsibility of the Cochrane Collaboration Steering Group (CCSG), after Collaboration-wide consultation:

• The Steering Group is guided by the goals and objectives contained in the Collaboration's Strategic Plan in developing policy. Steering Group members serve for one or two three-year terms and there is an election for about a third of the members each year. This election uses a system of proportional representation, and each member of the Steering Group represents people from one of the types of Cochrane entity. The new members of the Steering Group take office at the Annual General Meeting. The Steering Group meets face-to-face twice a year, and between these meetings it conducts its business by telephone conference and e-mail. The Steering Group has three sub-groups and six advisory groups.
  

There are several other official roles:

• Two Ombudsmen help to resolve areas of conflict that arise between people or entities, for which the usual process of involving their Centre Director has not been sufficient.
• The Publication Arbiter helps people to reach a mutually acceptable agreement in areas of dispute between the editorial teams of Cochrane Review Groups (for example, on the appropriate home for a specific Cochrane Review), and between authors of Cochrane Reviews and their editorial team (for example, when authors and editors cannot agree on some aspects of the review).
• The Funding Arbiter (a member of the Steering Group) and three other people who form a Funding Arbitration Panel to give guidance on difficult issues referred to them with respect to the organisation's policy on commercial sponsorship.
• The Company Secretary, whose responsibilities are fulfilled by the Secretariat Administrator, holds office for both the charity and its trading subsidiary (see section 2.2.7.1 of The Cochrane Manual).
  

The Secretariat is the administrative office of The Cochrane Collaboration, and supports the work of the Steering Group and its sub-committees, manages the central finances of the organisation, and facilitates communication. It is based in Oxford, England, and has four full-time members of staff: the Chief Executive Officer, Secretariat Administrator, Deputy Administrator and Secretary/Administrative Assistant.

FUNDING

The Cochrane Collaboration's central functions are funded by royalties from its publishers, John Wiley and Sons Limited, which come from sales of subscriptions to The Cochrane Library. The individual entities of The Cochrane Collaboration are funded by a large variety of governmental, institutional and private funding sources, and are bound by organisation-wide policy limiting uses of funds from corporate sponsors. Enquiries regarding funding should be directed to the Collaboration's Chief Executive Officer . 

INTERNATIONAL AND INTERCULTURAL WORK AND COMMUNICATIONS

The Cochrane Collaboration is committed to involving and supporting people of different skills and backgrounds, to reducing barriers to contributing, and to encouraging diversity. A document entitled 'Cross-cultural team working within The Cochrane Collaboration' gives advice on communicating with people from other cultures. Members of the organisation often work in teams spread across great distances, and so they communicate largely by e-mail. Information of widespread interest is disseminated via an e-mail discussion list called 'CCInfo' which anyone can join, and in printed newsletters such as 'Cochrane News'. Meeting other members of the organisation at our annual conferences (Cochrane Colloquia), and regional meetings of Cochrane contributors, are other ways of fostering good communication.

COCHRANE REVIEWS

WHAT ARE COCHRANE REVIEWS?

Cochrane Reviews are systematic assessments of evidence of the effects of healthcare interventions, intended to help people to make informed decisions about health care, their own or someone else's. Cochrane Reviews are needed to help ensure that healthcare decisions throughout the world can be informed by high quality, timely research evidence. This is described in 'Systematic reviews and The Cochrane Collaboration'. Cochrane Reviews are published in full in The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, one of several databases in The Cochrane Library.

THEIR IMPACT AROUND THE WORLD

The main output of The Cochrane Collaboration, the Cochrane Reviews, has had a real and significant impact on practice, policy decisions and research around the world. Many examples are given in 'The Impact of Cochrane evidence'.

