A review of prospective trial registration in the Journal of Advanced Nursing in 2018

Registration creates a public record of planned clinical trials and is perhaps that most important weapon in ensuring unbiased reporting of clinical research. It is argued that registration reduces publication bias, the phenomenon where more positive or favourable findings are generally more likely to get published (Hunter, Seidler, & Askie, 2018). Outcome selection bias – where the researcher switches the outcomes of a study or only selectively...