Systematic Review - Cochrane Collaboration

Cochrane Collaboration

The Cochrane Collaboration is a group of over 28,000 specialists in health care who systematically review randomised trials of the effects of prevention, treatments and rehabilitation as well as health systems interventions. When appropriate, they also include the results of other types of research. Cochrane Reviews are published in The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews section of The Cochrane Library. The 2010 impact factor for The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews was 6.186, and it was ranked 10th in the “Medicine, General & Internal” category.

The Cochrane Collaboration provides a handbook for systematic reviewers of interventions which "provides guidance to authors for the preparation of Cochrane Intervention reviews." The Cochrane Handbook outlines eight general steps for preparing a systematic review:

1. Defining the review question and developing criteria for including studies
2. Searching for studies
3. Selecting studies and collecting data
4. Assessing risk of bias in included studies
5. Analysing data and undertaking meta-analyses
6. Addressing reporting biases
7. Presenting results and "summary of findings" tables
8. Interpreting results and drawing conclusions

The Cochrane Handbook forms the basis of two sets of standards for the conduct and reporting of Cochrane Intervention Reviews (MECIR - Methodological Expectations of Cochrane Intervention Reviews)