We welcome you to the New Year and this sixth volume of the Journal of Evidence Based Medicine. It is a special year in many ways, marking the twentieth anniversary of The Cochrane Collaboration. We are honoured to write from two countries that have seen some of the greatest growth in participation in the work of the Collaboration over the last decade or so. In the year 2000, approximately 2800 people were working as authors on Cochrane Reviews around the world 1, with 8 of these people in China and 9 in Ireland. At the start of 2013, the numbers for China and Ireland have soared to 2200 and 350, respectively, and there are 24,000 authors globally. The work of some of these is highlighted in the following pages, in a summary of the 30 new and 41 updated reviews in the January 2013 issue of The Cochrane Library and with contributions from authors who summarise their reviews of slum upgrading strategies 2, a new diagnostic test for tuberculosis and rifampicin resistance 3. and interferon for interferon non-responding and relapsing patients with hepatitis C 4. Alongside these, one of this issue's articles evaluates the citation of Cochrane Reviews published up to early 2011. Some of the other rich variety of material we present in this issue is also very relevant to people working on systematic reviews. Gabrielle Goldet and Jeremy Howick from the University of Oxford in England provide an introduction to the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations (GRADE) system. There is also a systematic review of recent literature on patient safety culture, assessing the quality of the studies and their potential impact. The education of healthcare practitioners features in a couple of articles. Challenges for clinical medical education in China are discussed by Xuehong Wan from Sichuan University in Chengdu, China; and other researchers from Sichuan University present a descriptive and quantitative analysis of the development of nursing in China. The new year also sees the introduction of BRICS Medicines Alliance, to improve medicines access and wise use in Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS). This Alliance is a peer-to-peer network to help with networking, collaboration on priority projects, and the identification of innovative solutions. International developments are also discussed in relation to the European Union's Directive on Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products and its potential impact on Traditional Chinese Medicine. While, drug management is the topic of an article analyzing risk factors of paediatric off-label drug use, which proposes strategies for policy making in China.