An Invitation to Correspond With Us

The Editors of EJC - the European Journal of Cancer are pleased to announce an opportunity for correspondence in the journal.  For several years now we have discouraged letter writing, but a recent development now makes this possible, and we hope that you will wish to participate.

What is the value of publishing letters in a journal such as EJC?  We believe that original papers should give rise to debate and discussion. Despite the intention that Medicines should now be firmly evidence-based, it is inevitable that much new data appears as part of a larger plan of work in progress, and correctly and appropriately new data often contradicts existing literature.  Authors’ conclusions in a well-reasoned discussion can be controversial, and intelligent and appropriate correspondence adds to the overall value of any given piece of literature. 

With such strong arguments in favour of encouraging correspondence why have we not undertaken this in the past? The answer is simple and that is that despite publishing 18 issues a year the timelines of receiving correspondence, allowing original authors to respond and publishing such letters has in the past been too lengthy a process to fulfil the purpose of timely comment.  A new opportunity now presents itself to operate correspondence through electronic publication and we believe that this will give an immediacy to constructive criticism.

EJC is the official journal of ECCO - the European CanCer Organisation and ECCO’s website (http://www.ecco-org.eu/) is an attractive and very well used communication resource.  We are most grateful to ECCO for allowing EJC to use its website for letters related to papers that have been published in EJC.  We are therefore inviting you to make use of this facility by submitting letters relating to articles that have appeared in EJC. 

Such correspondence should be sent to Ms Suzanne Peedell at: ejcancer@elsevier.com.

Letters are reviewed by the editors and shown to the authors of the relevant original work to give them an opportunity to respond.  We emphasise that we are seeking comments, constructive criticisms and reference to relevant additional work that enhances the value of any particular original paper or review that we have published.  Letters should not be a surrogate for the submission of new original work where occasionally authors hope to gain publication of preliminary experimental data or small-scale clinical trials that would not otherwise reach the significance of a full manuscript.

The world of electronic publication offers many new opportunities for wider communication in the scientific world.  There is a challenge to balance that opportunity with maintaining quality, and the editors of EJC will retain the right to reject letters if they do not fulfil the quality of contribution required.  We very much hope that you will be encouraged to use this facility and are most grateful to ECCO for making this possible.

John Smyth

Editor-in-Chief