Background: Access to the proceedings of previous Cochrane Colloquia have been hampered in the past by (a) the lack of a central repository of materials, (b) limited facilities with which to search prior Cochrane proceedings. Cochrane Collaboration Discretionary Funding was obtained for a pilot project to establish a centralised database for this purpose. This presentation will document the challenges involved in establishing the new system, as well as the features that it provides and plans to extend its capabilities.

Methods: The Open Journal Systems (OJS) software was chosen as a suitable platform for the Colloquium materials. This Open- Source software provides advanced browsing and search capabilities in accessing the abstracts and slides of previous Colloquia. Oral presentation abstracts and author information were converted into XML format for importation into the OJS system. Presenters at the Melbourne conference were contacted for permission to link their slides to these abstracts. Efforts are currently underway to integrate the OJS system into The Cochrane Collaboration website, to mirror the OJS website on multiple servers, and to automate the conversion of proceedings from future Colloquia.

Results: Limited access has been made available to the slides from the Melbourne Colloquium since March, 2006. Screenshots and a description of the current state of the OJS system, as well as data on the extent to which it has been used, will be presented at the conference.

Conclusions: The OJS system provides a stable centralised repository of proceedings from the Cochrane Colloquia, as well as facilitating access to these materials. Possible future plans include using the OJS system for abstract submission and conference registration.