et al examined 1388 clinical trial register entries and found that all 440 registered trial records with recruitment status "in progress" that were either non- or partially funded by industry named the scientific leadership of the trial, compared with 49% (111/226) of those funded by industry; findings confirmed by the current study. There are well-established ethical, scientific and legal obligations associated with being a clinical trial investigator. International research standards such as the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) Topic E6 require investigators to have appropriate qualifications and experience, to ensure compliance with the trial protocol, to obtain and document informed consent, and to be responsible for the medical care of trial subjects and for the integrity of the research data and results [44] . Although key international standards (ICH E6, Declaration of Helsinki) do not specifically require trials to have named scientific leadership, it seems reasonable to ask for them to be publicly named and accountable for the trials onto which they recruit participants, considering their responsibilities both to the participants they recruit, and to future patients who may benefit from the results of the study [6] . Similarly, it is important that investigators be contactable should the publication of the results of their research be delayed (or not achieved, despite increasing public and legal pressure to do so), to enable the results of studies to be made available to investigators of similar studies and meta-analysts [45] . The PI is also ultimately responsible for registering the trial and hence