Thank you for responding to my recent guest editorial, “Challenges faced by journal editors” (Turpin DL. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2015;147:285-9). You are wise to bring attention to the issue of reporting and publication biases by orthodontic journals. As a partial solution to the problem, you suggested implementing clinical trial registration to prevent these biases. I could not agree more and wish to direct you to 3 editorials published in the AJO-DO nearly 10 years ago. The first (Turpin DL. The need to register clinical trials in orthodontics. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2006;130:429-30) emphasized the value of clinical trial registration and how effectively this has been promulgated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). This editorial even includes the minimal registration data set of some 20 items to accurately describe the information disclosed for each registry. The editorial makes it quite clear to all that the editors of the AJO-DO are committed to do whatever they can to help reach the goal of registering 100% of clinical trials in the same database before the trial begins. To this end, every trial participant and every investigator should ask, “Is this clinical trial fully registered?”

To assist authors in following the advice of the ICMJE when submitting all manuscripts of clinical research, I wrote 2 more editorials in 2006 (Turpin DL. Policies rely on biomedical uniform requirements. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2006;130:561-2; and Turpin DL. Policies for biomedical journals address ethics, confidentiality, and corrections. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2006;130:693-5). I thank you for giving me this opportunity to stress the importance of the ICMJE requirements, which have proven to be invaluable in the publication of clinical research. I believed then, as I do now, that your Journal must continue to be totally committed to the ICMJE’s well-tested requirements.