The Cochrane Vaccines Field (CVF) is a Cochrane Collaboration entity. The CVF was founded to facilitate the gathering of evidence on vaccines and their effects (ability to prevent the target disease, short and long term safety and efficiency) finalised to the production of systematic reviews. The CVF formulate criteria for population-based quality assessment of vaccines. The Cochrane Vaccines Field was registered in 1996 and is now based in Alessandria, Italy since 2000. The specific contribution of the Cochrane Vaccines Field is to promote the preparations and maintenance of systematic reviews on the effects of vaccines facilitating the coverage of the knowledge gaps in vaccinology and thus forming a methodological focus for a population based assessment of vaccines and systematic gathering and dissemination of information on vaccines. The targets reached until now are: the handsearch of Vaccine and The Journal of Medical Virology, the updating of an overview on the current status of knowledge on vaccines, the preparation and maintenance of systematic reviews. The next Key objective of the Cochrane Vaccines Field is to develop "The Vaccines Register" a register comprising all relevant studies on the effectiveness, the safety and the economical aspects of vaccines. This Register aims to be an extensive and up to date reference to enable those making decisions on the use of human vaccines to make best use of available evidence assessed by its reliability.