Time to Publication of Clinical Trials Funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Abstract

Many clinical trials are either never published or published after a significant delay. We studied the factors that have influenced the time to publication of clinical trials supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) from 1999–2016. We identified 133 trials registered at ClinicalTrials.gov. The median time to publication was 25 months. Eighteen percent of trials were published within 12 months, and 80% had published within 48 months. Of the 133 trials, 17 had not published at the time of censorship. The number of participants enrolled in the trial was the best predictor of publicaiton.