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April 28, 2026Trials0 citationsOpen Access

Enhancing the scope of the Trials to Publications tool by identifying ClinicalTrial.gov registry mentions in full-text

AHArthur W. HoltNSNeil R. Smalheiser

Key Points

  • This research aims to enhance a web-based tool that links clinical trials and publications by identifying registry mentions.
  • Updated the Trials to Publications tool using machine-learning to include full-text data.
  • Extracted ClinicalTrials.gov registry numbers from three online biomedical article collections.
  • Retrieved biomedical publications mentioned in ClinicalTrials.gov.
  • Increased the number of linked publications identified by the tool.
  • Facilitated more comprehensive evidence synthesis for clinical outcomes.
  • Enhanced understanding of clinical trial metascience.

Abstract

We have previously described a free, public web-based tool, Trials to Publications, https: //arrowsmith. psych. uic. edu/cgi-bin/arrowsmithᵤic/TrialPubLinking/trialₚubₗinkₛtart. cgi, which employs a machine-learning model based on title, abstract, and other metadata features to predict which publications are likely to present clinical outcome results from a given registered trial in ClinicalTrials. gov. We have now updated and expanded the scope of the tool, by extracting mentions of ClinicalTrials. gov registry numbers (NCT numbers) from the full-text of 3 online biomedical article collections (open access PubMed Central (PMC), EuroPMC, and OpenAlex), as well as retrieving biomedical publications that are mentioned within the ClinicalTrials. gov registry itself. These mentions greatly increase the number of linked publications identified by the tool and should assist those carrying out evidence syntheses as well as those studying the metascience of clinical trials.

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Cite This Study

Holt et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69f04e08727298f751e720b0https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-026-09747-8
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