Letters to the editor: time for more scholarly debate

Abstract

‘Editors like correspondence; it livens up the journal, shows that people are reading it, and allows “ordinary” doctors outside academic units to have their say.1 This statement still holds true more than 40 years later. However, it also begs the question, what purpose does publishing letters to the editor serve in a contemporary journal? Firstly, and most importantly, the correspondence section of a journal provides a forum for scholarly debate that facilitates postpublication peer review and allows exchange of ideas and information. By publishing these letters, the journal ensures that they become part of the published record. As with original articles, letters are indexed and can be accessed via bibliographical databases. Furthermore, the publication of scholarly correspondence is a duty for journals, as clearly articulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE): ‘Medical journals should provide readers with a mechanism for submitting comments, questions, or criticisms about published articles, usually but not necessarily always through a correspondence section or online forum. The authors of articles discussed in correspondence or an online forum have a responsibility to respond to substantial criticisms of their work using those same mechanisms and should be asked by editors to respond.2 However, the term ‘letters to the editor’ is perhaps misleading, as the audience for published letters is, in most instances, the readership of the journal, not the editor.

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