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Since 2005, most major medical journals have required investigators to register their clinical trials in a publicly accessible database as a condition for publication. Registration includes specifying the trial's primary and secondary outcomes, timing of outcome assessment, funding source, and study design.
To examine selective reporting of outcomes, investigators assessed 323 published randomized controlled trials in cardiology, rheumatology, and gastroenterology from 40 often-cited general medical and specialty journals; all reports were published in 2008. Fewer than half the trials had been registered adequately: 28% were not registered at all, 14% were registered after the trial was completed, and 12% were registered with inadequate or n…