Submitting a letter to the editor

As per the announcement made by the journal’s owner, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), CMAJ Open will no longer be accepting submissions. Read more…

Letter submission

To submit a Letter in response to a CMAJ Open article, simply click on the 'Respond to this article' link under 'Article Tools' to the right of the article.

Please note that you will be required to submit your name, email address, occupation, and affiliation when you submit a letter. Anonymous letters and those with incomplete affiliations will not be posted.

Purpose of letters

Letters represent the post-publication peer review of an article and, as such, should contribute to the scientific discourse. Therefore, CMAJ Open considers letters that:

  • respectfully point out potential methodological or analytic errors, or general mistakes in an article,
  • offer a well-substantiated alternative interpretation of results,
  • compare or contrast an article's findings or conclusions with work published elsewhere, or with policy or guidance in other jurisdictions, OR
  • offer a patient's perspective on, or experience of, a particular medical condition that could enhance readers' understanding.

Moderation

Letters are moderated by 2 senior editors.

Letters will not be posted if they

  • are defamatory or contain ad hominem remarks toward an author, CMAJ Open staff, the CMA or their staff, or a particular clinician or institution,
  • are disrespectful, e.g., contain language that is offensive or abusive,
  • contain accusations of plagiarism or academic misconduct (such will be considered and investigated in a separate careful process as appropriate),
  • contain commercial advertising, OR
  • make no substantial point or contain only a web-link.

Peer review of letters

External peer review of letters is not routinely undertaken but may sought in certain circumstances, e.g., for the purposes of evaluating statistical critique or if letters discuss race, religion or custom and adequate expertise is lacking among editorial staff. In these cases, appropriate experts will be consulted prior to posting of a letter.