PRISMA Statement

The authors respond: We thank the authors1 for their interesting comments in defense of their proposed guidelines. However, we judge their remarks to be about semantics, not substance. The authors themselves have previously stated that PRISMA advocates protocol registration.2 In our view, the main issue is not whether PRISMA “demands,” “advocates,” or “requests” registration. If the guideline was adopted as standard by journal editors, the “request” would of course become a requirement, and the real question is whether this requirement makes sense. Our view, as detailed in our original commentary,3 is that it does not: this additional layer of academic bureaucracy would merely obstruct free scientific enquiry. Bahi Takkouche Department of Preventive Medicine University of Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela, Spain CIBER en Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBER-ESP) Spain email protected Guy Norman Robens Centre for Public and Environmental Health Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences University of Surrey Surrey, United Kingdom