Please quote ref no: SC/CS-L8/826
9 March 1998
FAX 001 206 720 4992
Dear Dr. Jones:
You sent us a letter commenting on Davis and colleagues' report in our November issue of The Lancet. I am afraid that your letter does not meet our requirements and I am sorry that you were not informed about those. We have a time limit of eight weeks and I am afraid that for letters that arise out of the Western world that is pretty well set in stone. We do make exceptions for people iii far flung places who cannot get The Lancet quickly. We also have a maximum of five references in letters to the editor, of which you were clearly unaware. Nor do you provide (certainly on the faxed copy I received) an address. We are therefore faxing this letter to the fax number that you provided because we cannot post it.
All this might sound rather strange to your ears but in fact our decision was based on the lateness of your letter, and on the fact that while this topic was of general interest to us some time ago we have now moved on and other topics are our priority at the moment. I would respectfully like to point out that The Lancet fully peer reviews all articles that appear in the journal, including Research Letters, The only part of the journal that is not peer reviewed is the News section and most (of the Correspondence section. I am very sorry that I cannot be more helpful to you.
Yours sincerely
/s/
Stephanie Clark PhD
Senior Editor
12 March 1998
FAX 001 206 720 4992
Dear Dr Jones
I showed your letter as I promised to Dr Horton and we have decided that we will send it to the authors of the original report for a reply. I await a letter from you giving me your address, by the way. I will be in touch as soon as we receive Dr. Davis' reply.
In addition I wonder if you could inform us as to who funds your organisation/research. Without an address we are a bit at sea. 0ur editorial fax number is #44 (0)171 637 3265.
Yours sincerely,
/s/
Stephanie Clark, Phd
Senior Editor
TO: Stephanie Clark, PhD
Senior Editor, The Lancet
Fax: 01 44-171=637 3265
FROM: Kay Jones, Ph,D. Fax: (206) 720-4992
DATE: March 12, 1998
SUBJECT: In response to your letter (fax) of March 12, the following information is provided.
l. My address Is Suite 18, 2600 Fairview Ave, East, Seattle, Washington, 98102, USA.
2. I am the President of Zephyr Consulting, a private environmental consulting firm, serving both government and industry, I received no funding for the review of the subject paper. I am an adjunct scholar at both the CATO Institute and the Citizens for A Sound Economy foundation, and wrote the review in this apacity. My co-authors Michael Gough and Joel Bucher are on the staffs of these two organizations respectively.
I appreciate your reconsideration In this matter, Am I to assume that when you receive the reply from Davis et al that both letters will be published? Would you please let me know when publication could take place? Thank you again for your reconsideration.
Comments on this posting?
Click here to post a public comment on the Trash Talk Bulletin Board.
Click here to send a private comment to the Junkman.
Copyright © 1998 Steven J. Milloy. All rights reserved on original material. Material copyrighted by others is used either with permission or under a claim of "fair use." Site developed and hosted by WestLake Solutions, Inc.
Material presented on this home page constitutes opinion of Steven J. Milloy.