[IP] Major Medical Journals Will Require Registration of Trials

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Now if comp sci conferences did this ... djf

Begin forwarded message:

From: radev@umich.edu
Date: September 9, 2004 8:32:34 AM EDT
To: dave@farber.net
Subject: Major Medical Journals Will Require Registration of Trials
Reply-To: radev@umich.edu

For IP, if appropriate:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/business/09registry.html

Major Medical Journals Will Require Registration of Trials
By BARRY MEIER

Published: September 9, 2004

A group of leading medical journals yesterday released a plan to stop
publishing the results of clinical trials unless a test is registered
at its outset in a public database.

The plan, news of which had emerged earlier this week, represents a
major policy shift by influential gatekeepers in the medical
profession as they seek to increase the distribution and accuracy of
research data. Too often, experts contend, medical studies with
dramatic findings are highlighted as breakthroughs, while inconclusive
or negative tests of the same treatment are ignored or undisclosed.

"Honest reporting begins with revealing the existence of all clinical
studies, even those that reflect unfavorably on a research sponsor's
product," the editors of the 12 publications stated in a group
editorial that was released yesterday and will appear in the next
issues of the individual journals. "Unfortunately, selective reporting
does occur and it distorts the body of evidence available for clinical
decision-making."

The group, which calls itself the International Committee of Medical
Journal Editors, includes such high-profile publications as The
Journal of the American Medical Association, The New England Journal
of Medicine, The Lancet and Annals of Internal Medicine.

...

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