Request to Comply with RCT Reporting Guidelines

Dear [CORRESPONDING AUTHOR]:

We are pleased that you have submitted your report of a randomized clinical trial to our journal.

The journal adheres to the highest standards of peer review and to the CONSORT statement, http://www.consort-statement.org/consort-statement/, which offers a standard way for researchers to report trials, allowing reviewers and readers to more appropriately evaluate their validity.

In addition, journals that adhere to the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors can accept for submission only randomized clinical trials that were registered before submission. To help the journal handle your paper rapidly, we ask that the authors comply with the following requirements:

• Registration of the trial with ClinicalTrials.Gov (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov), Current Controlled Trials (http://www.controlled-trials.com), or the Cochrane Skin Group Ongoing Trials Register (http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/ongoingskintrials/)
• Inclusion of the registration site and number in the Materials and Methods section of the manuscript
• Inclusion of statements in the Materials and Methods confirming that 1) the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/b3/index.html) were followed; 2) study participants gave written, informed consent; and 3) the institution(s) approved the study
• Inclusion of the following subheadings: protocol, assignment, masking, participant flow and follow-up, and analysis (see CONSORT statement)
• Submission of CONSORT flowchart (attached)
• Submission of CONSORT checklist (attached; some items may not be appropriate, if not, please state why)

Thank you for your attention to these details in the preparation of your submission. We look forward to receiving your manuscript for review by our Editorial Board.

Sincerely,