This article was accepted into the corpus but its outbound wikilinks were never NER-processed — typical at the deepest BFS hop or when the run's entity cap was reached. No expansion funnel to show.
| Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials | |
|---|---|
| Name | Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials |
| Type | Bibliographic database |
| Owner | Cochrane |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Launched | 1996 |
Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials is a comprehensive bibliographic database compiling randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials for use in systematic reviews and evidence synthesis. It aggregates records from major bibliographic sources, trial registers, and handsearching efforts to support organizations and researchers in clinical decision-making. The register is maintained by Cochrane with contributions and integration from international partners such as the World Health Organization, National Institutes of Health, and regional Cochrane centers.
The register originated from efforts by Iain Chalmers and collaborators linked to the Oxford-based initiatives and the Cochrane Collaboration in the 1990s. Early consolidation drew on series like the Index Medicus, EMBASE, and the MEDLINE subset, alongside handsearching projects influenced by figures such as Archie Cochrane and institutions including the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. Over time the register incorporated trial records from networks associated with the World Health Organization's trial registry platform, the Cochrane Central Executive Group, and national entities like the National Health Service and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Significant milestones include integration with digital platforms developed at The Cochrane Library and alignment with standards promoted by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and the Declaration of Helsinki.
The register focuses on randomized and quasi-randomized controlled trials across clinical domains represented by stakeholders such as the World Health Organization, European Medicines Agency, and specialty societies like the American Heart Association and Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Its holdings reflect trials published in journals indexed by MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and regional databases tied to organizations such as the Pan American Health Organization and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation health networks. Coverage includes trials reported at conferences hosted by institutions like the American College of Physicians and data derived from trial registries maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the ClinicalTrials.gov system.
Records are organized into bibliographic entries with structured fields paralleling metadata schemas used by PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. Indexing practices align with standards advocated by bodies such as the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and the World Health Organization Registry Network. Access is provided through interfaces maintained by Cochrane Library and institutional subscriptions often managed by university consortia including University of Oxford, Harvard University, and University of Toronto. Integration with reference managers used by members of societies like the American Medical Association facilitates export and linkage to platforms such as EndNote and Zotero.
To be indexed, a report typically must describe a prospective trial allocating participants to interventions using random or quasi-random methods; standards echo principles in documents from the CONSORT group and guidance from the World Health Organization. Indexing distinguishes reports originating from journals such as The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine, and BMJ as well as grey literature presented at conferences like those of the European Society of Cardiology and university repositories at institutions like Stanford University. The register employs controlled vocabularies and metadata mapping comparable to Medical Subject Headings and links to authority files maintained by entities like the Library of Congress.
Search tools mirror capabilities found in commercial systems like Ovid Technologies and platforms used by libraries such as the British Library, offering Boolean operators, filters by publication type, and fields for author, year, and intervention. The user interface integrates facets comparable to those in Cochrane Library and enables export to citation managers used by researchers affiliated with Johns Hopkins University and Imperial College London. Advanced search features support query strategies employed in systematic reviews conducted by teams at institutions like Mayo Clinic and Karolinska Institutet.
The register underpins thousands of systematic reviews and meta-analyses produced by entities including Cochrane Review Groups, national guideline bodies such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and specialty panels at the American College of Cardiology. Its records have informed policy decisions by organizations like the World Health Organization and regulatory deliberations at the European Medicines Agency and U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Academic output leveraging the register appears in journals such as The BMJ, Annals of Internal Medicine, and JAMA, and supports evidence ecosystems connected to centers like the Evidence-Based Practice Center network.
Critiques highlight gaps similar to those discussed regarding Publication bias debates and transparency concerns raised in reports associated with the AllTrials campaign and commentators from institutions like Yale University and University College London. Limitations include variable indexing quality for older trials archived in repositories at institutions such as the Wellcome Trust and inconsistent capture of non-English reports from presses in countries represented by entities like the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública (Mexico). Methodological critiques reference challenges debated at fora like the International Congress on Peer Review and Scientific Publication and policy discussions at the World Health Assembly.
Category:Medical databases