MétaCan
Menu
Back to cohort
Record W4410145864 · doi:10.1186/s13063-025-08846-2

Master protocol for a series of cohort-based randomized controlled trials to test tools to communicate research results to study participants and others with relevant lived experience: the SPIN-CLEAR Trials

2025· article· en· W4410145864 on OpenAlexafffundabout
Brett D. Thombs, Claire Adams, Elsa‐Lynn Nassar, Marie‐Eve Carrier, Meira Golberg, Kanika Bharthi, Amanda Wurz, Annabelle South, Linda Kwakkenbos, Sabrina Hoa, Danielle B. Rice, Geneviève Guillot, Amanda Lawrie-Jones, Maureen Sauvé, Susan J. Bartlett, Catherine Fortuné, Amy Gietzen, Karen Gottesman, Marie Hudson, Laura K. Hummers, Vanessa L. Malcarne, Maureen D. Mayes, Michelle Richard, James Stempel, Robyn K. Wojeck, Kathleen Blagrave, Jill Boruff, Vanessa L. Cook, Nicole Culos-Reed, Ole Fröbert, Katie Gillies, Vera Granikov, Lars G. Hemkens, Elizabeth Yakes Jimenez, Agnes Kocher, Catarina Leite, Mathew A W T Lim, Nancy Maltez, John Michalski, Tracy Mieszczak, Mwidimi Ndosi, Janet Pope, François Rannou, Ken Rozee, Sharon E. Straus, Matthew R. Sydes, Lehana Thabane, John Varga, Tami Yap, Merrick Zwarenstein, Luc Mouthon, Andrea Benedetti

Bibliographic record

VenueTrials · 2025
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldMedicine
TopicSystemic Sclerosis and Related Diseases
Canadian institutionsImpactWestern UniversitySt. Joseph's HospitalOttawa HospitalSt. Joseph’s Healthcare HamiltonCentre Intégré Universitaire de Santé et de Services Sociaux du Centre-Sud-de-l'Île-de-MontréalMultiple Sclerosis Society of CanadaMcMaster UniversityUniversity of CalgaryCentre Hospitalier de l’Université de MontréalMcGill University Health CentreMcGill UniversityUniversity of the Fraser ValleySt. Michael's HospitalJewish General Hospital
FundersLady Davis Institute for Medical ResearchCanadian Institutes of Health ResearchMedical Research CouncilJewish General HospitalArthritis SocietyFondation de l'Hôpital général juifMcGill University
KeywordsMedicineProtocol (science)Randomized controlled trialTest (biology)Research designSeries (stratigraphy)Alternative medicinePathology

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

BACKGROUND: Research results are often not communicated to study participants or others with relevant lived experience. Effective communication of research results would help study participants understand their contribution to research and could improve trust in research and likelihood of research participation. Few randomized controlled trials (RCTs), however, have compared the effectiveness of research communication tools, and it is not known which tools work best for different people. We will conduct the Scleroderma Patient-centered Intervention Network-Communicating Latest Evidence and Results (SPIN-CLEAR) trial series via the multi-national SPIN Cohort to compare tool effectiveness. Primary objectives of each RCT will be to compare tools based on (1) information completeness, (2) understandability, and (3) ease of use. We will additionally evaluate comprehension of key aspects of disseminated research; likelihood that participants would enroll in a similar future study; and, for all primary and secondary outcomes, outcomes by participant characteristics (gender, age, race or ethnicity, country, language, education level, health literacy). METHODS: An advisory team of people with systemic sclerosis (SSc, also known as scleroderma) participated in developing research questions, selecting outcomes, and designing the series of parallel-arm RCTs that will each compare two or more tools or tool variations to a plain-language summary comparator; the common comparator will facilitate across-trial comparisons. In each RCT, people with SSc and researchers will select a recent SSc research study to disseminate. Tools will be developed by experienced tool developers and people with SSc. SPIN Cohort participants (current N eligible = 1522 from 50 SPIN sites in Australia, Canada, France, UK, USA) and additional participants recruited via social media and patient organization partners who consent to participate will be randomized to a dissemination tool or plain-language summary comparator and complete outcomes. Analyses will be intent-to-treat and use linear regression models. DISCUSSION: Each trial in the planned series of trials will build upon knowledge from previous trials. Results will contribute to the evidence base on how to best disseminate results to study participants and others with relevant lived experience. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06373263. Registered on April 17, 2024 (first trial in series).

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Direct model labels (unvalidated)

Per-model category and study-design labels from the labeling rounds. They are machine output, unvalidated, and the disagreement between models ships as data. No study design here is MEDLINE-validated yet.

Model armCategoriesStudy designConfidence
gemmaMetaresearch
Domain: Reporting · Genre: Protocol
About the Canadian research system: no · About a Canadian topic: no
Randomized triallow
gptMetaresearchScholarly communication
Domain: Reporting · Genre: Protocol
About the Canadian research system: no · About a Canadian topic: no
Randomized trialmedium
models splitAgreement compares identical category sets and study designs across arms.

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.144
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.249
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesMetaresearch
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: Reporting · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Randomized trial · Consensus signal: none
GenreCandidate signal: Protocol · Consensus signal: Protocol
Teacher disagreement score0.856
Threshold uncertainty score0.763

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.1440.249
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0080.007
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0110.011
Bibliometrics0.0060.006
Science and technology studies0.0070.006
Scholarly communication0.0090.008
Open science0.0040.004
Research integrity0.0130.020
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.1910.052

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.570
GPT teacher head0.545
Teacher spread0.025 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Labeled directly by 2 models reading the full record.

MetaresearchScholarly communication

The models disagree on parts of this classification; every voice is preserved in the section at the end of the page.

Study designRandomized trial
DomainReporting
GenreProtocol

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations2
Published2025
Admission routes3
Has abstractyes

Explore more

Same venueTrialsSame topicSystemic Sclerosis and Related DiseasesCategoryMetaresearchFrench-language works237,207