This week inTrialsMcKenzie and colleagues present their experience of obtaining ethical approval for a methodological study that planned to compareethics committee applications with the published results of randomized controlled trials.

Obstacles to researching the researchers: A case study
of the ethical challenges of undertaking methodological research investigating
the reporting of randomised controlled trials
Joanne E McKenzie, G PETER Herbsion, Paul Roth, Charlotte
Paul
Trials2010,11: 28(21 March 2010)

The authors aimed to assess the prevalence of selective outcome reporting – where significant results are more likely to be reported than those that are not significant – but approval was denied on the grounds that they did not plan to obtain informed consent from trialists to view their applications. The committee’s response is not an unusual one, but McKenzieet al认为它是有症状的弱点the system, including a failure to recognize the nature and importance of methodological research of this kind.