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A Letter to the Editor: Comment, Reply, and Etiquette
- Journal of Scholarly Publishing
- University of Toronto Press
- Volume 47, Number 2, January 2016
- pp. 213-216
- Article
- Additional Information
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Comments and replies (Letters to the Editor) are short notes arising from a published paper. They can be contentious, even hostile. However, comments may correct an original error or reveal alternative interpretations, support a new contribution or extend its discussion. Comments and replies can add to academic discourse, but they may tread the edges of academic civility. In these days of publication metrics, a cynical author may just use them to improve their citation statistics.