Randomized Clinical Trials: Design, Practice and Reporting

Edited by David Machin, Peter M Fayers. . Published by Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, 2010, 361, £39.99 (Softcover). ISBN-978-0-471-49812-4 A search of the Amazon website reveals 80 books on clinical trials, 20 of them paperbacks for generalists like this one. So why do so many people write them, and why do we need another? This book does not tell us; we can only speculate. Clearly though the field is a competitive one. We are told that the book is targeted towards clinicians who wish to be involved in clinical trials research. It contains far more detail than this readership would need: like many textbooks perhaps, the agenda is set more by the desire of the authors to impart information than the need of the readers to receive it. Overall it must be said that this book is sound and comprehensive and will not lead clinicians astray. The problem is that the same could probably be said for most of the other 80 books. Clinicians will know half this material already …