"Hardly worth the effort"? Medical journals' policies and their editors' and publishers' views on trial registration and publication bias: quantitative and qualitative study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To determine the proportion of medical journals requiring trial registration and to understand their reasons for adopting (or not adopting) such policies and other measures designed to reduce publication bias.

Design

Quantitative study of journals' instructions to authors (in June 2012) and qualitative study of editors' and publishers' views on trial registration and publication bias (carried out in Autumn 2012).

Setting

Random selection of 200 medical journals publishing clinical trials identified from the Cochrane CENTRAL database.

Participants

Editors (n=13) and publishers (n=3) of journals with different policies on trial registration (and with recently changed policies) identified from the survey of their instructions to authors.

Results

SUBMITTER: Wager E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3805489 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature