A new study in The Journal of the American Medical Association shows that many researchers are ignoring a 2005 requirement that forces them to register proposed clinical trials in a government database as a condition for publishing their results in medical journals.

The New York Times reported on the issue:

The study is a review of 323 articles published last year in leading medical journals. Researchers found that only 147 of the clinical trials, just 45.5 percent, "were properly registered before the end of the trial in a way that clearly stated the main outcomes being assessed. Even among the articles that were registered, almost a third had discrepancies between the outcomes described in the registry and the ones ultimately reported."

"We're asking people to tell readers honestly and transparently, 'What did you do, and what did you find?" said an author of the paper, David Moher, senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute in Canada, in the New York Times.

To read the full article and to link to the original study, click here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/health/08aware.html?ref=health