ECRIN Metadata Repository

The clinical research Metadata Repository developed by ECRIN is an online tool that helps scientific researchers find clinical studies, as well as documents and data linked to those studies. It collates and standardises metadata from major clinical trial registries, data repositories and publication sources worldwide, bringing study-level and object-level information into a single searchable portal. The portal is non-opinionated and non-curated: it presents harvested metadata in a structured way without adding expert review or quality grading, focusing on discoverability, access and provenance.

The main interface combines a central free-text search with configurable filters. Users can search by keywords, study identifiers or paper identifiers and then narrow results by study characteristics, study status or attributes of linked data objects. Results contain clinical studies, presented through structured descriptions, and data objects linked to these studies. Data object types include patient information sheets and consent forms, individual participant datasets, data management plans, statistical analysis plans, case report forms, results, publications and descriptive metadata, if they are present in source registries. The crMDR only stores metadata, with outbound links to the original sources, where documents or data are hosted under public or controlled access.

This resource is intended for all scientific users, is freely accessible without registration and has a global scope. A dedicated online guide explains acronyms, category definitions and filter logic. It supports tasks such as screening related studies for a given condition, finding publications linked to a specific trial, and identifying interventional clinical trials with available protocols, statistical analysis plans, or individual participant data.