The ISRCTN scheme was conceived to address the confusion experienced by the clinical trials community, in which several trials may have the same title, one trial may be reported in several places under different titles, and many trials are never reported. The ISRCTN Register assigns a unique number to each randomised controlled trial in order to track the trial unambiguously throughout its life cycle. The Register is being launched after a successful pilot by the UK Medical Research Council and the UK Co-ordinating Committee for Cancer Research. To date, more than 80 organisations that have sponsored trials have already registered, and the database currently contains over 750 records.
Current Controlled Trials Ltd, Managing Director, Anne Greenwood, explained the advantage of the ISRCTN Register:
"Acting rather like the ISBN (International Standard Book Number) on the back of every book, it will simplify the identification of trials and provide a unique number that can be used to track all publications and reports resulting from each trial."
There are currently several trial registers already in existence with their own numbering schemes. Specific registers exist for diseases like Alzheimer's and diabetes, as well as society and institutional registers. In the US, the National Library of Medicine has created a website http://clinicaltrials.gov providing details of trials in the States. The ISRCTN Register is unique, however, since it is not limited to a specific disease or geographic area.
Trial registers are an important resource for researchers, practitioners and the general public. Registering a trial offers the potential to make research available to a much wider audience. By searching a database of trials, researchers and funders can avoid duplicating research and wasting valuable resources - often taxpayer's money. Clinicians can use these registers to find detailed and accurate information about trials involving new therapies, allowing them to make an informed choice about treatment. Finally, open access registers are of great importance to patients since they can use them to search for information about trials in which they may wish to participate.
Sponsors and trial investigators are being urged to register their trials to ensure that the public is aware of new areas of research. Medical journals are also being encouraged to allow authors to include their ISRCTN in any research they publish, so that the trials can be easily identified in databases such as MEDLINE and PubMed.
Registering trials for an ISRCTN involves the completion of a simple online submission form http://controlled-trials.com. Access to the ISRCTN Register is free, although registering the trial incurs a small charge that goes towards the administrative costs of assigning the number.
The ISRCTN Register has been developed by Current Controlled Trials Ltd, part of the Current Science Group of companies ( http://controlled-trials.com ). The Group has its headquarters in London, UK and also has offices in Philadelphia and Tokyo.