Objectives: To examine whether the quality milestone "80% of reviews up to date by 2005" of the strategic plan has been reached.

Methods: For every review in The Cochrane Library 2006, Issue 1, we used a computer program to extract the date(s) of the last amendment and the date(s) of the last search for studies. To determine the date of the last search, the cover sheet, the 'Search strategy' paragraph in the abstract, and the section 'Search methods for identification of studies' in the review were examined. If more than one date was stated, the latest was selected. A review was considered 'not updated' if it was last amended before December 01, 2003. To be classified 'up to date', a review not only had to be amended after that date, but also - to rule out pseudo updates - a search for new studies had to have been conducted within the same period.

Results: Of the 2607 reviews, 1122 (43.0%) are up to date, 304 (11.7%) were not updated, and 68 (2.6%) are withdrawn. One thousand one hundred and thirteen reviews (42.7%) have been amended, but do not report search activities within the last two years. Within a larger, 35-month period, 1513 reviews (58%) report a search, but 719 (27.5%) still do not. Compared to prior evaluations in 2002 and 2003, this is a slight deterioration. In 2002, only 5% of the reviews had not been updated. In 2003, 46.5% were up to date, 7.3% were not updated, and 64.2% had reported a search within a 30-month period prior to the submission deadline.

Conclusions: The milestone '80% of reviews up to date' has not yet been reached. Updating still needs more attention.