Clinical Trials

Clinical Trials is a bimonthly journal published by SAGE Publications on behalf of the Society for Clinical Trials. It appeared in 2004 as the successor to Controlled Clinical Trials, and it carries methodological work on how trials are designed, conducted, analysed and reported. Its 2025 Journal Impact Factor is 2.4.《临床试验》是临床试验学会（Society for Clinical Trials）的会刊，由 SAGE 出版，双月刊，专载临床试验方法学稿件。刊物 2004 年创刊，接续前身《Controlled Clinical Trials》。2025 年期刊影响因子为 2.4。

Scope

• The stated purpose is to advance knowledge about the design and conduct of clinical trials and about the research methods trials depend on, and to keep readers current on ethics, regulation and policy impact.刊物自述的宗旨是增进人们对临床试验设计与实施的认识，连同试验所依赖的研究方法，并让读者跟上伦理、法规与政策影响方面的进展。

• Its remit runs across the design, conduct, analysis, synthesis and evaluation of trial methodology, so a paper may sit anywhere between protocol development and the interpretation of a finished study.选题横跨试验方法学的设计、实施与分析，也覆盖综合与评价，稿件可以落在方案形成到完成研究解读之间的任何一点。

• Data management counts as a methodological subject in its own right, taking in case report forms, query resolution and audit trails, along with the handling of records that arrive from several sites at once.数据管理被当作独立的方法学题目，涉及病例报告表、质疑处理与稽查轨迹，还包括同时来自多个中心的记录如何处置。

• Trial logistics are treated the same way, from site selection and recruitment through monitoring visits and the shipping of investigational product to the orderly closing of a study.试验后勤同样如此，从中心遴选、招募，到监查访视、试验用药品运输，再到研究的有序收尾，都在讨论之列。

• Papers on design and conduct deal with randomisation schemes, masking and adherence, and they weigh adaptive and pragmatic designs against the practical choices that decide whether a protocol can be executed as written.设计与实施类稿件处理随机化方案、设盲与依从性，也讨论自适应设计与实用性设计，以及决定方案能否照原样执行的实务取舍。

• Statistical method forms a core strand, covering estimands, sample size and interim monitoring, and reaching on to missing data and the analysis of composite or surrogate endpoints.统计方法构成核心板块，涵盖估计目标、样本量与期中监查，也涉及缺失数据，以及复合终点与替代终点的分析。

• The journal also asks how trial evidence reaches practice and policy, including the way guideline panels and regulators weigh the results put before them.刊物还追问试验证据如何进入实践与政策，其中包括指南专家组与监管机构如何权衡摆到面前的试验结果。

• Ethics, law and regulation are a standing area, with consent, ethics review and the protection of participants treated as research questions rather than settled rules.伦理、法律与监管是常设领域，知情同意、伦理审查与隐私保护被当作研究问题，而不只是既定规则。

• Evidence synthesis belongs to the remit as well, so systematic reviews and meta-analyses are welcome when they examine how trial evidence is assembled and read.证据综合也在范围之内，系统综述与元分析只要讨论试验证据如何汇总与解读，就在欢迎之列。

• Historical work on the development of trial methods and on landmark studies is published, on the view that a method is easier to judge once its origins are known.试验方法演进与里程碑研究的历史考据也在刊载之列，理由是一门方法弄清来路之后，取舍才更容易评判。

• Education and training of trialists is another named topic, covering curricula, mentoring and the growth of trial capacity where it is thin.试验人员的教育与培训是另一个列名方向，涉及课程、带教，以及在试验能力薄弱的地区培养队伍。

• Patient-related questions are included too, among them patient-reported outcomes, the burden that participation places on volunteers and the representativeness of the samples that trials enrol.与患者相关的议题同样在列，包括患者报告结局、参与试验给志愿者带来的负担，以及入组样本的代表性。

• Decision analysis has a place, and so does controversy: the journal prints exchanges in which rival methodological positions are argued out in public.决策分析有一席之地，争鸣同样如此，刊物会刊登不同方法学立场公开辩驳的往返文章。

• Two exclusions are stated plainly. Disguised replications of a single trial protocol are turned away, and so are papers that merely report the results of a finished trial, unless the analysis carries a methodological advance.有两类稿件被明确排除。变相复制单个试验方案的来稿不予接收，仅仅报告已完成试验结果的论文同样不收，除非其中的分析带有方法学新意。

History

• The line begins in 1980, when Controlled Clinical Trials started as the journal of the Society for Clinical Trials, published by Elsevier.刊物的谱系始于 1980 年，当年《Controlled Clinical Trials》作为临床试验学会的会刊创刊，由 Elsevier 出版。

