Background:During 1999 Cochrane Review Groups (CRGs) invested effort re-constructing Topic lists for quarterly submission with their Modules. These lists place Cochrane reviews and protocols in a logical context of the work of relevant CRGs. Current lists, however, do not link to relevant non-Cochrane work (see Jefferson 2000) and do not provide the opportunity to link to Cochrane-type summary reviews/overviews further up the list.

Objective:To investigate whether RevMan 4.1 and Metaview 4 support overviews to several Cochrane reviews.

Methods:Nine Cochrane systematic reviews on the effects of long acting antipsychotic medications were entered into a single RevMan 4.1 overview. Each individual Cochrane review was treated as an 'Included Study' and details entered into the relevant table. Summary data were entered into common comparisons and a draft overview of several small systematic reviews produced.

Results:This experimental use of RevMan 4.1 was never expected to be entirely successful. There are limitations in data entry and analysis within this package that makes the process akin to the attempts of Cinderella's sisters with the glass slipper. Nevertheless, RevMan 4.1 was a useful tool to aid construction of a systematic overview of several Cochrane Reviews.

Conclusions: It seems both desirable and feasible to produce and maintain systematic overviews, to a high standard, linked to the source Cochrane reviews, for publication within the Cochrane Library and beyond. Data definitions, slightly different from that possible with RevMan 4.1, are needed.

Reference: Jefferson T. Prevention and treatment of the common cold: the ARI Group's contribution to overviews. Abstract presented at the 8th International Cochrane Colloquium - Capetown, South Africa, 25 - 29 October 2000