In order to ensure transparency in medical research, the concept of prospective clinical trials registration has been developed over the last decade.
It is now essential that all clinical trials be registered with a trials registry such as Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry prior to commencement; otherwise the results will not be accepted for publication in many journals.
Any studies that meet the WHO / ICMJE 2008 definition of a clinical trial should be registered, ie, 'any research study that prospectively assigns human participants or groups of humans to one or more health related intervention to evaluate the effects on health outcomes. Medical interventions include any intervention used to modify a health outcome and include drugs, surgical procedures, devices, behavioural treatments, etc.'
If in doubt about whether to register or not, registration is recommended.
Last updated 11 January 2018