Acknowledgments

We thank Mark Bisby, and Isabelle Schmid, Canadian Institutes of Health Research - CIHR, as well as Kathie Clark, Co-Chair of the Canadian Coordinating Committee of the 12th Cochrane Colloquium (Ottawa) - Canadian Cochrane Centre, for their support of the Ottawa brainstorming meeting.

We thank David Moher, John Hoey, Doug Altman, Mike Clarke, Gerd Antes, David Bell, and Albert Clark for their helpful input into the preparation for the brainstorming meeting.

Finally, we would like to express our appreciation to Robbie Foy (Newcastle Univ.), Marie Hatem and Joanne Délage (Montreal Univ.), Genevieve Dubois-Flynn, Iranga Chikuru and Leanne Moussa (CIHR) for their invaluable recording contributions during the brainstorming meeting. Their comprehensive notes enabled us to incorporate the many important comments while editing the Ottawa Statement.