Elsevier’s new journal, Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications, features new methods and clinical trial results aimed at reducing publication bias in the industry and improving study design. The journal is an off-shoot of the popular Contemporary Clinical Trials, and the first issue highlights a more effective way of determining the success of a clinical trial, along with a novel method for improving cancer trials.
The open access journal also features a dashboard platform aimed at helping patients enroll in clinical trials. Since there are a number of variables researchers must consider when designing and conducting a clinical trial – including treatment types, number of treatments and patient sample size – the publication’s mandate is to provide clinical trials professionals with the tools to help them design more representative trials.
The opening issue of the journal – which is hosted in ScienceDirect – features an article written by researchers at Genentech Inc. and the Deerfield Institute. These researchers outline a novel clinical trial design that is more effective at taking the delayed effects of immuno-oncology treatment into account when analyzing trial results.
“I trust that the readers will find the journal a valuable source of recent advancements in clinical trials,” said the co-Editor-in-Chief of Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications, Dr. Zhezhen Jin, who is also a Professor of Biostatistics at Columbia University in New York. According to Jin, the information provided in the journal can, “facilitate the design, conduct and analysis of their trials.”
The publisher’s decision to make the journal open access was made in the hope to reduce the publication bias towards positive clinical trial results that plagues the industry. “A major objective of the journal is to reduce publication bias, which is a major issue in the field of clinical trials,” said Dr. Zheng Su, the co-Editor-in-Chief of Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications and VP at the Deerfield Institute in New York.
Randomized and non-randomized clinical trials are the two major trial designs in use today. Patients who participate in randomized trial are randomly assigned to receive or not receive the treatment, and are unaware as to which group they have been assigned. Non-randomized trials are those in which all participants receive the treatment being tested. Though most other clinical trials journals only publish results of randomized clinical trials, Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications will publish results from both trial types.
“There are several existing clinical trials journals that either give preferential treatment to positive trial results due to their perceived higher significance, or focus only on randomized trials,” said Jin. “In contrast, Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications provides a platform for trialists around the world to share their knowledge on all aspects of clinical trials.”
“We’re making scientifically valid and technically sound original research findings freely accessible regardless of their perceived importance or impact,” added Jin. The journal is now actively accepting submissions for its next publications.
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