Make it Public is a campaign about research transparency. It is led by a campaign group made up of people from across the research sector aiming for a common goal:
- to make research transparency the norm
- to make transparency easy
- to make information on research public
We recently celebrated Make it Public week 2024, and focused on how people from across the industry can work together to increase registration rates of clinical trials, as the first, crucial step towards research transparency.
During the week, we shared the latest data from our audit of clinical trial registration. It showed that in 2022, 92% of clinical trials in the UK were registered on a publicly accessible database.
For the first time, we shared details on each of the 1545 clinical trials that received a favourable opinion from a Research Ethics Committee (REC) to go ahead, a condition of which is to register the trial. Details included the sponsor organisation, full study title and the explanation for non-registration if it was provided. Read the full report.
To support improvements in registration rates, we also held a workshop to address the barriers to research registration and how these can be overcome.
Attended by over 100 people from across the sector including universities, NHS organisations and pharmaceutical companies, it included case studies on best practice and insights from those affected by research, such as Frances Mossie, public contributor and research champion at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.
Key themes from the discussion included the need for further support for researchers, to help them more accurately define a research project and to navigate the different research registry systems. There was also discussion on the importance of any registry costs to be acknowledged early in the study design, and on both the importance and practicalities of having a named individual in a research team assigned responsibility for registering.
Matt Westmore, Chief ExecutiveClinical trials registration rates are at a great level and we’re going in the right direction, but it is the last mile that’s the hardest. There were some brilliant takeaways on the barriers people face when registering trials, and we also looked at the bigger picture, recognising the important of other elements of research transparency. The insights from the event will inform our next steps for the campaign, as we aim for registration of all clinical trials next year.
Keynote speaker Nick DeVito, postdoctoral researcher at the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science and research integrity expert, presented on the history and current state of clinical trial registration across the world, with insights from his own work.
We also heard a thought-provoking poem from public contributor and campaign group member Amander Wellings, and hosted a panel discussion with experts from the University of Dundee, NIHR, and the Association of Medical Research Charities, about best practice in research registration.
Features from speakers at the event and the event slides will be shared soon. Visit the Make it Public Campaign page for the latest updates.