Data Methodology
Transparency documentation for the Australian Clinical Trials Intelligence Dashboard
Data Source
All data in this dashboard is sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov , a registry and results database of publicly and privately supported clinical studies conducted around the world. It is maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Data is accessed via the ClinicalTrials.gov API v2 , which provides structured JSON access to all registered studies. The API supports filtering by location, date range, study status, and other parameters.
| API Endpoint | https://clinicaltrials.gov/api/v2/studies |
| Data Period | 1 January 2019 – 24 March 2026 (date of last fetch) |
| Geographic Filter | AREA[LocationCountry]Australia |
| Date Filter | AREA[StartDate]RANGE[YYYY-01-01,YYYY-12-31] per year |
| Total Trials | 5,158 studies with at least one Australian site (2019–2026) |
| Total AU Sites | 19,529 individual site locations across Australia |
Filtering Logic
Inclusion Criteria
A study is included in this dashboard if it meets all of the following conditions:
- The study has at least one registered site in Australia (as indicated by
LocationCountry = Australia) - The study's start date falls within the range 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2026
- The study is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov (see limitations regarding ANZCTR below)
Year Assignment
Each trial is assigned to a single year based on its StartDate field from the Protocol Section. If only a month and year are provided (e.g., "March 2024"), the first of that month is used. The start date represents when the study began enrolling participants, not when it was registered.
State Assignment
Australian states and territories are determined from the LocationState field in the API. When this field is missing (~31% of sites), the postcode is used as a fallback with deterministic mapping:
| Postcode Range | State |
|---|---|
| 1000–2599, 2619–2899, 2921–2999 | New South Wales |
| 2600–2618, 2900–2920 | Australian Capital Territory |
| 3000–3999, 8000–8999 | Victoria |
| 4000–4999, 9000–9999 | Queensland |
| 5000–5799 | South Australia |
| 6000–6797 | Western Australia |
| 7000–7799 | Tasmania |
| 0800–0899 | Northern Territory |
This achieves ~95% state resolution across all Australian trial sites. The remaining ~5% have neither a valid state field nor a parseable postcode.
Classification Rules
Therapeutic Area Classification
Trials are classified into therapeutic areas based on keyword matching against the Conditions field. Each trial may match multiple therapeutic areas. The classification uses the following keyword groups:
| Therapeutic Area | Matching Keywords |
|---|---|
| Oncology | cancer, tumor, tumour, carcinoma, lymphoma, leukemia, melanoma, sarcoma, myeloma, neoplasm, oncol, glioblastoma, mesothelioma |
| Cardiovascular | heart, cardiac, cardiovascular, hypertension, atrial, coronary, arrhythmia, stroke, thrombosis, vascular |
| Neurology | alzheimer, parkinson, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, migraine, neuropathy, dementia, brain, neural, stroke, ALS |
| Immunology | autoimmune, rheumatoid, lupus, psoriasis, dermatitis, crohn, colitis, immune, allergy, asthma |
| Infectious Disease | HIV, hepatitis, influenza, tuberculosis, malaria, COVID, SARS, infection, bacterial, viral, sepsis, pneumonia |
| Rare Disease | rare, orphan, genetic disorder, inherited, congenital, metabolic disease, lysosomal |
| Mental Health | depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar, PTSD, psychiatric, mental, psychosis, OCD, ADHD |
| Metabolic | diabetes, obesity, metabolic, NASH, fatty liver, lipid, cholesterol, thyroid |
| Respiratory | asthma, COPD, pulmonary, respiratory, lung, cystic fibrosis, bronchitis |
Trials not matching any keyword group are classified as "Other." Case-insensitive matching is applied.
