Registry Guide

Recruitment statuses, and why they lag reality

The status field is the first thing most people check and the field most likely to be slightly out of date. Understanding what each value means — and how status updates actually reach the registry — saves wasted phone calls in both directions.

By the Clinical Trials Finder editorial team Guidance last reviewed June 10, 2026 Report an issue

This guide describes registry mechanics, not medical advice. Whether any open study is appropriate for a specific person is a question for that person's clinician and the study team.

Every status value, in lifecycle order

Not yet recruiting

The study is registered but no site is enrolling yet.

Worth bookmarking: the record usually lists an anticipated start date and a central contact you can ask about timing.

Recruiting

At least one site is currently enrolling participants.

The overall status can say Recruiting while individual sites are closed or not yet open — always check site-level status on the official record.

Enrolling by invitation

The study enrolls only people pre-identified by the researchers (for example, members of an existing cohort).

Cold outreach generally cannot get you into these studies; they appear in searches because they are active, not because they are open to the public.

Active, not recruiting

The study is ongoing but enrollment has closed.

Useful for research awareness — it shows where a field is investing — but not a path to participation.

Suspended

Enrollment or the study itself is paused, potentially temporarily.

Records do not always explain why. The status may return to Recruiting or move to Terminated.

Terminated

The study stopped early and will not resume.

Reasons range from slow enrollment to a planned analysis answering the question early — the record sometimes states which.

Completed

The study finished as planned.

Look for a results section; many completed studies post outcome data on the official record, though often with a long delay.

Withdrawn

The study was stopped before the first participant enrolled.

These records remain in the registry for transparency but never had participants.

Why statuses lag

Status changes are made by study sponsors and their staff, not by the registry itself. Federal rules require sponsors to update recruitment status within 30 days of a change, and to verify their records at least annually — but a site can fill its last slot weeks before anyone edits the registry entry, and busy coordinators update in batches. The practical consequences:

A study marked Recruiting may have just closed — especially if the last update posted date is months old.
A study marked Not yet recruiting may have quietly started.
Site-level statuses lag even more than overall status, because each site reports through the sponsor.

This is why every trial page in this directory shows source timing and links to the official record: the registry entry is the starting point, and the listed study contact is the ground truth. The registry's own documentation of these practices is at ClinicalTrials.gov: Glossary.

A timing strategy that respects the lag

Search across Recruiting and Not yet recruiting together — our recruiting and not-yet-recruiting pages cover both. Treating “not yet” as invisible means missing studies that open next month.
Sort by recently updated (the default on our browse pages) so actively maintained records surface first.
Check the last update posted date on the official record before contacting a site; a fresh date raises confidence in the listed status.
When a study matters to you, call or email the listed contact regardless of minor status doubt — coordinators routinely field exactly this question, and registries lag in both directions.