This is an archived version of the Handbook. For the current version, please go to training.cochrane.org/handbook/current.

Box 3.3.a: Guidance for declaring a review as being up to date

The date a review is assessed as being up to date must be chosen so that the review (new, updated or amended) meets the following key criterion:

 

1.       The evidence is up to date on the effects of the intervention(s)

The list of included studies should include all available evidence, and should result from a most recent search typically being within six months of the date on which the review is assessed as being up to date.

 

In addition, it is highly desirable, but not mandatory, that:

 

2.       The methods of the review are up to date

All mandatory methods for Cochrane reviews (as described in the current version of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions) should be incorporated.

 

3.       Factual statements are correct

Factual statements, for example, in the Background and Discussion, should not be unreasonably out-dated.