Privacy Statement

The ISRCTN website is administered and published by BioMed Central.

This is the privacy policy ("policy") for ISRCTN.com which is run and provided by BioMed Central Limited (we, us and our), part of Springer Nature. BioMed Central Limited is located at The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London N1 9XW. We can also be contacted at info@biomedcentral.com .

Certain personal data as described by this policy is collected for the trial applicant in in the Springer account system and in ISRCTN.com and for the trial contacts and invoice addressee in ISRCTN.com.

We will only use the personal data gathered over this website as set out in this policy. Below you will find information on how we use your personal data, for which purposes your personal data is used, with whom it is shared and what control and information rights you may have.

I. Summary of our processing activities

ISRCTN provides a clinical trial registry. This material is openly available. The following summary offers a brief overview of the data processing activities that are undertaken in order to provide a trial registration service. You will find more detailed information under the indicated sections below.

  • When you visit our website for informational reasons without setting up an account, only limited personal data will be processed to provide you with the website itself (see III).
  • If you create an account in order to register a trial on ISRCTN as a trial applicant, further personal data will be processed in the scope of such services (see IV and V).
  • Furthermore, your personal data will be used for statistical analysis that helps us to improve our website (see VI).
  • If you are listed as a public or scientific contact, your personal data will be disclosed to third parties (see VII) that might be located outside your country of residence; potentially, different data protection standards may apply (see IX). All trials registered on ISRCTN are viewable on the World Health Organization's International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP). Trials registered on ISRCTN that are recruiting in the UK are viewable on the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) website Be Part of Research (formerly the UK Clinical Trials Gateway).
  • We have implemented appropriate safeguards to secure your personal data (see X) and retain your personal data only as long as necessary (see XI).
  • Under the legislation applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise certain rights with regard to the processing of your personal data (see XII).

II. Definitions

Personal data : means any information relating to a natural person who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, or an online identifier.

Processing : means any operation that is performed on personal data, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or any kind of disclosure or other use.

III. Informational use of the website

When you visit our website for informational reasons, i.e. without registering for any of our provided services listed under IV and without providing us with personal data in any other form, we may automatically collect additional information about you which will contain personal data only in limited cases and which is automatically recognised by our server, such as:

  • your IP address
  • your device type, name and IDs
  • the date and time of your requests
  • the content of your requests
  • information on your browser version
  • your screen resolution
  • information on your operating system, including language settings.

We use such information only to assist us in providing an effective service (e.g. to adapt our website to the needs of your device or to allow you to log in to our website), and to collect broad demographic information for anonymised, aggregated use.

The personal data automatically collected is necessary for us to provide the website, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR, and for our legitimate interest to guarantee the website's stability and security, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.

IV. Registration for our services

To submit a trial record for registration, the applicant must create a personal login using the Springer account system. We will store and process the following:

  • Information (such as your name, user name and email address) that is provided by registration
  • Information in connection with an account sign-in facility (e.g. log-in and password details)
  • Communications sent by you (e.g. via e-mail or website communication forms)
  • The information that is necessary for the performance of the service is labelled accordingly. All further information is provided voluntarily.

We will process the personal data you provide to:

  • Identify you at sign-in
  • Provide you with the services and information offered through the website or which you request
  • Administer your account
  • Communicate with you in order to process the trial record submission until it is ready for registration, update a trial record where you are listed as the applicant and to manage payment of the trial registration fee
  • Behavioural profiling
  • Provide access (where appropriate) to other Springer Nature group content or services if you so request.
  • For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR.

Applicant data is kept indefinitely, as a record of who entered the trial data originally, because this person is responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the trial record submission, but is not displayed publicly.

