Letter to Editor, a scientific forum for discussion

Almost all the medical journals have included a special section for “Letter to the Editor” or “Correspondence” in order to raise the level of discussion on their publications. Historically, articles published in this section have consisted of several categories depending on the journal policy: Letters criticizing published papers Letters written in agreement of the published papers Letters criticizing or describing a hypothesis or a medical problem (not necessarily published) Letters describing additional features of a published article (by the same authors) Case reports and small series In recent years, many journals moved toward denoting the “Letters to the Editors” as the letters discussing a specific paper. Its importance has previously been discussed and emphasized in the literature. In scientific journals, all types of articles should typically be subject to a rigorous peer review. The aim of peer review is to expose the errors in the manuscript; however, this process has its own limitations. Two or three reviewers are usually required to comment on an original article, but it is often difficult to find experts on both the subject of manuscript and scientific writing. Moreover, an expert methodological review of a manuscript is usually difficult to obtain. Also, these reviewers are usually busy with their clinical practice, their manuscripts, and the reviews from other journals and may not have enough time to complete a review on its time frame. Although the role of peer review to present the scientifically valid information is not negotiable, the process may not be complete. “Letter to the Editor” or “Correspondence” is considered a “post publication peer review”. It is a powerful forum of discussion between the researchers to show the errors and deficits of the study which were overlooked in the prepublication peer review process. It is estimated that less than one tenth of the scientific articles feed with a criticizing letter to the editor. Ideally, this rate should increase to at least one letter for each research article. The letter should be submitted within a few weeks to months after a publication. Long delays between paper