Implementation of Mandatory Clinical Trial Registration Policy on Ophthalmology Journals' Instructions for Authors

1. Wasee Tulvatana
2. Kittisak Kulvichit

Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Purpose:
1) To study the proportion of ophthalmology journal with highest impact factors that follow the policy of ICMJE in the mandatory clinical trial registration, comparing with other specialties.
2) To compare the proportion of the policy endorsement between the highest and the lowest impact factors in the ophthalmology specialty.

Methods: Ten highest impact factor journals from six different specialties were identified from the 2009 Journal Citation Reports, Science Edition (Thomson Reuters, 2010). Instructions for authors were reviewed to study the policy and statements regarding the clinical trial registration. Ten lowest impact factor journals in the ophthalmology field were studied and compared to the highest impact factor counterpart. All of the searches were last accessed on November 3, 2010.

Results: Most of the internal medicine journals conformed to the policy, which were thoroughly stated in the instruction for authors. Four of ten highest impact factors ophthalmology journals endorsed the policy, which was comparable to the journals in the subspecialties of surgery, pediatrics and obstetrics-gynecology. Otolaryngology journals showed the lowest proportion, where only one journal endorsed the policy. There was only one journal in the lowest impact factor group in the ophthalmology field, which was lower than the proportion from the highest impact factor group.

Conclusions: Although the clinical trial registration guideline from ICMJE has been enforced for five years, less than half of the high impact factor ophthalmology journals has strictly followed the policy. The highest impact factor journals implements the policy more than the lowest impact factor journals.