Reply to the commentary "Be careful when assuming the obvious", by P. Alday

Be Careful When Assuming the Obvious: Commentary on "The placement of the head that minimizes online memory: a complex systems approach"

Ferrer-i-Cancho (in press) presents a mathematical model of both the synchronic and diachronic nature of word order based on the assumption that memory costs are a never decreasing function of distance and a few very general linguistic assumptions. However, even these minimal and seemingly obvious assumptions are not as safe as they appear in light of recent typological and psycholinguistic evi...

Radically Questioning the Principle of the Least Restrictive Alternative: A Reply to Nir Eyal; Comment on “Nudging by Shaming, Shaming by Nudging”

In his insightful editorial, Nir Eyal explores the connections between nudging and shaming. One upshot of his argument is that we should question the principle of the least restrictive alternative in public health and health policy. In this commentary, I maintain that Eyal’s argument undermines only a rather implausible version of the principle of the least restrictive alternative and I sketch ...

Commentary: “Rabies in Iranian Traditional Medicine” & Reply to Commentary on “Rabies in Iran: Past, Present and Future”

The effect of time interval between descent of the Quran and commentator on the commentary

The Holy Quran was descended from Almighty Allah to the Holy Prophet (AS) about the last 14 centuries and there has been a time interval between descent of the Quran and its existing readers and commentators. This Question is posed whether this time interval between descent of the Quran and commentator will effect on verses understanding and their commentary or not? As one of commentary princip...

How to reply to referees' comments when submitting manuscripts for publication

Background: The publication of articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals is a fairly complex and stepwise process that involves responding to referees’ comments. Little guidance is available in the biomedical literature on how to deal with such comments. Objective: The objective of this article is to provide guidance to notice writers on dealing with peer review comments in a way that maxim...