Respectful scientific debate in Australasian Psychiatry

Australasian Psychiatry welcomes respectful scientific debate on topical issues and papers published in the journal.1 Readers of the journal, as part of the medico-scientific community, are the ultimate arbiters of the worth of published papers. In this context, the Editorial team sometimes receives email correspondence that raises concerns about a published paper. Infrequently, correspondents request that a paper be corrected or retracted. However, the majority of papers are peer-reviewed, with the exception of identified Editorials (which are invited and not peer-reviewed, and designed to address time-sensitive topical issues of interest to the readership). Accordingly, if a correspondent, and thus potential author of a letter to the Editor, raises concerns about a peer-reviewed paper, the journal’s approach is to request assessment of the correspondent’s statements through symmetrical peer review of their correspondence. The correspondent’s views are also subject to peer review because the validity of the evidence and argumentation of a correspondent need to be assessed for the worth of consideration by journal’s readers and authors of the original paper...