Introduction from David Tovey

Dear Colleagues,

I'm delighted to inform you that the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) and the 'About The Cochrane Collaboration' database will move to monthly publication in 2010.

As announced at the Singapore Cochrane Colloquium, we plan to move to monthly publication as soon as possible, and I have now received confirmation that this will go ahead from January 2010.

I believe that this represents an important development for the CDSR and The Cochrane Library. The increased publication frequency will bring benefits to our readers, authors, and editorial teams. We will be able to publish new evidence more rapidly, which I hope will be attractive to review authors, and the changes should also lead to more manageable publication deadlines and opportunities to spread the workload.

We intend to implement these changes in a gradual, phased manner.  

Phase 1: The first issue of 2010 will be published on 20 January as already scheduled and will introduce some minor changes to the display of protocols and reviews to accommodate monthly publication.

Phase 2: The first module submission deadline for editorial teams in 2010 will be 21 January 2010. Reviews and protocols marked for publication at that time will be published as Issue 2 in February 2010. Cochrane Review Groups are not obliged to rush to include any reviews or protocols for the January deadline as there will be opportunities to submit on a monthly basis throughout 2010. If, however, Cochrane Review Groups have any reviews or protocols marked for publication by the January deadline, then they will benefit from early publication.

Please refer to our dedicated webpage for detailed information about the move to monthly publication, including the information about editorial processes, the new 2010 schedule, and contacts for technical and general queries:

http://ims.cochrane.org/support/crgs/publication-frequency

Finally, I would like to thank you for your support for this transition and acknowledge that this development is the result of initiative and collaborative work by our publisher, Wiley, the Information Management System teams, the Cochrane Editorial Unit, and contributions from the web strategy team and many others.

A general announcement to The Cochrane Collaboration email lists will follow in the next few days, once you have had an opportunity to become familiar with the information in this email and on the associated web page.

Best wishes

David Tovey
Editor in Chief, The Cochrane Library