WHERE TO FIND THEM

The main output of The Cochrane Collaboration, Cochrane Reviews, is contained in The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, published electronically by John Wiley and Sons as part of The Cochrane Library. The Cochrane Library is a collection of high quality evidence-based healthcare databases, providing instant access to over 2000 full text articles reviewing the effects of healthcare interventions. It is published every three months with new and updated Cochrane Reviews, and is available by subscription, on the Internet and CD-ROM. An increasing number of countries have a national subscription to The Cochrane Library, which allows everyone in those countries to access The Cochrane Library for free. Abstracts of Cochrane Reviews are freely available to everyone on the Internet. The Cochrane Library provides links to MEDLINE abstracts and the ISI Web of Science, and from references in Cochrane Reviews to journal articles cited within them. Advice on publishing Cochrane Reviews in paper journals as well as in The Cochrane Library is available in section 2.2 of The Cochrane Manual. Besides Cochrane Reviews, The Cochrane Library contains a number of additional databases.

• Specialist subsets of Cochrane Reviews
  Cochrane Reviews are listed by Cochrane Review Group on the website. Sub-sets of Cochrane Reviews published in The Cochrane Library are also published separately, including The WHO Reproductive Health Library (available by subscription in both English and Spanish) and The Renal Health Library.
   
• Versions of Cochrane Reviews in languages other than English
  The Cochrane Library is available in Spanish:  La Cochrane Library Plus en español. Abstracts of reviews and/or summaries available in multiple languages on our site at cochrane.org/reviews. For information on translations of reviews and their abstracts into other languages, contact the Collaboration's publishers, John Wiley and Sons.

• Cochrane methodology reviews
  As well as Cochrane Reviews of the effects of healthcare interventions, there are also Cochrane methodology reviews of the ways in which health care can be evaluated and, from 2006, there will be Cochrane Reviews of the accuracy of diagnostic tests.
  

HOW THEY ARE CREATED

The Cochrane Collaboration has special software for processing Cochrane Reviews called 'RevMan' (Review Manager), managed by the Information Management System (IMS) team at the Nordic Cochrane Centre.

LEARNING TO PREPARE THEM

Information on how to prepare a Cochrane Review is contained in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Preparing a Cochrane Review requires skills that may be new to the author. The Cochrane Collaboration's Open Learning Material, together with the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions, helps people to prepare a Cochrane Review, and the Cochrane Centres and some Cochrane Review Groups provide or facilitate training through workshops.

An important part of preparing a review is identifying the relevant studies, and this is a task that can be done by anyone who can read and who has some spare time to undertake handsearching.

GETTING INVOLVED

FINDING HELP

A large variety of information is available:
 

• For newcomers, perhaps without any healthcare experience. Some online training is available for people who want to help by searching the healthcare literature. People without a healthcare background can also contribute as authors of Cochrane Reviews.
  
• For editorial teams of Cochrane Review Groups. This password-protected material contains many procedural resources, including examples of checklists, forms, etc. In addition, the Cochrane Style Guide provides guidance to enable people to copy edit Cochrane Reviews and other documents produced within The Cochrane Collaboration in a consistent manner.
  
• For consumers, the Consumer Network 'CCNet' has a website providing information on the role of health consumers, patients and the general public in the work of The Cochrane Collaboration. 
  
• Job opportunities within the organisation are advertised on the website from time to time.
  
• Frequently Asked Questions
  

MEETING PEOPLE IN THE ORGANISATION

Newcomers are enthusiastically welcomed at The Cochrane Collaboration's annual conferences, the Cochrane Colloquia, which take place around the world. Colloquia were held in Barcelona, Spain, in 2003, in Ottawa, Canada, in 2004, and in Melbourne, Australia, in 2005. Future Colloquia are scheduled to take place in Dublin, Ireland (23-26 October 2006); in São Paulo, Brasil (21-25 October 2007); and in Germany in October 2008 (dates not yet decided). Further information on these, and all previous Colloquia, is on the website, with the abstracts of presentations.

© The Cochrane Collaboration 2005
Comments or suggestions, please, to secretariat@cochrane.org

This material was prepared by Jini Hetherington (Cochrane Collaboration Secretariat), with advice from Jordi Pardo (Iberoamerican Cochrane Centre) and Greg Saunders (German Cochrane Centre). Earlier drafts were sent to many people for comment, and grateful thanks are due in particular to Phil Alderson, Claire Allen, Dave Booker, Mike Clarke, Denis Gregory, Lisa Horwill, Philippa Middleton and Rob Scholten for their helpful feedback.