Hello and welcome to the Pain Palliative and Supportive Care review group (PaPaS). We are part of the Cochrane Collaboration which is an international not-for-profit and independent organization, dedicated to making available up-to-date, accurate information about the effects of healthcare readily available worldwide. The major product of the Collaboration is the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, which is one database consisting of systematic reviews or the 'gold standard' of evidence, published on a monthly basis as part of The Cochrane Library.

Newcomers to the work of the Collaboration may benefit from visiting the newcomers guide on the following link: www.cochrane.org/docs/newcomersguide.htm. Every year all review groups meet at our annual Cochrane Colloquium, this is a good opportunity to come along and meet up with the editorial team, take part in workshops and to update any training needs that you may have. To find out more click on the Colloquium link http://colloquium.cochrane.org/.

PaPaS is one of 52 review groups specialising in different areas of health, based in different countries around the world. Review Groups are composed of people from around the world who share an interest in developing and maintaining systematic reviews relevant to a particular health care topic area. Review groups are coordinated by the editorial team who assist authors in the editing and process of their protocols, reviews and review updates up to the time of completion and finally publication in The Cochrane Library.

The PaPaS review group was formed in 1998 and was set up to support the production of Cochrane Systematic reviews in Pain, Palliative and Supportive Care on behalf of The Cochrane Collaboration. The PaPaS group is funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) in the United Kingdom as part of the Research and Development programme.

In order for PaPaS to produce high quality systematic reviews, we need the help of review authors, peer referees, consumer referees, handsearchers, translators, as well as Editors, a Managing Editors, Trial Search Co-ordinators, Co-ordinating Editors and Statisticians. We also rely on members of our editorial board consisting of a broad range of clinicians and health researchers.

Our aim at PaPaS is to encourage and assist authors to write systematic reviews in a topic area relevant to our group for publication in The Cochrane Library, an electronic evidence based medicine library.

We look forward to supporting your involvement with the Cochrane PaPaS review group should you wish to join us.

Best wishes,

Chris Eccleston & the Editorial Team

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