Most reviews that have been conducted by authors outside of The Cochrane Collaboration (referred to as ‘previously published reviews’ here) require substantial additional work before they can be published as a Cochrane review in CDSR. In light of this additional work and substantial differences from the previously published review, the Cochrane review can be considered a new publication. The previously published version of the review must be referenced in the Cochrane review under the heading ‘Other published versions of this review’. However, it is generally not necessary to seek permission from the publisher of the previously published review.
Occasionally a Cochrane review will be similar enough to a previously published review that the only change is in the formatting of the review. In these cases authors should obtain permission from the publisher of the previously published review prior to publishing the review in CDSR. If authors are in doubt about whether they should request permission, they are encouraged to do so. This is unlikely to present a problem, provided it is done well in advance of the planned submission to CDSR. If it is known in advance that there is interest in publishing in CDSR a version of a review already published in a journal, authors should not assign exclusive copyright to the journal (see Section 2.4). The Cochrane Collaboration does not require exclusive copyright. It is therefore not a problem to publish a version of a Cochrane review in a journal after it has been published in CDSR, provided it is not called a Cochrane review and that it is acknowledged that it is based on a Cochrane review (see Section 2.4).