New resource: dataset of 736 German ‘unreported’ clinical trials
TranspariMED has just published an annotated dataset of 736 German academic clinical trials that a previous study identified as never having made their results public.
We are making these data publicly available so that meta-researchers can use the data for their own research.
The consolidated dataset is unique in that it contains data on 627 clinical trials that were provided to TranspariMED by the 27 German universities responsible for them.
Response rate 79.4%, covering 85.2% of clinical trials.
Also available at the same link:
A document explaining the consolidated dataset and key themes in universities’ responses
The raw datasets returned by 26 German University Medical Centers (UMCs)
A list of the press and CEO office email addresses of all German UMCs
The original study protocol and study materials
There are some real surprises in there, including the very strong efforts that many German universities seem to have made to follow up on apparently unreported clinical trials and to clean up the corresponding registry entries. Perhaps less surprising but still insightful: the high number of trials terminated early.
Everyone is welcome to use the data however they wish.
For example, it would be extremely interesting to discover how many of the still unreported clinical trial results are made public over the coming months and years, or to explore which trial features predicted the early termination of studies.
Dive in here:
DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/8T9RM
TranspariMED will not further pursue the original research question set out in the protocol, and does not intend to use these data to generate an academic publication. However, TranspariMED will use some of the data for its future policy and advocacy work.
TranspariMED would like to thank the 26 German university medical centers who returned their datasets for the time and effort they invested in providing accurate data on their clinical trials.