JAOA—The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association has joined the member journals of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)¹ in insisting that all phase 3 clinical trials be registered with at least one public registry. In addition, the JAOA is requiring that all other trials involving human subjects, including pilot studies, be registered if they have one prospectively assigned concurrent control or comparison group. 

To be considered for publication in the JAOA, all qualifying trials that begin on or after December 1, 2006, should be publicly registered before the trials begin. Authors of qualifying trials that have not been registered will be asked to do so before their manuscripts can be accepted for publication in the JAOA. 

The JAOA agrees with the ICMJE's requirements for an acceptable public registry: “The registry must be electronically searchable and accessible to the public at no charge. It must be open to all registrants and be not for profit. It must have a mechanism to ensure the validity of the registration data.”¹ ClinicalTrials.gov, which is sponsored by the National Library of Medicine, is the most prominent registry in the United States that meets these requirements. 

In registering trials, researchers must provide the 20 pieces of data that the World Health Organization identified in 2005 as essential for informing the public.² These required items include the unique trial number, trial registration date, funding sources, primary and secondary sponsors, interventions, and outcomes (Figure). For more information, visit http://www.icmje.org/clin_trialup.htm or http://www.who.int/ictrp/data_set/en/index1.html. 

See the JAOA's “Information for Contributors” on pages 163-165 of this issue or http://www.jaoa.org/misc/ifora.shtml for additional information concerning clinical trial registration and other aspects of manuscript submission. Journal contributors can also contact the JAOA editorial assistant by calling (800) 621-1773, extension 8166; by sending e-mail to jaoa@osteopathic.org; by faxing messages to (312) 202-8466; or by writing to JAOA—The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, 142 E Ontario St, Chicago, IL 60611-2864.