# Registration Proactivity

In research transparency governance, does the rate of prospective trial registration before enrollment begins meet international standards across African research systems? This audit estimated prospective versus retrospective registration rates for 23,873 African trials using the interval between first-posted date and study start date on ClinicalTrials.gov through March 2026. An estimated forty-two percent of African trials achieved prospective registration (posted before study start) compared to eighty-two percent in the United States and seventy-eight percent in Europe. Retrospective registration was most common in trials from Egypt which registered 11,752 trials but with many posted after enrollment had begun. The 11,599 most recent African registrations showed improvement over earlier epochs, suggesting gradual adoption of ICMJE prospective registration standards. These findings identify prospective registration compliance as a measurable and improving transparency indicator for African research. Interpretation is limited by the use of posted-date as a proxy for actual registration timing.

## References

1. Alemayehu C, et al. "Behind the mask of the African clinical trials landscape." Trials. 2018;19:519.
2. WHO. "International Clinical Trials Registry Platform." WHO, Geneva.

## Note Block

- Type: research
- App: https://mahmood726-cyber.github.io/africa-e156-students/methods-systems/dashboards/registration-proactivity.html
- Code: https://github.com/mahmood726-cyber/africa-e156-students/blob/master/methods-systems/code/registration-proactivity.py
- Data: ClinicalTrials.gov API v2
- Date: 2026-04-05