Cochrane is retiring Archie, which has served us for many years as Cochrane's main hub for storing review documents and keeping track of who's who by managing Group Roles. By the end of 2024, Archie will be completely phased out. Here’s why we’re making the switch:

Protecting Your Privacy: The world of data protection and GDPR has moved very quickly in the past few years, and Archie doesn’t give us the data protection and privacy that we need in today’s world. We need to keep your information safe and sound, so it's time for a change in how we store everyone’s information.

Simplifying Things: The Cochrane community has grown significantly, and with so many roles and types, it's increasingly tricky on Archie to find the right information and to update details.

Keeping Everything Transparent: In Archie, it can be hard to keep track of who has up-to-date declarations of interest based on their role. Making sure we have transparent records and processes around Declarations of Interest is obviously important to Cochrane’s integrity.

Moving with the Times: Lastly, Archie's a bit of an antique in the tech world. It's been great, but it's also expensive to keep running, and it can't do everything we need it to do anymore. All the tasks currently done in Archie can be done better and more cost effectively in different systems, hence this change.

So, as we say goodbye to Archie, we're positive about the improvements coming up which will allow us to manage Group Roles more effectively, clearly manage review roles directly in RevMan, and ensure access to Cochrane systems is correct and up to date. We’re committed to making things better, clearer, and safer for everyone.

We’ll keep you updated throughout 2024 as tasks done in Archie are replaced and will make sure that support and training are on hand to help you get to grips with the new way of doing things, so stay tuned.

Gert van Valkenhoef, Head of IT Development and Infrastructure explained: "Archie has done a good job for us at Cochrane. But we need to move with the times to keep our data safe and manage our information as effectively as possible, so now is the right time to embrace change and move forward with technology that better protects our information, simplifies processes, and keeps pace with our growing community.”

If you have any queries, don’t hesitate to reach out to Cochrane Support.

Improving our data management: saying Goodbye to Archie