Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26097695›Full record

ArticleF1000Research2015

It's never too late to publish an abandoned trial.

Celia Shiles, Julia Sinclair

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in F1000Research, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Observational
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Celia ShilesSouthampton General Hospital, Southampton, Hampshire, SO16 6YD, UK.
Julia SinclairFaculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire, SO17 1BJ, UK.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

It is estimated that half of all trials have never been published which can lead to patients being denied the most effective treatment and being exposed to unnecessary side effects.  Furthermore the trial participants have been misinformed since the trial results have not contributed to the care of future patients. However the non-publication of trials is often not due to a deliberate decision to cover up results.  Commonly in academia it is due to more understandable reasons such as researchers having busy clinical posts, moving onto other more demanding projects, changing research areas or starting a family.  This is called the "file drawer" problem. The examples in this editorial demonstrate that it is possible to go back, even decades later, and make the results available to inform future evidence based medicine.  We call on others to look into their "file drawer" for unpublished trials.

Indexed as

Abandoned trialsMeta-analysesScience publishing

Identifiers

PMID26097695
PMCPMC4457106

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.