Coordinated Assessment of Notifications of Trials Containing Overt Published Errors

Phase II Study of Response of Medical Journal Editorial Boards to Notification of Serious Discrepancies in Published Clinical Trials in Human Patients.

Status

UNKNOWN

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT01901523

Enrollment

Registered

2013-07-17

Start date

2014-06-30

Completion date

2015-12-31

Last updated

2014-05-19

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Heart Failure

Keywords

Discrepancy, Committee on Publication Ethics, Correction, Erratum, Retraction

Brief summary

Clinical research, like all science, is self-correcting, with errors detected by the scientific community and communicated to the publishing journals, which then relay the information (and its resolution) to its readers. If this relaying process fails, science grinds to a halt. In this study we are testing its integrity.

Detailed description

This prospective study documents the outcome of notification to journal editorial boards (or equivalent authorities) of factually incorrect or inconsistent claims, in reports they have published.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALReporting of discrepancy to journal

Study design

Allocation

Intervention model

SINGLE_GROUP

Primary purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

* Report of a clinical trial in humans of treatment of heart disease with bone marrow derived stem cells * Report containing discrepancy by reference to same report or another report

Exclusion criteria

* Discrepancy has already been corrected by an erratum

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
Time to correction, retraction, or other notification to the readership of discrepancy	12 months

Secondary

Measure	Time frame
Time to initial response from journal	0-4 weeks

Countries

United Kingdom

Contacts

Primary ContactDarrel P Francis, MA FRCP MD

d.francis@imperial.ac.uk+44 207 594 1093

Backup ContactGraham D Cole, MA MB MRCP

g.cole@imperial.ac.uk+44 207 594 1093

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026