Evidence-based pain management and palliative care in issue one for 2005 of The Cochrane Library.

The Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews is published quarterly. The Library now contains 2249 complete reviews, 1539 protocols of reviews and 5009 one page summaries of systematic reviews published in the general medical literature. In addition there are citations of 435,786 randomised controlled trials, 19 methodology reviews and 6370 cited papers in the Cochrane methodology register. The health technology assessment database contains 4516 citations. In this edition of the Library issued in January 2005, there were seven new reviews of which six have potential relevance for practitioners in pain and palliative medicine. Last year, the format of the citation has changed with the move to publication of The Cochrane Library by John Wiley & Sons. Citations will probably change again in the future as currently there is no indication of the date when a review was first published.