If you are a contact, we may contact you at intervals in order to prompt updates to the trial record. Your name and mailing address will be visible to all users to enable them to contact you about the trial. Your email address and telephone number will also be visible, unless the registry has agreed to your request under exceptional circumstances to hide these details. We will store and process the following:

  • Information (such as your name, title, ORCID ID, mailing address, telephone number and email address) that is provided by the applicant at registration or subsequently by you or a colleague with your knowledge and permission
  • Your name and mailing address will be visible to all users to enable them to contact you about the trial. Your email address and telephone number will also be visible, unless the registry has agreed to your request citing exceptional circumstances to hide these details. Details that have been hidden from public view will still be visible to editorial staff and may be used to contact you in order to maintain the accuracy of the trial record.
  • Communications sent by you (e.g. via e-mail or website communication forms)
  • The information that is necessary for the performance of the service is labelled accordingly. All further information is provided voluntarily.

We will process the personal data you provide to:

  • Communicate with you in order to process the trial record submission until it is ready for registration, update a trial record where you are listed as the contact and to manage payment of the trial registration fee
  • For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR.

Contact information can be changed or removed on request ; however, there must always be at least one contact for each trial.

If you are an invoice addressee, your details will have been added to the invoice request by an applicant or contact. Your name, email address and mailing address will be not visible to users and will only be used to generate an invoice and email it to you. We will store and process the following:

  • Information (your name, mailing address and work email address) that is provided by the applicant at registration or subsequently by the applicant or trial contact
  • Communications sent by you (e.g. via e-mail or website communication forms)
  • The information that is necessary for the performance of the service is labelled accordingly. All further information is provided voluntarily.

We will process the personal data you provide to:

  • Communicate with you in order to manage payment of the invoice
  • For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR.

Invoice addressee details will be kept in the trial record, on the invoice and in our payment systems indefinitely. This information will only be visible to Springer Nature employees.

V. Automated decision making

We do not use your personal data for automated decision making which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.

VI. Analytics

For statistical analyses we use web analytics services such as Google Analytics to collect information about the use of this site.

General tracking information

The tools collect information such as

  • Device and browser information (operating system information, Mobile device identifier, mobile operating system, etc.)
  • IP address
  • Page accessed, URL click stream (the chronological order of our internet sites you visited)
  • Geographic location
  • Time of visit
  • Referring site, application, or service.

We use the information we get from the providers only to determine the most useful information you are looking for, and to improve and optimise this website. We do not combine the information collected through the use of the tools with personal data.

Depending on the provider the information generated about your use of the website may be transferred to and processed in third countries, e.g. the United States. For further information about the potential risks of a cross border data transfer please refer to section IX. The tools collect only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this site, rather than your name or any other identifying information. The provider will use this information in order to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activities and to provide other services relating to website and internet use to us.

The legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR and represents our legitimate interest to analyse our website's traffic to improve the user's experience and to optimise the website in general.

Google Analytics / Google Tag Manager

We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA ("Google"). On our behalf Google will use the information generated by a cookie for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet activity in connection with the use of the website.

We have activated the IP-anonymisation within the Google Analytics service, and your IP address will be truncated within the area of member states of the European Union or other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases the whole IP address will be first transferred to a Google server in the USA and truncated there. The IP-address your browser conveys within the scope of Google Analytics will not be associated with any other data held by Google.

You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser; however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. In addition to that you may prevent the collection of the information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including you IP address) and the processing of this data by Google if you download and install the browser plug-in available at the following link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

VII. Third party content and social media plug-ins

Links to third party websites


This website may contain links to third party websites, such as trial websites. We are not responsible for the content and the data collection on respective third party websites; please check the privacy policy of respective websites for information of respective websites' data processing activities.

VIII. Information sharing

Where personal data is disclosed to the following third parties for the purposes mentioned above the legal basis for the transfer of your personal data is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b and f GDPR. Some of the recipients may reside outside the EEA. For further information about cross border transfer in general and transfers outside of the EEA see IX.

The name, mailing address, telephone number and email address of all trial contacts will be displayed on the World Health Organization's International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP). Contacts can request that their details are hidden if there is a risk of undue harassment. ISRCTN will assess these requests on a case-by-case basis.

