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

The CT.gov policy timeline does not map cleanly onto better older reporting cohorts

Later eligible completion cohorts remain highly obscured on no-results and ghost-protocol metrics even when grouped against policy landmarks.

No results
Ghosts
Visibility
Four eras

Dashboard

The rule-era view matters because it forces the registry to be read against its own policy timeline, not just as a timeless backlog.

How to read the dashboard
Pre-FDAAA
87.7%
2-year no-results
FDAAA era
39.6%
Ghost protocols
Recent era
46.7%
Ghost protocols
Recent visible
10.8%
Results plus publication
No-results rates
RULE ERAS2-year no-results rate across completion erasPre-FDAAA 801 (2000-2007)87.7%FDAAA 801 Era (2008-2016)67.1%Final Rule Era (2017-2020)73.9%Recent Eligible Era (2021-2024)77.0%
The recent eligible era sits above the FDAAA 801 era on the main reporting-debt metric.
This chart is the anchor because the 2-year no-results measure is the core registry-visible absence signal in the series.
Ghost protocols
GHOST PROTOCOLS BY ERANeither-results-nor-publication rates across completion erasPre-FDAAA 801 (2000-2007)53.9%FDAAA 801 Era (2008-2016)39.6%Final Rule Era (2017-2020)41.1%Recent Eligible Era (2021-2024)46.7%
Ghost protocols rise again in the recent eligible era rather than fading away.
The ghost metric is stricter than missing results alone because it also requires the absence of a linked publication trail.
Fully visible share
VISIBILITY BY ERAShare with both results and publication visiblePre-FDAAA 801 (2000-2007)6.3%FDAAA 801 Era (2008-2016)16.6%Final Rule Era (2017-2020)13.8%Recent Eligible Era (2021-2024)10.8%
Full visibility remains low in every era and falls back in the recent eligible cohort.
The positive mirror matters because a lower ghost rate does not necessarily imply broad complete visibility.
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.

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.