• The board page carries a roll of editors emeriti that records the succession: Meinert from 1980 to 1993, Wittes from 1994 to 1998 and Neaton from 1999 to 2003, all three under the earlier title.编委页列有一份荣休主编名册，记下了历任者的年限。1980 年至 1993 年由（Meinert）担任，1994 年至 1998 年由（Wittes）接任，1999 年至 2003 年由（Neaton）收尾，三人的任期都落在旧刊名之下。

• Goodman took the journal into its new series in 2004 and edited it until 2013, which makes him the first editor of Clinical Trials as distinct from its predecessor.2004 年接手新刊的是（Goodman），任期到 2013 年，是《临床试验》现名下的首位主编。

• The relaunch came with volume 1, number 1 in February 2004. SAGE became the publisher, the title changed to Clinical Trials, and the volume count restarted at one instead of continuing from the predecessor's twenty-fourth volume.改版落在 2004 年 2 月的第 1 卷第 1 期。出版方换成 SAGE，刊名改为现名，卷号从第 1 卷重新起算，没有接着前身刊的第 24 卷往下排。

• The National Library of Medicine treats the title as a continuation of the older journal, and its MEDLINE, PubMed and Index Medicus coverage opens at that February 2004 issue.美国国立医学图书馆把现名登记为旧刊的延续，MEDLINE、PubMed 与 Index Medicus 的收录都从 2004 年 2 月那一期开始。

• The library's imprint note names two publishers in sequence, Arnold of London for the early volumes and SAGE Publications afterwards, so the house changed once inside the present title.该馆的出版项按先后列出两家，早期卷次记伦敦的 Arnold，其后记 SAGE，现名期内出版方只换过这一次。

• The print number is 1740-7745 and the electronic number is 1740-7753. Both were assigned at the relaunch and neither was inherited from the predecessor.印刷刊号为 1740-7745，电子刊号为 1740-7753。两组号码都在改版时新配，没有一组承自前身刊。

• Six issues make a volume, so 2026 belongs to volume 23 of the present series. Supplementary numbers have appeared alongside the regular six from time to time.每卷 6 期，2026 年出到现名系列的第 23 卷。常规六期之外，刊物还不时另出增刊。

• The Society for Clinical Trials owns the title, and the copyright line on the site still reads Copyright © 2026 by The Society for Clinical Trials.刊物归临床试验学会所有，网站版权行至今写作「Copyright © 2026 by The Society for Clinical Trials」。

• The society meets every year, and its 2026 gathering is set for Phoenix, Arizona, under the theme Advancing Public Health: Clinical Trials in an Era of Cutting-Edge Information Capabilities.学会每年开会，2026 年年会定在亚利桑那州凤凰城，主题为「Advancing Public Health: Clinical Trials in an Era of Cutting-Edge Information Capabilities」。

• Science Citation Index Expanded has covered the journal throughout its present run, and the 2025 edition places it in the third quartile of medicine, research and experimental at 117 of 191.科学引文索引扩展版覆盖了现名以来的全部卷次，2025 年版把它排在医学研究与实验类目的第三四分位，191 份中列第 117 位。

• The impact factor has moved within a narrow band. It stood at 2.599 in 2022, slipped to 2.2 in 2023 and held there in 2024, then returned to 2.4 in 2025 against a five-year figure of 2.8.影响因子一直在窄幅区间内移动。2022 年为 2.599，2023 年降至 2.2，2024 年维持该水平，2025 年回到 2.4，五年影响因子为 2.8。

• The 2025 snapshot records 53 articles a year, 3,279 citations and a cited half-life of 9.4 years, long for a journal devoted to method.2025 年快照记录年发文 53 篇，总被引 3 279 次，被引半衰期 9.4 年，对一份方法学刊物而言这个数字偏长。

• The journal citation indicator is 0.54 and the percentile rank 39, both below the category median, while the long half-life points to a literature cited slowly and for many years.期刊引文指标为 0.54，百分位为 39，两项都低于类目中位，偏长的半衰期则指向一个引用缓慢却持久的文献群。

• Access is by subscription, with Sage Choice as the optional open route. Gold open access accounted for 34.09 percent of the 2025 output.刊物以订阅制发行，Sage Choice 是可选的金色通道。2025 年金色开放获取占 34.09%。

Editors

• Colin Begg, a biostatistician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, holds the editor-in-chief post, and the editorial office sits in the same institution.主编为（Colin Begg），生物统计学家，任职于纽约的（Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center），编辑部也设在该中心。

