Evidence-appraisal glossary
Good Clinical Practice
An international ethical and quality standard for designing, running, recording, and reporting trials that involve people. Following it is meant to protect participants and keep the resulting data credible.
Also called: GCP.
Good Clinical Practice, often shortened to GCP, spans informed consent, oversight by ethics committees, accurate record-keeping, and checks that the trial follows its protocol. Its aim is twofold: safeguarding the rights and safety of participants, and ensuring the data are reliable enough to trust. A claim of GCP compliance points to a documented chain of accountability behind the numbers, though compliance alone does not prove the design was sound.
This is a plain-language methodology definition for reading research. It is general education, not medical advice.