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

Are simpler trial architectures actually more visible on CT.gov?

A standalone public project on arm counts and intervention counts, showing that simpler-looking older studies are often the quietest registry segment.

1 arm 72.8%
10+ arms 55.3%
1 intervention 78.7%
PHASE1 one-arm 88.5%

Project

This page uses the design-structure logic from your methods work and applies it to CT.gov architecture fields: how many arms and interventions a trial declares, and what that predicts about visibility.

One-arm and one-intervention studies are not cleaner registry citizens. They are often the quietest.

Architecture comparison

A standalone E156 project on how arm count and intervention count map onto older-study hiddenness in CT.gov.

1-arm studies
68,643
Largest architecture bucket
1-arm no results
72.8%
2-year no-results
10+ arms no results
55.3%
Complex-arm benchmark
1-arm hiddenness
3.44
Mean hiddenness score
No-results by arm count
ARM-GROUP ARCHITECTURE2-year no-results rate by arm-group count1 arm72.8%2 arms74.5%3-4 arms69.8%5-9 arms60.9%10+ arms55.3%
The architecture gradient runs in the opposite direction from a naive simplicity story: fewer arms often means less visibility.
This makes arm count a useful structural marker rather than a cosmetic protocol field.
Read Across Projects

Across The Series

The split projects are meant to be read together because each isolates a different dimension of registry opacity rather than forcing every question into one 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.