ArticleBMJ open2015
Trends in global clinical trial registration: an analysis of numbers of registered clinical trials in different parts of the world from 2004 to 2013.
Article in BMJ open, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 113 papers, 10 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
113 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Universal interventions to improve young children's mental well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychological bulletin · 2026Pooled it
- Discordant Information on Blinding in Trial Registries and Published Research: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2024Pooled it
- Re-analysis of the current status of clinical trial registration in China.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Towards full clinical trial registration and results publication: longitudinal meta-research study in Northwestern and Central Switzerland.BMC medical research methodology · 2023Pooled it
- A cross-sectional study of the endorsement proportion of reporting guidelines in 1039 Chinese medical journals.BMC medical research methodology · 2023Pooled it
- Health system interventions for adults with type 2 diabetes in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PLoS medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Assessment of Long-term Follow-up of Randomized Trial Participants by Linkage to Routinely Collected Data: A Scoping Review and Analysis.JAMA network open · 2018Pooled it
- Registration of published randomized trials: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC medicine · 2018Pooled it
- Influence of body weight unloading on human gait characteristics: a systematic review.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2018Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Quality of evidence in a post-Soviet country: evaluation of methodological quality of controlled clinical trials published in national journals from Uzbekistan.BMC medical research methodology · 2020Trial
- Prospective registration of guidelines and consensus statements of traditional and integrative medicine: Current status and experience from the PREPARE platform.Integrative medicine research · 2026Article
- Vulnerability in procedural ethics: A study of 44 national research ethics guidelines.Qualitative research : QR · 2026Article
- A snapshot of selected neglected tropical disease research using the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform database, 1999-2023.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Article
- Phase III Trials in India: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Clinical Trials Registry-India.Cureus · 2026Article
- The evolving therapeutic landscape of spinal muscular atrophy - A scoping review of investigational agents, emerging delivery technologies and strategic innovations.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2026Article
- Article
- Compliance of systematic reviews and meta-analyses in ophthalmology with the PRISMA statement: an AI-based assessment and longitudinal comparison with 2017 data.BMC medical research methodology · 2026Article
- Research waste in total knee arthroplasty studies: an observational study on registered trials.BMJ open · 2026Observational
- Marginal Improvements in Risk of Bias of Nephrology Randomized Controlled Trials Over Time: A Meta-research Study of Cochrane Reviews of Randomized Controlled Trials.Kidney medicine · 2026Article
53 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo analyse developments (and their causes) in the number and proportion of clinical trials that were registered in different parts of the world after the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) announced in 2004 that it would require registration of clinical trials as a condition for publication.
settingThe International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP).
designThe ICTRP database was searched for all clinical trials that were registered up to 31 December 2013.
resultsThe ICTRP database contained data on 186,523 interventional clinical trials. The annual number of registered clinical trials increased from 3294 in 2004 to 23,384 in 2013. Relative to the number of clinical trial research publications, the global number of registered clinical trials increased fivefold between 2004 and 2013, rising particularly strongly between 2004 and 2005. In certain regions, especially Asia, the annual number of registered trials increased more gradually and continued to increase up to 2013. In India and Japan, two countries with marked but more gradual increases, these increases only happened after several local measures were implemented that encouraged and enforced registration. In most regions, there was a trend toward trials being registered at local registries.
conclusionsClinical trial registration has greatly improved transparency in clinical trial research. However, these improvements have not taken place equally in all parts of the world. Achieving compliance with registration requires a coalescence of global and local measures, and remains a key challenge in many countries. Poor quality of registered trial data and the inaccessibility of trial protocols, results and participant-level data further undermine the potential benefits of clinical trial registration. National and regional registries and the ICTRP have played a leading role in achieving the successes of trial registration to date and should be supported in addressing these challenges in the future.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.