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. 2014 Jun 30;9(6):e99561.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0099561. eCollection 2014.

Fate of protocols submitted to a French national funding scheme: a cohort study

Evelyne Decullier  1 , Laure Huot  1 , François R Chapuis  1
Affiliations

Fate of protocols submitted to a French national funding scheme: a cohort study

Evelyne Decullier et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: The fate of clinical research projects funded by a grant has been investigated, but there is no information on the projects which did not receive funding. The fate of these projects is not known: do they apply for and/or receive funding from other sources or are they carried out without specific funding?

Purpose: The aim of the study was to describe all clinical research projects submitted to a French national funding scheme (PHRC 2000) and to assess project initiation, completion and publication status taking into account whether or not they received funding.

Methods: This study is a retrospective cohort. The initial project characteristics were retrieved from the submission files and follow-up information was collected from the primary investigator. The percentages of projects started, completed and published were studied.

Results: A total of 481 projects were studied. Follow-up information was obtained for 366. Overall, 185 projects were initiated (51%); 139 of them were funded by the PHRC 2000 or other sources. The most commonly cited reason for not initiating a project was a lack of funding. Subsequently, 121 of the projects initiated were completed (65%). Accrual difficulties were the main reason cited to explain why studies were stopped prematurely or were still ongoing. Finally, 88 of the completed projects were published (73%). Amongst the completed projects, the only factor explaining publication was the statistical significance of the results.

Conclusions: Obtainment of funding was a determining factor for project initiation. However, once initiated, the funding did not influence completion or publication.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Time to publication.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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