CT.gov Structural Missingness
2026-03-29 | full-registry ct.gov audit | plots, figures, and e156 bundle
Series
Structural Project

What disappears from CT.gov before results are even considered?

A standalone public project on missing publication links, IPD statements, detailed descriptions, locations, and other structural fields.

63.4% no publication link
48.3% no IPD statement
32.7% no description
10.2% no locations

Project

This project shifts the focus from missing results to missing descriptive context, and the GitHub Pages root now exposes that structure directly instead of burying it in a subfolder.

Results reporting is only one layer of hiddenness. Publication links and IPD statements disappear at scale too.

Structural missingness

A standalone E156 project on the descriptive fields that disappear from ClinicalTrials.gov even before results reporting is considered.

Registry size
578,109
All studies
No publication link
63.4%
Full registry
No IPD statement
48.3%
Full registry
No description
32.7%
Full registry
Global gaps
STRUCTURAL SPARSITYGlobal missingness rates across the full registryNo publication link63.4%No IPD statement48.3%No detailed description32.7%No locations10.2%
Publication links and IPD statements disappear far more often than primary outcomes or location fields.
The chart is a reminder that transparency breaks down before formal results reporting is even considered.
Read Across Projects

Across The Series

The split projects are meant to be read together: one for industry, one for sponsor classes, one for phases, and one for structural missingness.