To the best of my knowledge, there is no current formal agreement between York University (which hosts PROSPERO) and Cochrane. When it was first coming out there was talk that all Cochrane protocols would be imported into PROSPERO, but I haven't seen that happen till now. Additionally, if a reviewer is registered to conduct a Cochrane systematic review then they should not be additionally publishing their protocol in PROSPERO as the Cochrane protocol will also be available online. PROSPERO gives the option to publish protocols intended for print or online journals outside the Cochrane framework. Even so, as I was writing this correspondence, I realized that Cochrane protocols like reviews require subscription to the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, while PROSPERO is freely available online.
Hope this helps.
> Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2013 13:33:09 +0000
> From:
[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: PROSPERO: registry for systematic reviews
> To:
[log in to unmask]>
> Hello Alison:
>
> I am a relatively new Co-ordinating editor for the Cochrane Prostatic Diseases and Urological Cancers Group so please excuse my ignorance: How does PROSPERO relate to Cochrane?
>
> It would appear that Cochrane reviews have always de facto been prospectively registered once the title is accepted. Are you automatically importing Cochrane titles?
>
> Ph*
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Evidence based health (EBH) [
[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Alison Booth [
[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2013 9:23 AM
> To:
[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: PROSPERO: registry for systematic reviews
>
> Hello Helena
>
> Thank you for highlighting PROSPERO. You possibly have not registered before as we only launched PROSPERO in February 2011 and are continuing to raise awareness of its existence. The two key aims of the register are to provide a searchable resource to help avoid unplanned duplication - so the more ongoing reviews registered the better; and secondly to promote transparency in the review process. This should help to minimise bias by encouraging good practice and facilitating the comparison of the final report with what was planned.
>
> We are gradually expanding the scope for inclusion in PROSPERO and aim ultimately to include all systematic reviews with a health related outcome in the broadest sense.
>
> Registration and searching are free to all and we encourage use of PROSPERO both for the registration of review protocol details and for searching for on-going reviews, to complement a search of DARE for published systematic reviews. For completeness of content for PROSPERO we will shortly start adding details of new Cochrane protocols.
>
> Comments and feedback are always welcome.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Alison
