[The Liberati's principles ten years later.]

Ten years after the death of Alessandro Liberati, the authors wonder how much the principles that guided the action of the founder of the Italian Cochrane Centre are still relevant. The guiding star of Liberati's professional life was the fight for useful research aimed at solving problems relevant to patients and their families. Consistently with the work of other researchers such as Sir Iain Chalmers and Paul Glasziou - they have recently offered important contribution on these issues - Alessandro Liberati worked hard to guarantee open, accessible, and transparent research to citizens, health decision makers and health professionals. Unfortunately, his final call to design a new research governance remained unanswered. Research is still too focused on individual therapeutic interventions rather than on overall care strategies. Studies are still too often unpublished or only partially published. Research is still influenced by conflicts of interest and peer review is often biased. Much work remains to be done, to ensure that publicly funded research is guided by the real needs of citizens and patients.