How to write a letter to the editor: an author's guide

Abstract

ABSTRACT

From the Editor: What’s a letter to the editor?

“…Guidelines for writing an effective letter for JOEH are provided in brief, but additional tips for authors are widely available across publication platforms. Johnson and Green [1] and S€ uer and Yaman [2] provide particularly insightful examples. Since the word limit is small, do not summarize the article: provide a reference so that readers can access the article itself.…”

A student's advice on scholarly letter writing

“…The longevity of the letter medium within academic journals can be understood through their function as a form of post‐publication peer review: identifying oversights, inspiring new questions and challenging interpretations, in order to elevate the quality of the literature and to better inform its application . For authors, correspondence establishes evidence of interest, initiative, originality and substantive contribution within the published record .…”

Letter to editor: its importance and drawbacks

“…A letter to the editor is a means of short communication between the author of an article and the reader of a journal. 1 Articles published in a journal are reviewed and screened meticulously, some errors may have been overlooked by the editorial board before publication of the article in the journal. In these conditions readers can send a letter to the editor expressing their comments about the article.…”

“…The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors has declared that all biomedical journals should have such a section because the absence of one "denies readers the possibility of responding to articles in the same journal that published the original work." [1][2][3] A letter must have a reason, and it should convey its message in a short and brief fashion. These letters are usually sent for publication.…”