CT.gov Stopped-Trial Disclosure Gap
2026-03-29 | full-registry ct.gov audit | plots, figures, and e156 bundle
Series
IndustrySponsor ClassesPhasesStructuralVisibilityCohortsConditionsConcentrationRule ErasPubMed AuditOncologyCardiovascularMetabolicSizeGeographyPurposeDelayArchitectureInterventionsCountriesStoppedOutcomesActual Fields
Stopped-Trial Dashboard

Stopped trials sit in one of the quietest structural zones of older CT.gov

Completed studies are already too quiet, but withdrawn and suspended trials are dramatically worse, and missing stop reasons deepen the disclosure gap further.

Open dashboardRead E156 paperProtocolSeries hub
Status rates
Ghosts
Reason field
Visible share

Dashboard

Open dashboard at rootRead E156 micro-paperOpen protocolOpen series hub

Final status is one of the clearest hiddenness separators in the atlas once stopped studies are isolated.

How to read the dashboard
Completed no results
73.1%
Baseline
Withdrawn no results
100.0%
Worst status
Suspended ghosts
71.2%
Neither visible
Reason recorded visible
9.0%
Stopped studies with reason
No-results by final status
FINAL STATUS2-year no-results rate by final study statusCOMPLETED73.1%TERMINATED58.3%WITHDRAWN100.0%SUSPENDED99.3%
Final status alone splits the registry into very different visibility regimes.
Withdrawn and suspended studies are the most extreme part of that split.
Ghost protocols by final status
FINAL-STATUS GHOSTSGhost-protocol rate by final study statusCOMPLETED40.8%TERMINATED42.5%WITHDRAWN81.9%SUSPENDED71.2%
The gap persists on the stricter measure of total visible absence.
That keeps the stopped-trial story from collapsing into missing results alone.
Stopped-study reason field
TERMINATION REASONVisibility contrast for stopped studies with recorded versus missing reasonsReason recorded69.5%Reason missing82.1%Reason recorded ghosts52.9%Reason missing ghosts65.1%
Stopped studies with missing reason fields are materially quieter than stopped studies with a recorded explanation.
This turns a simple missingness flag into a concrete structural warning sign.
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.

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.

Source on GitHub | Project home | Dashboard