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We recently conducted a review of pilot and feasibility studies (1) and found that some editors would not publish pilot studies. The problem this causes is that authors try and disguise pilot studies as small clinical trials, which of course is not their purpose. Published pilot studies would be very valuable to others planning large clinical trials in the same area, and there is less incentive to conduct them if they are not going to be published, unless part of the subsequent large clinical trial. Our research showed that few pilot studies were in fact followed by a subsequent trial in the literature. As part of an ongoing project I'd be grateful if anyone could share with me (in confidence) details of pilot trials they have tried to have published, but were turned down because a) the study was too small to answer the main question about an intervention (i.e. the editor mis-understood the purpose of a pilot study) or b) because the editor's response was that the journal does not publish pilot studies. We hope that the results of our efforts would be to get the proper conduct and reporting of pilot studies. Thanks Mike Campbell Ref 1. Arain M, Campbell MJ , Cooper CL and Lancaster GA (2010) What is a pilot or feasibility study? A review of current practice and editorial policy BMC Medical Research Methodology 10:67