Information and consent forms should use short words and sentences

novel treatments in children with acute life threatening disease might expect parents to agree to anything that might increase their child's chance of survival.Our experience shows that this is not true in all cases.Most local research ethics committees are now moving towards asking for reports of trials they have approved.It is rare, however, for them to ask about refusals to par- ticipate.Reports of trials to the committees and for publication should routinely state the proportion of people who refuse to participate and the reasons for this.This information may suggest whether patients are being properly informed, may help with study design, and might also be a means of detecting scientific fraud.