Clinical Trial Registration — Looking Back and Moving Ahead

In 2005, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) initiated a policy requiring investigators to deposit information about trial design into an accepted clinical trials registry before the onset of patient enrollment. 1 This policy aimed to ensure that information about the existence and design of clinically directive trials was publicly available, an ideal that leaders in evidence-based medicine have advocated for decades. 2 The policy precipitated much angst among research investigators and sponsors, who feared that registration would be burdensome and would stifle competition. Yet, the response to this policy has been overwhelming. The ICMJE promised to reevaluate the policy . . .