OA Publisher to Start Clinical-Trials Journal That Welcomes Negative Results
San Francisco, USA, October 18, 2005 - The Public Library of Science (PLoS) announced PLoS Clinical Trials, an innovative new journal devoted to peer-reviewing and publishing reports of randomized clinical trials in all areas of healthcare (http://www.plosclinicaltrials.org). The journal differs from other medical journals in one crucial respect. It will publish all trials that are ethically and scientifically sound and entered into an internationally accepted registry, regardless of the trial’s size or whether the results are positive or negative. PLoS Clinical Trials is now accepting manuscripts in advance of its spring 2006 launch.
Around half of all completed trial reports are thought to go unpublished. These unpublished trial reports differ systematically from those that are published in the direction and strength of the findings, thus distorting the evidence base for decision-making in healthcare.
"Unpublished results undermine the trust between patients and investigators and slow the vast potential of medical progress," says Dr Christian Gluud of Copenhagen University Hospital, a member of the Advisory Board of PLoS Clinical Trials.
Traditional medical journals publish only the highest profile clinical trials (typically positive trials), partly because the journals must attract revenues from subscriptions and selling reprints. PLoS Clinical Trials avoids this problem — it doesn’t have to sell subscriptions or reprints to be viable, so it can publish the broadest range of trials.
Citation: Veitch E, PLoS Medicine Editors (2005) Tackling publication bias in clinical trial reporting. PLoS Med 2(10): e367.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020367
PLoS Clinical Trials Call for Papers: http://clinicaltrials.plosjournals.org/
Also, read an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education on PLoS Clinical Trials (for U of Iowa affiliates and subscribers only): http://chronicle.com/temp/email.php?id=wxft69ybjhvfmzfe1mncsgb4fl4mkvsm
