Towards 'threaded publications' with BioMed Central
In 2011 BioMed Central launched an initiative 'threaded publications' to help reduce reporting bias in the medical literature and enhance the discoverability of trial-related publications, which involves strengthening links between the trial registration records and the resulting publications.
More than 1000 articles published in BioMed Central journals include ISRCTN numbers. The concept of threaded publications puts trial registration the first in a sequence of publications about a trial which might also include protocols and results at the forefront of transparent reporting.
BioMed Central are working to implement the concept across multiple journals and publishers. Authors registering trials in any one of the four largest, global trial registration databases including the ISRCTN register will, for all articles published from 2011, find links between their trial record and study protocol published in a BioMed Central journal, and any subsequent article reporting the outcomes of the trial.
Authors of publications, in BioMed Central journals, based on trials registered in the ISRCTN database are entitled to a 20% discount on the article processing charge (APC) levied by BioMed Central to cover the costs of open access publication.
