A Randomized Controlled Trial to Increase Cancer Screening Among Attendees of Community Health Centers

Like Dr. Dietrich, I am grateful to Dr. Roetzheim and his colleagues for sharing their research materials. This is the sort of openness that fosters a culture of inquiry and speeds the translation of new knowledge into practice. We are delighted that the online resources of the Annals can serve as a forum for investigators to share some of the important details of their work, as well as their main findings.

Also, I am intrigued by Dr. Dietrich's suggestion that it would be useful to track the access and use of these materials. The Annals Editorial Assistant, Laura McLellan, and Editorial Director, Bob Edsall tell me that it is possible to track the number of downloads of the online appendix to the Roetzheim article. We will do so, and will report this information in a future TRACK comment linked to the Roetzheim et al article. We are unable to identify who downloads materials from the Annals website.

I encourage readers who find the online appendix to this article, or materials in other articles, useful, to post a TRACK comment telling the authors and other readers how you use them.

Thanks for your creative idea, Dr. Dietrich. Does anyone have an answer to Dr. Dietrich's other question about evaluation of similar online dissemination mechanisms?

Competing interests:   Annals Editor