Campbell Collaboration Seeks To Firm Up 'Soft Sciences'

By Debra Viadero

Philadelphia

The pursuit of scientific inquiry has long known no national boundaries. So it's not uncommon for similar studies on, say, an effective treatment for tuberculosis or a drug to combat breast cancer to turn up in any number of countries where scientists do their work.

It wasn't until the 1970s, though, that a British epidemiologist named Archie Cochrane hit on the idea of gathering up all those studies, analyzing the findings, and distilling nuggets of scientific truth to guide the decisions that practitioners make in the field.

Dr. Cochrane's idea gave birth years later to the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization based in the United Kingdom that systematically reviews findings from randomized experiments in health care. Since its 1993 founding, the group has made media splashes worldwide with reports on everything from the effectiveness of daily doses of aspirin in preventing heart disease to whether regular mammograms...