• Katherine Wong is assistant editor in that office, and correspondence reaches the journal at bstclintrials@mskcc.org.（Katherine Wong）在同一间办公室担任助理编辑，编辑部邮箱为「bstclintrials@mskcc.org」。

• Six deputy editors share the handling of manuscripts. Mithat Gönen works at the same cancer center, Daniel Heitjan holds posts at Southern Methodist University and UT Southwestern, and Edward Korn comes from the National Cancer Institute.六位副主编分担稿件处理。（Mithat Gönen）来自同一家癌症中心，（Daniel Heitjan）在（Southern Methodist University）与（UT Southwestern）两处任职，（Edward Korn）来自（National Cancer Institute）。

• The other three are Jonathan Kimmelman of McGill University, Athene Lane of the University of Bristol and Monica Taljaard of the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, so Canada and Britain both hold seats at deputy level.其余三位是（Jonathan Kimmelman，McGill University）、（Athene Lane，University of Bristol）与（Monica Taljaard，Ottawa Hospital Research Institute），加拿大与英国在副主编一层都有席位。

• About sixty-two associate editors fill out the board, drawn from the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, Belgium, France and the Netherlands and spanning biostatistics, epidemiology, ethics and clinical specialties.编委会另有约 62 位副编辑，来自美国、英国、加拿大、澳大利亚、比利时、法国与荷兰，学科上覆盖生物统计、流行病学、伦理与临床各专科。

• Several names on the list have shaped trial methods for decades, among them Susan Ellenberg at Pennsylvania, Stephen George and Susan Halabi at Duke, Peter Thall at Texas and David Schoenfeld at Harvard.名单上若干名字在试验方法领域已有数十年积累，其中包括宾夕法尼亚大学的（Susan Ellenberg），杜克大学的（Stephen George）与（Susan Halabi），得克萨斯大学的（Peter Thall），以及哈佛大学的（David Schoenfeld）。

• Statistical practice in industry and in health services shows as well, with Marc Buyse of IDDI in Belgium, Huseyin Naci at the London School of Economics, Michael Grayling at Janssen and Nan Xiao at Merck.产业与卫生服务领域的统计实践同样可见，例如比利时的（Marc Buyse，IDDI）、伦敦政治经济学院的（Huseyin Naci）、（Michael Grayling，Janssen），以及（Nan Xiao，Merck）。

• A British and Australian cluster runs through the board, counting Jamie Murdoch and Richard Emsley at King's College London, Beatriz Goulao at Glasgow, Karen Bracken at Sydney and Jessica Kasza at Monash.编委中英国与澳大利亚的成员成组出现，包括伦敦国王学院的（Jamie Murdoch）与（Richard Emsley），格拉斯哥大学的（Beatriz Goulao），悉尼大学的（Karen Bracken），以及莫纳什大学的（Jessica Kasza）。

• Review is single anonymous. Reviewers see who wrote the paper, authors never learn who reviewed it, and at least two independent reports are needed before a decision is taken.评审采用单匿名方式。审稿人知道稿子出自谁手，作者不会得知审稿人是谁，作出决定之前至少要有两份独立评审意见。

• Accepted papers are copyedited for style and consistency before publication, a step the instructions keep separate from scientific review.录用后的稿件在刊出前统一做文字与体例编辑，作者须知把这道工序与学术评审分开说明。

• The journal belongs to the Committee on Publication Ethics and follows its guidance on misconduct, authorship and corrections.刊物是出版伦理委员会（Committee on Publication Ethics）的成员，按其指引处理学术不端、署名与更正事宜。

• Published metrics put the median first decision at three days, the review stage at 82 days, submission to acceptance at 168 days and acceptance to publication at 60 days, with an acceptance rate of 11.5 percent.出版方公布的指标显示，首次决定中位 3 天，评审阶段 82 天，投稿到接收 168 天，接收到出版 60 天，接受率为 11.5%。

• Length limits are applied before review. Original research runs to 3,500 words with at most six tables or figures, short communications to 2,000 words with three, research letters to 1,000 words and twelve references, and letters to the editor to 500 words.字数上限在送审之前就会执行。原创研究不超过 3 500 词，图表至多 6 件。短通讯不超过 2 000 词，图表至多 3 件。研究快报不超过 1 000 词，参考文献至多 12 条，图表 1 件。致编辑信不超过 500 词。

• Overlong submissions are returned without assessment. No submission fee and no page charge are levied, and authors who want immediate open access may pay for Sage Choice, which institutional agreements can discount or waive.超限稿件直接退回，不进入评审。刊物不收投稿费，也不收版面费，希望立即开放获取的作者可以付费选择 Sage Choice，机构协议可打折或免除。