Doctors’ prescribing habits are heavily influenced by payments, gifts, and free meals from pharmaceutical companies, leading to more expensive, less appropriate and more drugs being prescribed, a new Cochrane review finds.

In this series, we profile those that have participated in the Cochrane International Mobility Program and learn more about their experiences.

Getting involved in Cochrane’s work means becoming part of a global community.

We are looking author teams to take on a new Cochrane review in this area. Teams should be prepared to address the complexities inherent in reviews of pneumococcal vaccines, including the wide range of vaccine valencies available and the variation in vaccination schedules across countries.

We are looking for author teams with in-depth content knowledge to undertake one or more evidence synthesis which address some or all the uncertainties in this area.

Asthma management has evolved considerably. Digital health technologies, personalized asthma action plans, school-based support, remote monitoring, and multifaceted self-management programmes have become more common. That is why we are looking for author teams to take on a Cochrane review in this area.

Tobacco smoking during pregnancy remains a major public health concern and is associated with adverse outcomes for both pregnant women and infants. Effective interventions to support smoking cessation during pregnancy therefore continue to be a global healthcare priority. We are looking for author teams to update this review.

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We are looking for author teams to take on this review assessing school‐based programmes for preventing smoking.

A tool for assessing the trustworthiness of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) has been published today in The BMJ, giving researchers a structured way to identify problematic studies before they're included in systematic reviews.

Emergency contraception containing mifepristone prevents more pregnancies with fewer side effects than some other common emergency contraceptive pills such as levonorgestrel, according to a new Cochrane review involving 87 trials.

Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation reduces hospital admissions by a third and heart attack risk by more than a quarter, as well as remaining beneficial in the long term, a new Cochrane review finds. The evidence also suggests that newer home-based and digitally supported cardiac rehabilitation programmes can be just as effective as traditional centre-based services. 

Our Methods Groups provide policy advice and focus on developing the methods used to produce Cochrane reviews. Over the past year they’ve been working hard on activities from writing papers on responsible AI use to identifying research priorities. We are putting a spotlight on each Group to share what they have been up to over the last year.

Take a look at the 15th Cochrane Methods report, providing an overview of the key methodological activities in Cochrane for 2025-2026

Cochrane is updating our expectations for how results data are managed in intervention reviews, making study centric data and automatic analyses the expected approach for all new reviews.

A new Cochrane review finds very low-quality evidence on lumbar supports for chronic low back pain, meaning that no strong recommendations can be made either for or against their use.

Nicotine e-cigarettes are more effective in helping people quit smoking than many conventional methods such as nicotine gums and patches and quitting with behavioural support or no support at all, an updated Cochrane review finds.

A new Cochrane evidence and gap map (EGM) has mapped the global research landscape on dengue prevention, finding plenty of research but not enough of it synthesized in ways policymakers can use.

We are pleased to welcome Adriani Nikolakopoulou to the Cochrane Methods Executive!

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