Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A 400-word letter in JAMA pointing out a statistical inconsistency in a recent original article, with an authors' reply
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
An informal email to a journal editor is not a published letter to the editor
Editorial commentary
A letter to the editor is a short scholarly communication submitted to a journal in direct response to a previously-published article in that same journal — raising questions, identifying errors, offering alternative interpretations, or presenting additional evidence. It is conventionally published together with a reply from the original article’s authors, making it the canonical mechanism for post-publication peer review within the traditional journal system.
How this differs from a commentary
Where a commentary can address a broader development in the field and is not necessarily tied to one specific prior article or paired with an authors’ reply, a letter to the editor is narrower by convention: it responds to one specific published article, and the paired-reply structure is close to standard practice. Both are peer-reviewed and citable, but a letter to the editor is not the same thing as an informal email or message sent privately to a journal’s editorial staff — only the published, citable version counts as this output type.
Example
A short published letter pointing out a statistical inconsistency in a recently-published original research article, appearing in a subsequent issue alongside a reply from that article’s authors addressing the point raised.
Also known as
Letter to the editor · Correspondence (letter)
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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