Sponsor Classification
Sponsor type is taken directly from the LeadSponsor.class field in the API, which provides one of:
| API Class | Dashboard Label | Description |
|---|---|---|
INDUSTRY | Industry | Pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies |
OTHER | Academic/Other | Universities, research institutes, foundations |
NIH | NIH | U.S. National Institutes of Health |
FED | Government | Other U.S. federal agencies |
NETWORK | Network | Clinical trial networks and cooperative groups |
OTHER_GOV | Other Gov | Non-U.S. government entities |
The "Australian Sponsor" distinction in the dashboard is determined by cross-referencing the sponsor name against known Australian institutions, universities, and companies. This is an approximation — some smaller Australian sponsors may not be identified.
Study Design Classification
Study design attributes (randomisation, blinding, intervention model) are taken directly from theDesignModule in the API. Phase values are from PhasesModule. Combined phases (e.g., "Phase 1/Phase 2") are reported as given. "Not Applicable" typically indicates observational or device studies.
Trial Duration Calculation
Trial duration is calculated as the difference in months between StartDate andPrimaryCompletionDate (or CompletionDate if primary is unavailable). Only trials with both dates are included in duration analysis. Trials with calculated durations exceeding 240 months (20 years) are excluded as likely data errors.
Known Limitations
ANZCTR Coverage Gap
This dashboard only includes trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov. The Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) is a separate registry that holds additional trials, particularly investigator-initiated and academic studies. ANZCTR does not provide a public API, making automated integration infeasible at this time.
As a result, this dashboard likely underrepresents academic and investigator-led trials while providing comprehensive coverage of industry-sponsored trials (which are typically dual-registered on ClinicalTrials.gov).
Investigator Data Anonymisation
Approximately 70% of industry-sponsored trials do not list individual site-level principal investigators. Instead, they use generic placeholders such as "Study Coordinator," "Novartis Investigative Site," or "GSK Clinical Trials." The Investigators section of the dashboard therefore has a systematic bias toward academic and investigator-led trials, and the PI leaderboard should not be interpreted as a comprehensive ranking of all Australian clinical researchers.
Coverage rate: ~19% of trials list site-level PIs, ~57% list overall officials (often company names), and ~8% list a responsible party investigator.
2026 Partial Year
Data for 2026 is incomplete as it only covers trials with start dates up to the date of the last data fetch (March 2026). Year-over-year comparisons involving 2026 should account for this partial coverage. The dashboard notes this where relevant, but users should exercise caution when interpreting 2026 figures as indicative of full-year trends.
Multinational Trial Attribution
Approximately 70% of trials in this dashboard are multinational studies that happen to include Australian sites. These trials are counted in full for Australia, even though the majority of their enrolled participants may be in other countries. The enrollment figure represents global enrollment, not Australian enrollment specifically. ClinicalTrials.gov does not provide per-country enrollment breakdowns.
Results Reporting Lag
The Results Transparency section measures whether a trial has posted results on ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a 12–24 month lag between trial completion and results posting. Trials completed in 2024–2026 will therefore show artificially low reporting rates that should not be interpreted as non-compliance. The dashboard focuses on trials started in 2019–2022 for meaningful transparency comparisons.
Network Visualisation Scope
The Collaborator Network section shows only the top 12 international sponsors, top 15 Australian hospitals, and top 8 Australian universities by trial volume. Smaller institutions and sponsors are excluded for visual clarity. Edge weights represent the number of trials where a sponsor and facility appear together, not the depth or nature of the collaboration.
Data Refresh
This dashboard presents a static snapshot of ClinicalTrials.gov data as of March 2026. The data is not automatically refreshed. To update the dashboard with newer data, the fetch and analysis scripts would need to be re-run against the ClinicalTrials.gov API.
ClinicalTrials.gov updates its database daily. Registered studies may be modified after initial registration, which means historical counts may differ slightly from those captured at the time of our data fetch.
Citation
If referencing data from this dashboard, please cite as:
Australian Clinical Trials Intelligence Dashboard (2026). Data sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov, U.S. National Library of Medicine. Analysis period: January 2019 – March 2026. Available at: [dashboard URL].