The name, mailing address, telephone number and email address of all trial contacts for trials recruiting in the UK will be displayed on the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) website Be Part of Research (formerly the UK Clinical Trials Gateway). Contacts can request that their details are hidden if there is a risk of undue harassment. ISRCTN will assess these requests on a case-by-case basis.

We may disclose anonymous aggregate statistics about users of the website in order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers and other reputable third parties and for other lawful purposes, but these statistics will include no personal data.

We may disclose your personal data to contractors who assist us in providing the services we offer through the website. Such a transfer will be based on data processing agreements. Therefore, our contractors will only use your personal data to the extent necessary to perform their functions and will be contractually bound to process your personal data only on our behalf and in compliance with our requests.

In the event that we undergo re-organisation or are sold to a third party, any personal data we hold about you may be transferred to that re-organised entity or third party in compliance with applicable law.

We may disclose your personal data if legally entitled or required to do so (for example if required by law or by a court order).

IX. Cross border data transfers

Within the scope of our information sharing activities set out above, your personal data may be transferred to other countries (including countries outside the EEA) which may have different data protection standards from your country of residence. Please note that data processed in a foreign country may be subject to foreign laws and accessible to foreign governments, courts, law enforcement, and regulatory agencies. However, we will endeavour to take reasonable measures to maintain an adequate level of data protection when sharing your personal data with such countries.

In the case of a transfer outside of the EEA, this transfer is safeguarded by privacy the Privacy Shield and EU Model Clauses. You can find further information about the aforementioned safeguards by following this link https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection_en

X. Security

We have reasonable state of the art security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of personal data under our control. For example, our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorised personnel have access to personal data. Whilst we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of information will never occur, we use all reasonable efforts to prevent it.

You should bear in mind that submission of information over the internet is never entirely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of information you submit via our website whilst it is in transit over the internet and any such submission is at your own risk.

XI. Data retention

We strive to keep our processing activities with respect to your personal data as limited as possible. In the absence of specific retention periods set out in this policy, your personal data will be retained only for as long as we need it to fulfil the purpose for which we have collected it and, if applicable, as long as required by statutory retention requirements.

XII. Your rights

Under the legislation applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise some or all of the following rights:

1. require (i) information as to whether your personal data is retained and (ii) access to and/or duplicates of your personal data retained, including the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned, and the data recipients as well as potential retention period;

2. request rectification, removal or restriction of your personal data, e.g. because (i) it is incomplete or inaccurate, (ii) it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or (iii) the consent on which the processing was based has been withdrawn;

3. refuse to provide and -- without impact to data processing activities that have taken place before such withdrawal -- withdraw your consent to processing of your personal data at any time;

4. object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, that your personal data shall be subject to a processing. In this case, please provide us with information about your particular situation. After the assessment of the facts presented by you we will either stop processing your personal data or present you our compelling legitimate grounds for an ongoing processing;

5. take legal actions in relation to any potential breach of your rights regarding the processing of your personal data, as well as to lodge complaints before the competent data protection regulators;

6. require (i) to receive the personal data concerning you, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and (ii) to transmit those data to another controller without hindrance from our side; where technically feasible you shall have the right to have the personal data transmitted directly from us to another controller; and/or

7. not to be subject to any automated decision making, including profiling (automatic decisions based on data processing by automatic means, for the purpose of assessing several personal aspects) which produce legal effects on you or affects you with similar significance.

You may (i) exercise the rights referred to above or (ii) pose any questions or (iii) make any complaints regarding our data processing by contacting us using the contact details set out below.

XIII. Contacting us

Please submit any questions, concerns or comments you have about this privacy policy or any requests concerning your personal data by email to our Group Data Protection Officer. You can contact our Group Data Protection Officer via dataprotection@springernature.com

The information you provide when contacting us at dataprotection@springernature.com will be processed to handle your request and will be erased when your request is completed. Alternatively, we will restrict the processing of the respective information in accordance with statutory retention requirements.

XIV. Amendments to this policy

We reserve the right to change this policy from time to time by updating our website respectively. Please visit the website regularly and check our respective current privacy policy. This policy was last updated on 07/08/2019.