CT.gov Publication Index Gap
2026-03-29 | full-registry ct.gov audit | plots, figures, and e156 bundle
Series
Publication Index Dashboard

A broader exact-ID publication audit shows CT.gov no-link silence is partly real, but much of it is still a linkage and indexing failure

PubMed exact-ID matching alone barely moves the needle, Europe PMC rescue is much larger, non-MED rescue stays comparatively small, and NIH- and network-linked no-link portfolios show the strongest hidden paper trails in the sample.

Index gap
Any-match
Publication-only
Class splits

Dashboard

Europe PMC exact-ID rescue is large, but non-MED rescue is small. Most extra visibility still sits inside ordinary biomedical indexing that CT.gov users never see.

How to read the dashboard
PubMed exact
1.2%
Weighted rescue
Europe PMC
39.6%
Weighted rescue
Non-MED
2.8%
Weighted rescue
External only
29.1%
Weighted visibility
Weighted overall rescue
WEIGHTED RESCUEWeighted rescue contributions across all sampled older CT.gov no-link studiesPubMed exact1.2%Europe PMC rescue39.6%Non-MED rescue2.8%External only29.1%
PubMed exact-ID retrieval is tiny relative to the broader Europe PMC exact-ID rescue.
That shifts the interpretation from PubMed undercount alone to a wider indexing and registry-linkage gap.
Sponsor-class external any-match rate
SPONSOR-CLASS SAMPLE RATESExternal any-match rate across the sponsor-class-stratified no-link audit sampleNIH80.0%NETWORK47.3%INDUSTRY46.0%INDIV44.7%OTHER37.3%FED34.7%OTHER_GOV31.3%
NIH and NETWORK no-link records show the strongest hidden paper trails, while OTHER remains much lower.
The sample suggests not all no-link silence means the same thing across sponsor classes.
Sponsor-class non-MED rescue rate
NON-MED RESCUENon-MED rescue rate across sponsor classes in the no-link audit sampleNIH8.7%INDUSTRY4.0%FED2.7%INDIV2.0%OTHER2.0%OTHER_GOV1.3%NETWORK1.3%
Non-MED rescue peaks in NIH-linked no-link records but remains modest across the entire sampled universe.
That keeps the main story centered on indexing and linkage, not on a large non-MED spillover universe.
Read Across Projects

Across The Series

Each project isolates a different dimension of registry opacity, but the point is the contrast between them, not a single leaderboard.

Industry
CT.gov Industry Disclosure Gap

Industry-focused missing-results stock, sponsor backlogs, and structural sparsity inside CT.gov.

Sponsor Classes
CT.gov Sponsor-Class Hiddenness

Sponsor-class comparisons on rate, stock, and structural hiddenness rather than one flattened ranking.

Phases
CT.gov Phase Reporting Gap

Phase-by-phase disclosure gaps showing how silence changes along the development pathway.

Structural
CT.gov Structural Missingness

Field-level missingness across publication links, IPD statements, descriptions, and locations.

Visibility
CT.gov Evidence Visibility Gap

Results-plus-publication visibility states showing how many older trials are fully visible, partly visible, or ghosted.

Cohorts
CT.gov Completion Cohort Debt

Completion-era reporting debt showing how older eligible cohorts drift on no-results and ghost-protocol rates.

Conditions
CT.gov Condition Hiddenness Map

Keyword-classified therapeutic-area hiddenness mapping across common condition families.

Concentration
CT.gov Sponsor Backlog Concentration

Concentration and inequality analysis showing how much unresolved stock sits inside a thin sponsor slice.

Rule Eras
CT.gov Rule-Era Reporting Gap

Policy-era comparisons across pre-FDAAA, FDAAA, and later CT.gov completion cohorts.

PubMed Audit
CT.gov Publication Undercount Audit

Sample-based external PubMed NCT audit testing how often CT.gov no-link records hide an external paper trail.

