Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: Cochrane Systematic Reviews (CSRs) are highly structured and systematic, with evidence included or excluded on the basis of explicit quality criteria, to minimize bias. Cochrane Reviews are designed to facilitate the choices that practitioners, consumers, policy-makers and others face in health care.
Objectives: To survey the current situation of CSRs published on Cochrane database of systematic reviews, so as to regulate the development of CSRs and provide recommendations for the improvement of Cochrane library.
Methods: An electronic literature search of all CSRs from inception to December 2012 was conducted using the Cochrane Library and Web of Science. Two reviewers independently determined study eligibility and extracted details on published year, authors,country, funding agencies,institutions,and journal, group, citation information and search detail et al. Disagreements were resolved by the third author.
Results: 5647 studies were included. Figure 1 showed that the frequency of CSRs were found to increase over time, as well as the involved authors, countries, institutions, majority authors of CSRs were UK (36.43%), Australia (14.73%), Canada (11.44%), USA (11.42%), 27.28% were Netherlands (6.50%), Scotland (5.14%), China (4.96%), Italy (4.07%), Germany (3.35%), New zealand (3.26%); each year, about 80% of the authors published one article, the amount of involved authors reduced with the increase of the quantity of the published articles; the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group accounts for the largest proportion (7.70%) of the reviews, followed by Cochrane Peripheral Vascular Diseases Group (4.86%), Cochrane Neonatal Group (4.06%), Cochrane Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Group (3.99%), and Cochrane Airways Group 3.99%) (Table 1).The average frequency of each CSR cited by other magazines is about 8.56.
Conclusions: CSRs are relatively completed and still being refined. Although the number of CSRs showed an increased annual trend, the development of area distribution and group composition were imbalanced. Therefore, there are still many problems that need to be resolved.
Objectives: To survey the current situation of CSRs published on Cochrane database of systematic reviews, so as to regulate the development of CSRs and provide recommendations for the improvement of Cochrane library.
Methods: An electronic literature search of all CSRs from inception to December 2012 was conducted using the Cochrane Library and Web of Science. Two reviewers independently determined study eligibility and extracted details on published year, authors,country, funding agencies,institutions,and journal, group, citation information and search detail et al. Disagreements were resolved by the third author.
Results: 5647 studies were included. Figure 1 showed that the frequency of CSRs were found to increase over time, as well as the involved authors, countries, institutions, majority authors of CSRs were UK (36.43%), Australia (14.73%), Canada (11.44%), USA (11.42%), 27.28% were Netherlands (6.50%), Scotland (5.14%), China (4.96%), Italy (4.07%), Germany (3.35%), New zealand (3.26%); each year, about 80% of the authors published one article, the amount of involved authors reduced with the increase of the quantity of the published articles; the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group accounts for the largest proportion (7.70%) of the reviews, followed by Cochrane Peripheral Vascular Diseases Group (4.86%), Cochrane Neonatal Group (4.06%), Cochrane Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Group (3.99%), and Cochrane Airways Group 3.99%) (Table 1).The average frequency of each CSR cited by other magazines is about 8.56.
Conclusions: CSRs are relatively completed and still being refined. Although the number of CSRs showed an increased annual trend, the development of area distribution and group composition were imbalanced. Therefore, there are still many problems that need to be resolved.