ArticleJournal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA2014
Searching ClinicalTrials.gov and the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform to inform systematic reviews: what are the optimal search approaches?
Article in Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers, 7 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
30 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Exploring Clinical Trials to Manage Firefighters' Sleep Quality: A PRISMA Compliant Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Registration of published randomized trials: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC medicine · 2018Pooled it
- A comparison of results of empirical studies of supplementary search techniques and recommendations in review methodology handbooks: a methodological review.Systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Impact of searching clinical trial registries in systematic reviews of pharmaceutical treatments: methodological systematic review and reanalysis of meta-analyses.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2017Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Is consuming yoghurt associated with weight management outcomes? Results from a systematic review.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2016Pooled it
- A systematic review of heterogeneity in clinical trial design for anal cancer radiotherapy-immunotherapy combinations.Clinical and translational radiation oncology · 2026Review
- Decentralized clinical trials: A comprehensive analysis of trends, technologies, and global challenges.PLOS digital health · 2026Article
- Development and evaluation of objective trial performance metrics for multisite clinical studies: Experience from the AlcHep Network.Contemporary clinical trials · 2024Article
- Recommending Clinical Trials for Online Patient Cases using Artificial Intelligence.AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium · 2024Article
- Three levels of discrepancies in the records of trial sites in India, registered with the European Union Clinical Trials Register.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Article
- Home-built environment interventions and inflammation biomarkers: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol.BJGP open · 2022Article
- Mapping ongoing nutrition intervention trials in muscle, sarcopenia, and cachexia: a scoping review of future research.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2022Article
- Secondary electronic sources demonstrated very good sensitivity for identifying studies evaluating interventions for COVID-19.Journal of clinical epidemiology · 2022Article
- Using the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials to identify clinical trial registration is insufficient: a cross-sectional study.BMC medical research methodology · 2020Article
- Toolkit of methodological resources to conduct systematic reviews.F1000Research · 2020Article
- StudyPortal - Geovisualization of Study Research Networks.Journal of medical systems · 2019Article
- From clinical practice guideline development to trial registration: A systematic investigation of research pipeline for inflammatory bowel disease.Indian journal of gastroenterology : official journal of the Indian Society of Gastroenterology · 2019Article
- An Evaluation of the Rotator Cuff Repair Research Pipeline.Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSince 2005, International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) member journals have required that clinical trials be registered in publicly available trials registers before they are considered for publication.
objectivesThe research explores whether it is adequate, when searching to inform systematic reviews, to search for relevant clinical trials using only public trials registers and to identify the optimal search approaches in trials registers.
methodsA search was conducted in ClinicalTrials.gov and the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) for research studies that had been included in eight systematic reviews. Four search approaches (highly sensitive, sensitive, precise, and highly precise) were performed using the basic and advanced interfaces in both resources.
resultsOn average, 84% of studies were not listed in either resource. The largest number of included studies was retrieved in ClinicalTrials.gov and ICTRP when a sensitive search approach was used in the basic interface. The use of the advanced interface maintained or improved sensitivity in 16 of 19 strategies for Clinicaltrials.gov and 8 of 18 for ICTRP. No single search approach was sensitive enough to identify all studies included in the 6 reviews.
conclusionsTrials registers cannot yet be relied upon as the sole means to locate trials for systematic reviews. Trials registers lag behind the major bibliographic databases in terms of their search interfaces. IMPLICATIONS: For systematic reviews, trials registers and major bibliographic databases should be searched. Trials registers should be searched using sensitive approaches, and both the registers consulted in this study should be searched.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.