Published on behalf of Robin Packer

Over the last year, there has been a growing demand for increased transparency in clinical trials. The increasing momentum is demonstrated by the launch of theAllTrials initiativein January 2013, calling for all clinical trials – past and present – to be registered and their results reported, and further by therecent reportby the UK Parliament Science and Technology Committee, which calls for the UK to stand up and show the world how greater transparency might one day be applied at a global level.

BioMed Central continues to support efforts to increase transparency throughour policy要求注册所有临床试验，出版negative results and unfinished studies, and theISRCTN registry service. ISRCTN allows users to search, register and share information about clinical trials, and complies with the requirements set out by the World Health Organization (WHO)国际临床试验登记平台（ICTRP）和医学期刊的国际委员会Editors (ICMJE)guidelines，包括世卫组织20项Trial Registration Data Set.

We believe that a clear, plain-English summary should be a key requirement of trial registration, in order to make trial information more accessible and understandable to the general public. This has been previously discussed in ashort articlepublished in the journal审判. The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Journals Library asks authors to provide aplain English summaryin keeping with their commitment to accessibility, and the Cochrane Librarywon an award为了他们的普通语言摘要Plain English Campaignin 2012.

TheUK Clinical Trials Gateway(UKCTG) website draws on trial records from registers including ISRCTN, and aims to provide both patients and the general public with easy-to-understand information in order toprovide opportunitiesfor people to participate in trials. Since June 2011, in order to support research funders and the UKCTG in achieving their aims, the ISRCTN register has asked trial researchers to provide a plain English summary of their trial, or to refer to an existing online summary such as those produced byCancerHelp UKand theMRC临床试验单位，作为注册过程的一部分。现在，2000年我们的试用记录包括普通英语摘要。

ISRCTN is now asking all users, from researchers and clinicians, to patients and carers, totake a short surveyto tell us your opinion about these plain English summaries. Every summary includes a link to this survey to allow users to share their feedback. We would like to know whether our summaries are clear and understandable for non-experts. This short survey only takes a couple of minutes and your answers will help us to improve the quality of information in the ISRCTN database for patients, their families, and other members of the public. Ultimately, you’ll be helping everyone to understand clinical trials more easily.