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Cochrane Library

Welcome to the Cochrane help guide

In this guide you can find:

  • Information on how to log in to databases
  • A brief description of Cochrane Library
  • Tips for searching through Cochrane Library
  • Details on how to contact the Library for assistance 

What is the Cochrane Library?

The Cochrane Library is a collection of databases that contain different types of high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making.

All residents of Australia can access the Cochrane Library for free. It is funded by the Australian Government, administered by the National Health and Medical Research Council and accessible via the Wiley publishing platform.

Cochrane Library contains several types of research articles:

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) – +8200 Reviews | +2400 Protocols
Each review of clinical trials addresses a question and investigates the effects of interventions for prevention, treatment or rehabilitation in a healthcare setting. The reviews are freely available in Australia.

Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL)
1.6 million randomised and quasi-randomised controlled trials. In addition to bibliographic details (author, title, source, year, etc) CENTRAL records often include an abstract (a summary of the article). They do not contain the full text of the article. CENTRAL is published monthly.

Cochrane Clinical Answers (+2200)
Cochrane Clinical Answers (CCAs) provide a clinically-focused entry point to rigorous research from Cochrane Reviews. They are designed to inform point-of-care decision-making. Each CCA contains a clinical question, a short answer, and data for the outcomes from the Cochrane Review deemed most relevant to practising healthcare professionals.

Systematic Reviews from Epistemonikos (+300,000)
 Epistemonikos is a collaborative, multilingual database of health evidence. It is the largest source of systematic reviews (and their included studies) relevant for health-decision making. The records do not contain the full text of the article.

Editorials (+120)
Editorials are written by experts and the full text is on open access

Special Collections (+30)
Special Collections are curated content collections on a specific healthcare topic.

Learn more about Cochrane Nursing.

Setting up your own personal account

Cochrane Library allows you to create your own unique login. This login allows you to  save your advanced searches .

You can also:

  • Access Cochrane training resources.
  • Become a peer reviewer in a topic where you have expertise.
  • Translate Cochrane evidence into other languages.
  • Volunteer to help with Cochrane community tasks.
  • Join a crowd of citizen scientists and screen health evidence.

To find out more visit the join Cochrane page

Learn more about the Cochrane App.