The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors Thursday said its 11 members will require clinical trials be registered as a condition of publication.
The new policy, outlined on the Journal of the American Medical Association's Web site and published in next week's print edition, will mean a condition for publication of will be signing up a clinical trial with a public trials registry of clinical studies involving human patients.
"Honest reporting begins with revealing the existence of all clinical studies, even those that reflect unfavorably on a research sponsor's product, the editors wrote. "Unfortunately, selective reporting of trials does occur, and it distorts the body of evidence available for clinical decision making."
The journals will require registration at or before the time of patient enrollment, beginning with clinical trials enrolling after July 1, 2005.
The group did not advocate any particular registry to be used but it must meet certain criteria: freely accessible to the public, open to all prospective registrants, managed by a non-profit organization, electronically searchable, and verifiable.
Some of the journals included are JAMA, the New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet.
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