BioCentury
ARTICLE | Politics & Policy

BMJ requiring transparency commitment for published data

November 2, 2012 1:11 AM UTC

The British Medical Journal said that starting in January it will only publish clinical trials results when authors commit to make anonymous patient-level data available "upon reasonable request" by researchers or clinicians. BMJ Editor-in-Chief Fiona Godlee said in an editorial that the journal will require the commitment for all trials regardless of whether the trials are funded by industry. The effort is part of BMJ's "open data" campaign to increase independent scrutiny of clinical trial data.

Godlee told BioCentury that "authors should be ready to make available the data on which the work they are reporting in BMJ is based." She said that it "will not be possible" for BMJ to decide what is a "reasonable" request for patient-level data. She said the journal is aiming to publish an editorial before year end providing more detail on its policy. ...