Submitting a Letter to the Editor

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CMAJ's enhanced letters feature is now the portal for all submissions to our letters column.

Most letters are posted, without editing, within 1 working day of submission. Letters should be succinct and contribute substantially to the topic under discussion. Letters will not be posted online or published in print if they contain language that is offensive, abusive, potentially libelous, or language that violates the privacy rights of any third party. We will not accept letters that give information about individual patients without consent, are incomprehensible or contain unauthorized copyrighted material or commercial advertising. Letters cannot be altered or removed from our site after posting.

We encourage but do not require submissions to be referenced. Posted letters will be accompanied by their author's name, e-mail address and affiliation.

All letters will be considered for publication in the print version of the journal. Letters written in response to an article published in CMAJ are more likely to be accepted for print publication if they are submitted within 2 months of the article's publication date. Printed letters are edited with a view to brevity and house style; the target length is 250 words. Authors whose work is discussed are given an opportunity to respond.

If you mention a patient in your letter who would be able to identify himself or herself from your description, please download, complete and submit a patient consent form.

To submit a letter, click "Submit a response" at the top right hand side of any CMAJ article. Please note that you will be required to submit your name, email address, occupation and affiliation.

To submit a letter that does not pertain to an article published in the journal or to submit a private letter to CMAJ's editors, email your letter to pubs{at}cma.ca with a note indicating whether or not you would like it to be considered for publication. (The rapid publication cycle of the eLetters system is not available for such correspondence.)