Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: Clinical trial registries are an important resource for researchers, consumers and clinicians. In order to maximise their utility, it is important to obtain user feedback. ANZCTR has conducted two user surveys since its inception in 2005.
Objectives: To obtain user feedback on the relevance, functionality and usefulness of the ANZCTR.
Methods: There were two survey periods: Sep 2008 to Mar 2009 and Nov 2014 to Mar 2015. Users were prompted to complete a survey upon visiting the website. Both surveys were identical, containing 8 items covering user role, frequency and ease of website use, type of information being sought and relevance of the registry. Users were required to select appropriate option(s) from a list, and a free text item was also included. In the first survey the question about role was mandatory.
Results: In the 2008/9 survey 16,356 users responded to the mandatory question about their role, and a smaller proportion (~2500) completed some/all of the remaining optional questions. In the 2014/15 survey 2662 users responded to at least one question. Both surveys indicated that the most common role was a registrant (28.9%), followed by researcher (26.9%), consumer (19.5%), clinician (10.1%), journal editor/staff (2.6%), funder (1.7%) and regulator (1.1%). Most respondents were first time users of the site (42.4%), sought general information about clinical trials (19.4%), and were able to find what they were looking for most/all of the time (61.2%). Most also agreed/strongly agreed that prospective trial registration is a good idea (84.2%) and that ANZCTR is an important national resource (80.2%). A comparison between the two survey periods showed a 5.0% increase in the proportion of researchers using the site and 6.2% increase in the proportion of respondents who strongly agreed that ANZCTR is an important national resource.
Conclusions: The most common users of ANZCTR were registrants and researchers. Whilst most respondents were able to find what they were looking for, there is scope for improvement of the search function and navigation interface of the website. The vast majority agreed that ANZCTR is an important national resource.
Objectives: To obtain user feedback on the relevance, functionality and usefulness of the ANZCTR.
Methods: There were two survey periods: Sep 2008 to Mar 2009 and Nov 2014 to Mar 2015. Users were prompted to complete a survey upon visiting the website. Both surveys were identical, containing 8 items covering user role, frequency and ease of website use, type of information being sought and relevance of the registry. Users were required to select appropriate option(s) from a list, and a free text item was also included. In the first survey the question about role was mandatory.
Results: In the 2008/9 survey 16,356 users responded to the mandatory question about their role, and a smaller proportion (~2500) completed some/all of the remaining optional questions. In the 2014/15 survey 2662 users responded to at least one question. Both surveys indicated that the most common role was a registrant (28.9%), followed by researcher (26.9%), consumer (19.5%), clinician (10.1%), journal editor/staff (2.6%), funder (1.7%) and regulator (1.1%). Most respondents were first time users of the site (42.4%), sought general information about clinical trials (19.4%), and were able to find what they were looking for most/all of the time (61.2%). Most also agreed/strongly agreed that prospective trial registration is a good idea (84.2%) and that ANZCTR is an important national resource (80.2%). A comparison between the two survey periods showed a 5.0% increase in the proportion of researchers using the site and 6.2% increase in the proportion of respondents who strongly agreed that ANZCTR is an important national resource.
Conclusions: The most common users of ANZCTR were registrants and researchers. Whilst most respondents were able to find what they were looking for, there is scope for improvement of the search function and navigation interface of the website. The vast majority agreed that ANZCTR is an important national resource.