Searching instructions

To search for studies on the ANZCTR, please click here or go to the 'SEARCH NOW' button on the left hand panel of the home page.

The ANZCTR website includes a basic search function and an advanced search function.

For the basic search, please simply enter in relevant text word(s) or phrases and the system will search for that text word/phrase in all registered trial records.

The advanced search options allow you to search specific fields on the registration form, such as Recruitment status, Condition category, and Registration date. You should fill in any or all of the fields and then click on 'Search'.

Searching for a phrase

If you want to retrieve only records that contain a specific phrase, please enclose the search text inside double quotes “ ”.

Example: “University of Sydney”

This search will only return records containing the phrase University of Sydney.

Searching by word combinations

Operators AND and OR can be used to search records. These will tell the search function if you wish to retrieve records with all of the words in the search field or at least one of the words that you have entered into the search field.

Operator AND will retrieve records that contain words connected by AND.

Example: Lung AND Cancer
- This search will retrieve only trial records that have Lung and Cancer in them.

Operator OR will retrieve records that contain either one of the words that are connected by OR.

Example: Lung OR Cancer
- This search will retrieve all trial records that have either the word Lung or the word Cancer in them.

Search Order Precedence

If you use different operators in your search, the search is processed according to this order of precedence:

1. AND
2. OR

For example, searching for lung OR blood AND cancer retrieves all records containing both “blood” and “cancer” as well as any record that contains only “lung”.

Use of Parentheses

Use parentheses to override operator precedence.

For example, searching for (lung OR blood) AND cancer retrieves all records with both “lung” and “cancer” as well as records that contain both “blood” and “cancer”.

Finding out more about a trial

If you’d like to find out more about a study you’ve found on the ANZCTR, please contact the person listed as 'Contact person for public queries' or 'Contact person for scientific queries' at the bottom of each trial record of interest.

Searching elsewhere

You can also search for clinical trials and other clinical trials information via:

• Australian Clinical Trials: www.australianclinicaltrials.gov.au. This is a consumer friendly, government run website which sources all of its trial information from ANZCTR.
• Australian Cancer Trials: www.australiancancertrials.gov.au. This is a consumer friendly website run by Cancer Australia which provides information on cancer trials recruiting in Australia. The site sources all of its trial information from ANZCTR.
• World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) search portal: trialsearch.who.int. This site includes data from the ANZCTR and a number of other worldwide registries.