Most of the content of the World Health Organisation International Clinical Trial Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP) has now been translated into the 6 UN languages: English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and Arabic, in the hopes that this will enable improved awareness of clinical trial registration in non-English speaking countries.

The WHO ICTRP was created to ensure a complete and transparent view of ongoing and completed research to aid health care decision making and strengthen the current scientific evidence base. It is responsible for the current 20-item dataset that is used to standardise the information held by clinical trials registers internationally. The 20-item dataset is one of the items that has been translated; other translated information on the WHO ICTRP website includes other key news items and guidelines surrounding trial registration.

The WHO ICTRP also hosts the ICTRP Search Portal, which brings together data from nine WHO-compliant registers (including the ISRCTN Register – administered by BioMed Central’s sister company, Current Controlled Trials). The trial information held in the ICTRP Search Portal is currently only available in English.

Rebecca Green  – Senior Database Editorial Assistant
Current Controlled Trials Ltd