Harold Varmus says, "Members of the public participate in clinical trials, believing the results will increase knowledge. However, results are often hard to find or worse still, are not reported at all because journals tend to be interested in positive outcomes. PLoS Clinical Trials solves this by providing a freely accessible online forum where all trials can be reported, irrespective of outcome."
The journal's commitment to a transparent trials reporting system will be achieved through the acceptance and publication of all randomized trials that are ethically and scientifically sound, registered, and reported accurately. By considering all such trials for publication irrespective of the outcome of the results, the journal aims to increase the accuracy and completeness of the evidence available for clinical decision-making by practitioners, policy makers, and patients. All trials considered for publication are rigorously peer-reviewed by expert statisticians and clinicians.
As an online journal, PLoS Clinical Trials takes advantage of the unlimited space and interactivity the web provides. Each published trial is linked to its corresponding entry in a public registry and supplementary data, such as original trial protocols, are linked to each report enabling readers to evaluate the trial more thoroughly. A short commentary on each paper summarizes for a general audience how the trial results add to the evidence.
Open access means that the full contents of PL
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Contact: Andrew Hyde
press@plos.org
44-1-223-463-330
Public Library of Science
18-May-2006