The home of gold-standard systematic reviews.
At a Glance
| Publisher | Cochrane (published by Wiley) |
| Coverage | the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (9,000+ high-rigor reviews) plus CENTRAL, a register of 2M+ controlled-trial records |
| Access | subscription, but free at the point of use in many countries via national licences and for low-income countries |
| Free alternative | PubMed for primary trials; free national access where available |
| Regional | global. |
Our Take
When a Cochrane review exists on your question, it’s usually the most rigorous synthesis of the evidence available — which makes the Library the first place to look before commissioning new work, and CENTRAL the most concentrated source of controlled trials for a fresh review. Coverage is deliberately narrow (mostly healthcare interventions) and reviews take time to produce, so the newest primary evidence won’t be there yet. Use it to find existing high-quality syntheses and to seed a trials search; go to PubMed and Embase for the latest primary studies.
Power Tips
- Check the Cochrane Database for an existing systematic review before starting your own — it may already answer the question, or scope it
- mine CENTRAL as a high-yield trials source when building a review, then dedup against PubMed/Embase results (Issue 3).
Alternatives & Complements
PubMed · Embase · Epistemonikos · PROSPERO.
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