Cardiovascular clinical trials funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) in the USA are published sooner after completion of the study if they have clinical, rather than surrogate, end points, and if they have positive, rather than negative, findings. Gordon et al. investigated the time between completion of data collection and publication of results for 244 randomized studies supported by the NHLBI. All trails were completed between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2011. Only 57% of studies had been published within 30 months of completion, and trials with clinical end points were significantly more likely to be published within this time frame than those with surrogate end points (adjusted publication rate ratio 2.11, 95% CI 1.26–3.53, P = 0.004). The cost of the trial (up to US$5 million) was also a predictor of timely publication.