Randomized clinical trials are the ideal means for evaluating the efficacy and safety of medical drugs and devices. Timely dissemination of the findings from clinical trials is a prerequisite for ensuring that clinical decisions made by patients and physicians reflect the best scientific evidence, and that future scientific investigation benefits from previous inquiry. Dissemination is principally achieved through publication in peer reviewed biomedical journals as well as through public reporting of results on clinical trial registries.1 2 3 4 However, a large body of research found that between 25% and 50% of clinical trials remain unpublished, sometimes years after study completion.5 6 7 8 9 Similarly, studies have shown that the results of many clinical trials are not reported promptly on ClinicalTrials.gov.10 11 12 13 14 15
Academic medical centers play a critical role in the clinical trials research enterprise. However, studies suggest that academically based investigators perform suboptimally in publishing8 16 and reporting trial results.14 15
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