National Institute of Mental Health Recruitment Monitoring Policy and Clinical Trial Impact

Background/aims: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) implemented a recruitment milestone and progress reporting policy in fiscal year 2019. While too recent to evaluate, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) previously implemented a similar policy in fiscal year 2006 which may forecast likely effects of the NIH-wide policy.

Methods: An observational, single-group, pre/post evaluation of the association between the NIMH policy and the Relative Citation Ratio was conducted for non-fellowship, competing clinical trial grants funded from fiscal years 2004-2007.

Results: 124 clinical trial grants were identified. After adjusting for covariates, the clinical trial grants subject to the NIMH recruitment monitoring policy were associated with a statistically significant mean-per-grant citation ratio (citations relative to the field norm) 1.98 times that of the clinical trial grants that were not subject to the policy (p = 0.005; 95% CI: [1.23, 3.20]). The clinical trial grants subject to the policy were also associated with a non-statistically significant 1.58 times maximum-per-grant citation ratio compared to the clinical trial grants not covered by the policy (p = 0.24; 95% CI: [0.73, 3.44]).

Conclusions: The NIMH recruitment monitoring and reporting policy was associated with a statistically significant increase in the mean-per-grant Relative Citation Ratio. NIMH-specific results suggest that the NIH-wide policy might also be positively associated with improved Relative Citation Ratio.