Post-publication Discussion

JACR welcomes scholarly discussion of the articles it has published, and publishes substantive letters together with the authors’ reply.

Letters to the Editor

Readers may submit a Letter to the Editor raising a substantive scientific point about a published article — a methodological concern, an alternative interpretation of the reported data, relevant evidence that was not considered, or an apparent factual error.

How to submit

  • Send the letter to journalanesthesiology@gmail.com with the subject line Letter to the Editor, identifying the article by title and DOI.
  • Letters should not normally exceed 600 words and 8 references, with at most one table or figure.
  • All authors of the letter must be named, must meet the journal’s authorship criteria, and must declare any competing interests.
  • Letters are ordinarily submitted within 12 weeks of publication; later letters are considered where the point raised remains material to the record.

How letters are handled

The editor assesses each letter for scientific substance, civility, and relevance. Letters consisting only of disagreement without argument or evidence, or making personal or unsubstantiated allegations, are not published; concerns about possible misconduct are handled confidentially under the Publication Ethics policy instead.

Where a letter concerns a specific article, its authors are invited to submit a reply and are given a reasonable period to do so. The journal’s intention is to publish letter and reply together. Accepted letters and replies are published as citable items with their own DOI and are linked bidirectionally with the article discussed.

Effect on the published article

A letter does not by itself alter a published article. Where discussion establishes that the record is inaccurate or unreliable, the journal proceeds under Corrections, Retractions, and Post-publication Updates. Complaints about editorial conduct or process, rather than about the science of a published article, are handled under Complaints and Appeals.

Discussion on external platforms

JACR recognises that post-publication discussion also takes place on preprint servers, post-publication peer-review platforms, and professional networks. Substantive concerns raised there and brought to the journal’s attention are assessed on their merits, by the same standards applied to letters submitted directly.