I should declare a conflict of interest at the outset of this review. This handbook is intended for those in the medical profession seeking to carry out meta-analysis in their chosen area of research and provides a manual of practical advice together with an accompanying program (on CD-ROM) to enable them to get started. My conflict arises as co-ordinating editor for one of The Cochrane Collaboration review groups in gastroenterology. The Collaboration does itself produce a plethora of training materials on how to do systematic reviews and meta-analyses along with its own software (Revman) and this can all be downloaded free of charge to …