Prospective registration of clinical trials has been made mandatory by various government regulations. The ICMJE guidelines require a clinical trial to be registered as a prerequisite for publication while the revised CONSORT Statement requires the authors to submit the trial registration number and name of registry while reporting of clinical trials.
A short study of ‘instructions for authors’ of MEDLINE indexed Indian medical and dental journals publishing clinical trials to assess their editorial policies on trial registration was done by Dr. Soumyadeep B and his colleague .
They identified 30 journals from the National Library of Medicine Catalog meeting our study criteria. From the websites of these journals, they accessed the ‘instructions for authors’ and extracted information on requirement of trial registration number during submission of clinical trials, mention about any eligible trial registry, endorsement of CONSORT Statement in reporting of trials and mention about the ICMJE Guidelines.
Results :Trial registration number was required in only 30 % journals (9/30, 30%). Only 16 journals (16/30, 53.33%) encouraged adherence to the CONSORT Statement in reporting of trials, while 22 journals (22/30, 73.33%) mentioned about ICMJE Guidelines in their instructions.
The study shows an urgent need of uniform endorsement of international standards in registration and reporting of clinical trials by the journals and identifies a major issue in the medical publishing arena in India. Read the full study titled “ Editorial Policies of MEDLINE Indexed Indian Journals on Clinical Trial Registration ” published in the esteemed medical journal Indian Pediatrics here. (OPEN ACCESS)
