Letters to the editor: the new order

Letters are important to us. They often provide more penetrating critiques of articles than any form of prepublication peer review.1 If the publication of a scientific article resembles an appearance in court then the letters columns is where the jury of peers records its verdict. Imagine our regret therefore that we have the space to publish only a third of the letters we receive—and those five to six months after the articles to which they refer. Put another way, many of the carefully crafted responses we receive, and the insights they contain, end up in the bin. …