Bmc Med Res Methodol
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Bmc Med Res Methodol · Jul 2006
The demise of the randomised controlled trial: bibliometric study of the German-language health care literature, 1948 to 2004.
In order to reduce systematic errors (such as language bias) and increase the precision of the summary treatment effect estimate, a comprehensive identification of randomised controlled trials (RCT), irrespective of publication language, is crucial in systematic reviews and meta-analyses. We identified trials in the German general health care literature. ⋯ German language general health care journals no longer have a role in the dissemination of trial results. The slight rise in the number of published RCTs in the last three years can be explained by a change of publication language from German to English of three of the analysed journals.