As a graduate student in public health and a patient advocate, I find it ironic that your editorial and series of papers expressing the dangers of not disseminating clinical trial data is not accessible to the public without a charge or subscription to your journal. While I and other researchers may gain access to this important information, those who are most affected by unpublished evidence from clinical trials are again stymied by a system that often seems to be designed to prevent knowledge from reaching consumers. News reports of this article are already being shared, and as a premier medical journal you have the opportunity to make public the extent of the problem. I urge you to make these articles publicly available free of charge.
Competing interests:
No competing interests
10 January 2012
Michelle C Carras
Ph.D. Student
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Department of Mental Health, 624 N Broadway, Baltimore MD 21205
Rapid Response:
Re: Missing clinical trial data
As a graduate student in public health and a patient advocate, I find it ironic that your editorial and series of papers expressing the dangers of not disseminating clinical trial data is not accessible to the public without a charge or subscription to your journal. While I and other researchers may gain access to this important information, those who are most affected by unpublished evidence from clinical trials are again stymied by a system that often seems to be designed to prevent knowledge from reaching consumers. News reports of this article are already being shared, and as a premier medical journal you have the opportunity to make public the extent of the problem. I urge you to make these articles publicly available free of charge.
Competing interests: No competing interests