Tackling Publication Bias and Selective Reporting in Health Informatics Research: Register your eHealth Trials in the International eHealth Studies Registry

Beginning in July 2005, several major medical journals, including the Journal of Medical Internet Research, will only consider trials for publication that have been registered in a trial registry before they started. This is to reduce publication bias and to prevent selective reporting of positive outcomes. As existing clinical trial registers seem to be unsuitable or suboptimal for eHealth studies, a free International eHealth Study Registry (IESR) has been set up, allowing registration of trials (including non-randomized studies) in the field of health informatics and assigning an International eHealth Study Number (IESN). The IESR should meet the requirements of journal editors for a-priori registration of a study. We hope IESR will become the preferred choice for registration of eHealth studies and, as an secondary benefit, will become an international repository of ongoing eHealth projects, thereby enhancing global collaboration and reducing duplication of effort.