We strongly welcome the input of Dee and colleagues (Dee et al. 2010) on our recent essay piece (Thorne and Vose 2010). The original essay was deliberately written as ideas for discussion. Dee et al. make many valid points. We feel in particular that Dee et al.’s laying out of plans for the data they plan to publish along with their next major reanalysis is a positive step. Too often such plans are not publicized in this way in advance of project inception. We restrict our discussion within the following sections to those points where we either need to clarify our initial intent or wish to comment on the points raised by Dee et al. Before that, there are two general issues that are not of scientific focus that we would like to clarify.