Many Trial Results Published Nearly Two Years after Data Collection.

An average of 21 months lapsed between the end of data collection and publication for 1336 trials published during 2009, according to a JAMA Internal Medicine article. Average time to publication was longer among trials funded by industry (24 months) than trials funded by government and nonprofit organizations (20 months), but it was shorter among trials enrolling 1000 individuals or more (18 months) compared with trials enrolling 100 individuals or fewer (20 months) and trials enrolling between 100 and 1000 individuals (23 months). Time to publication was shorter among trials published in journals with an impact factor greater than 10.