Oncology
CT.gov Oncology Hiddenness

Oncology-specific CT.gov hiddenness showing where cancer-trial stock, phases, and sponsors still go quiet.

Cardiovascular
CT.gov Cardiovascular Hiddenness

Cardiovascular CT.gov hiddenness showing how heart and vascular studies remain quiet across major phases and sponsors.

Metabolic
CT.gov Metabolic Hiddenness

Metabolic CT.gov hiddenness across obesity, diabetes, and related trial portfolios with large late-phase and NA stock.

Size
CT.gov Enrollment-Size Gap

Enrollment-size gradients showing how older small trials remain much quieter than larger registered studies.

Geography
CT.gov Geography-Scale Visibility

Site and country footprint analysis showing how larger trial geographies map onto much better public visibility.

Purpose
CT.gov Design-Purpose Hiddenness

Primary-purpose and allocation analysis showing which trial intents remain most obscured on CT.gov.

Delay
CT.gov Completion-Delay Debt

Registration-to-completion delay analysis showing short-cycle studies carry the heaviest reporting debt.

Architecture
CT.gov Trial-Architecture Gap

Arm-count and intervention-count analysis showing simpler trial architectures are often the quietest.

Interventions
CT.gov Intervention-Type Gap

Intervention-family analysis showing which declared treatment modalities remain quietest on older CT.gov records.

Countries
CT.gov Country Reporting Map

Named-country visibility analysis showing large geographic divides in older CT.gov reporting debt.

Stopped
CT.gov Stopped-Trial Disclosure Gap

Final-status analysis showing how withdrawn, suspended, and terminated studies remain structurally quieter than completed trials.

Outcomes
CT.gov Outcome-Density Gap

Outcome-count and outcome-description analysis showing sparse protocols are often the quietest CT.gov segment.

Actual Fields
CT.gov Actual-Field Discipline

Closed-study actual-field analysis showing missing actual dates and counts are a strong warning sign for opacity.

US vs Global
CT.gov U.S. Versus Global Gap

Geography-bucket analysis showing how U.S.-only, mixed, and non-U.S. portfolios diverge sharply on visibility.

Modality Sponsors
CT.gov Modality Sponsor Repeaters

Intervention-family sponsor audit showing that repeat offenders change sharply once modality is held fixed.

Country x Condition
CT.gov Country-Condition Hiddenness

Country-by-condition splits showing how disease-specific visibility changes once specific national footprints are named.

Disease Geography
CT.gov Disease Geography Gap

Disease-family geography buckets showing how oncology, cardiovascular, and metabolic studies diverge by U.S. participation.

Condition Sponsors
CT.gov Condition Sponsor Repeaters

Condition-family sponsor audit showing who carries the biggest hiddenness stock within oncology, cardiovascular, and metabolic studies.

Country Sponsors
CT.gov Country Sponsor Repeaters

Country-linked sponsor audit showing how leading repeaters differ across U.S., China, Egypt, Poland, Australia, and Japan study footprints.

US vs Ex-US
CT.gov U.S. Versus Ex-U.S. Sponsor Classes

U.S.-presence sponsor-class analysis showing how any-U.S. and no-U.S. portfolios diverge sharply on hiddenness.

Industry Families
CT.gov Industry Family Repeaters

Industry-by-intervention audit showing that repeat-offender sponsors change sharply once modality and geography are held fixed.

Adjusted
CT.gov Risk-Adjusted Hiddenness

Study-mix-adjusted hiddenness showing which sponsor classes, geographies, and sponsors remain worse than expected.

Clock
CT.gov Overdue Results Clock

Time-since-due analysis showing how unresolved CT.gov results debt ages across cohorts, phases, and sponsor classes.

ACT Debt
CT.gov Probable ACT/FDAAA Debt

U.S.-nexus proxy layers showing how large, old, and distributed the likely regulated backlog still is.