Registering diagnostic and prognostic trials of tests: is it the right thing to do?

In 2004, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) issued guidelines requiring registration of all clinical trials that initiated recruitment after July 1, 2005. Clinical trials were to be registered in one of the primary registries in the WHO Registry Network (16 registries as of April 2014) or in ClinicalTrials.gov. Key information about each study, including eligibility criteria and primary outcome measures, are recorded in the registry before the trial starts recruiting participants.