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Current Controlled Trials Newsletter
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Newsletter
April 2012 |
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| The ISRCTN Register administered by Current Controlled Trials (CCT), part of BioMed Central group, has been operational for over eight years. It has evolved to cater to the needs of both scientific and non-scientific audiences. As a registered user of CCT |
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| we hope that you enjoy this first edition of the quarterly newsletter. We encourage you to share these updates with friends or colleagues who may find it useful and to send us any feedback you may have on the current issue or on content that you would like to see in future issues. |
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| Today the ISRCTN register hosts over 10,000 trial records, is open to all study designs and conforms to a number of internationally recognised requirements, such as: |
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WHO 20-item Trial Registration Data Set
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) guidelines
The ISRCTN register urges trialists to provide updates on any changes to study protocols to ensure that trial data for all existing records are up to date. The history of changes can be easily tracked as all updates are date marked. The ISRCTN register also actively seeks and updates trial records with the published protocols and results.
To find out more on the ISRCTN register's achievements and challenges, please read this freely available article published in Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine. |
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In 2011 BioMed Central launched an initiative – 'threaded publications' – to help reduce reporting bias in the medical literature and enhance the discoverability of trial-related publications, which involves strengthening links between the trial registration records and the resulting publications.
More than 1000 articles published in BioMed Central journals include ISRCTN numbers. The concept of threaded publications puts trial registration – the first in a sequence of publications about a trial which might also include protocols and results – at the forefront of transparent reporting.
BioMed Central are working to implement the concept across multiple journals and publishers. Authors registering trials in any one of the four largest, global trial registration databases including the ISRCTN register will, for all articles published from 2011, find links between their trial record and study protocol published in a BioMed Central journal, and any subsequent article reporting the outcomes of the trial.
Authors of publications, in BioMed Central journals, based on trials registered in the ISRCTN database are entitled to a 20% discount on the article processing charge (APC) – levied by BioMed Central to cover the costs of open access publication. |
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The ISRCTN register acknowledges that the key to reach out to a wider non-scientific audience is to support complex scientific information with a lay friendly version. The Patients Participate! project has showcased the need for publishing lay summaries alongside scientific research. In June 2011, the ISRCTN register introduced a new lay summary field to the ISRCTN dataset, which is unique amongst trial registries.
The ISRCTN register is working closely with the Department of Health and various medical charities to meet its goal of including lay summaries for the maximum number of trial records possible. |
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| We are keen to provide trialists with services that are most valuable to them. In 2012 we will be gathering feedback on the current and future functionality of the ISRCTN database. We are keen to hear from our many users – trialists, researchers, systematic reviewers, health policy makers, patients and health professionals – about how we can improve the database. |
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Current Controlled Trials Ltd, 236 Gray's Inn Road, London, WC1X 8HB, United Kingdom
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