A reminder: PLoS will reject unregistered trials

Last week, the PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases editors rejected a clinical trial, without even sending it for peer review, because the trial had been initiated after July 1 2005 and yet the authors had failed to prospectively register it in a clinical trials registry.

We want to remind all authors again of our position on clinical trial registration, a position made explicit in our guidance to authors:

“PLoS supports the position of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) on trial registration. All trials initiated after 1 July 2005 must be registered prospectively in a publicly accessible registry (i.e., before patient recruitment has begun), or they will not be considered for publication. For trials initiated before 1 July 2005, all trials must be registered before submission to our journals. See the ICMJE faq on trial registration for further details. The WHO's list of approved registries is listed here.”