Surgical trials and trial registers: a cross-sectional study of randomized controlled trials published in journals requiring trial registration in the author instructions

Table 4 Results availability for registered RCTs stratified by completion date

	Study completion date
	All	Before or during February 2011	After February 2011 to February 2012	After February 2012	Unclear
	n = 59 (100%)	n = 24 (100%)	n = 25 (100%)	n = 5 (100%)	n = 5 (100%)
Results posted	7 (12%)	5 (21%)	2 (8%)	0	0
Results posted only	2 (3%)	1 (4%)	1 (4%)	0	0
Results posted and link to publication provided by investigator	1 (2%)	0	1 (4%)	0	0
Results posted and automatic linkage via register identification	4 (7%)	4 (17%)	0	0	0
No results posted	52 (88%)	19 (79%)	23 (92%)	5 (100%)	5 (100%)
Link to publication provided by investigator only	1 (2%)	0	1 (4%)	0	0
Link to publication provided by investigator and automatic linkage via register identification	1 (2%)	0	1 (4%)	0	0
Automatic linkage via register identification only	27 (46%)	9 (38%)	15 (60%)	1 (20%)	2 (40%)
No results posted and no link provided	23 (39%)	10 (42%)	6 (24%)	4 (80%)	3 (60%)

List of registries included in the ICTRP search portal (September 2013): Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR); ClinicalTrials.gov; European Union Clinical Trials Register (EU-CTR); International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number Register (ISRCTN); Brazilian Clinical Trials Registry (ReBec); Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR); Clinical Trials Registry - India (CTRI); Clinical Research Information Service (CRiS), Republic of Korea; Cuban Public Registry of Clinical Trials (RPCEC); German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS); Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT); Japan Primary Registries Network (JPRN); Pan African Clinical Trial Registry (PACTR); Sri Lanka Clinical Trials Registry (SLCTR); and The Netherlands National Trial Register (NTR). ICTRP, International Clinical Trials Register Platform; RCT, randomized controlled trial.

ISSN: 1745-6215