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Editorial Matters : Guidelines for Writing Effective Editorials

  • 1 Dr Fontanarosa is Executive Editor, JAMA

Virtually every scientific journal publishes editorials or other opinion articles that accompany research articles or other reports or that present views and perspectives of the editors of the journal related to a published article, current issue, or journal policy. The most effective editorials are concise and detailed, authoritative and scholarly, and insightful and thought-provoking. Given these desirable attributes of editorials, yet considering that many editorials are written with tight timelines, this article is intended to provide guidance for writing effective and informative editorials to accompany research articles.

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Fontanarosa PB. Editorial Matters : Guidelines for Writing Effective Editorials . JAMA. 2014;311(21):2179–2180. doi:10.1001/jama.2014.6535

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Book cover

How to Practice Academic Medicine and Publish from Developing Countries? pp 263–266 Cite as

How to Write an Editorial?

  • Samiran Nundy 4 ,
  • Atul Kakar 5 &
  • Zulfiqar A. Bhutta 6  
  • Open Access
  • First Online: 24 October 2021

39k Accesses

11 Altmetric

An Editorial is defined as an opinion or a view of a member of the editorial board or any senior or reputed faculty written in a journal or newspaper. The statement reflects the opinion of the journal and is considered to be an option maker. If you have been asked to write an editorial it means that you are an expert on that topic. Editorials are generally solicited.

Editorial writers enter after battle and shoot the wounded Neil Goldschmidt, American Businessman and Politician (1940–…)

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1 What Is an Editorial?

2 how is the topic for an editorial chosen.

This is decided by the members of the editorial board and is usually related to important work which is about to be published in the journal. If you are invited to write an editorial on a topic of your choosing you should preferably write one on a general or public health problem that might interest a wide readership [ 1 ].

3 What Should be the Contents of an Editorial?

It has been said that ‘Editors, by and large, are reticent people, with a magnified sense of their own importance. Well, this may hurt some, but before they jump at our throats, let us clarify that we belong there as well’. The editorial should not look like an introduction to an original article or a self-glorifying piece of fiction.

Editorial writing has been compared to a double-edged sword, you can be apolitical and pragmatic but at the same time dogmatic in your views. The majority of editorials provide the readers a balanced view of the problems raised in a particular research paper and place them in a wider context. But there is no harm in going to extremes if the data supports your view. However, you should not mock the paper’s authors [ 2 ].

4 What Is the Basic Information Required for Writing an Editorial?

First, read the paper for which the editorial has been asked again and again. Do a literature search and critically analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the study. Read about how and why other authors came to similar or different conclusions. Discuss whether or not the findings are important [ 3 ].

An editorial should be brief, about one to two pages long, but it should be powerful. The language should be a combination of good English and good science. The writing can be ‘embellished by language but not drowned in it’. While a good editorial states a view, it does not force the reader to believe it and gives him the liberty to form his own opinion.

5 What Are the Steps Involved in Writing an Editorial?

Choose a topic intelligently.

Have a catchy title.

Declare your stance early.

Build up your argument with data, statistics and quotes from famous persons.

Provide possible solutions to the problem.

Follow a definite structure consisting of an introduction, a body that contains arguments and an end with a tailpiece of a clear conclusion. It should give the reader a chance to ponder over the questions and concerns raised.

6 What Are the Types of Editorial?

Editorials can be classified into four types. They may:

Explain or interpret : Editors use this type of editorial to explain a new policy, a new norm or a new finding.

Criticize: this type of editorial is used to disapprove of any finding or observation.

Persuade: These encourage the reader to adopt new thoughts or ideas.

Praise: These editorials admire the authors for doing something well.

7 What Is the Purpose of an Editorial?

An editorial is a personal message from the editor to the readers. It may be a commentary on a published article or topic of current interest which has not been covered by the journal. Editorials are also written on new developments in medicine. They may also cover non-scientific topics like health policy, law and medicine, violence against doctors, climate change and its effect on health, re-emerging infectious diseases, public interventions for the control of non -communicable diseases and ongoing epidemics or pandemics [ 4 ].

8 What Are the Instructions for Writing Editorials in Major Journals?

Many editorials written by in-house editors or their teams represent the voice of the journal. A few journals allow outside authors to write editorials. The details for these suggested by some of the leading journals are given in Table 26.1 .

9 What Is a Viewpoint?

A Viewpoint is a short article that focuses on some key issues, cutting-edge technology or burning topics or any new developments in the field of medicine. It can be a ‘personal opinion’ or any piece of information, which gives the author’s perspective on a particular issue, supported by the literature. Viewpoints can also be unencumbered by journal policy. The normal length of viewpoints can flexible. The BMJ, for instance, also allows viewpoints to be written by patients.

Viewpoints may share a few common features with commentaries, perspectives and a focus which is a brief, timely piece of information. It is like a ‘spotlight’ that contains information on research funding, policy issues and regulatory issues whereas a commentary is an in-depth analysis of a current matter which can also include educational policy, law besides any other seminal issue.

10 Conclusions

An editorial is written to provide a crisp, concise overview of an original article. It is generally deemed to be an honour to be asked to write an editorial.

One needs to follow the general instructions for writing editorials for a particular journal.

It should have an objective and the flow of ideas should be clear.

Squires BP. Editorials and platform articles: what editors want from authors and peer reviewers. CMAJ. 1989;141:666–7.

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Singh A, Singh S. What is a good editorial? Mens Sana Monogr. 2006;4:14–7.

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Cleary M, Happell B, Jackson D, Walter G. Writing a quality editorial. Nurse Author & Editor. 2012;22:3.

Article types at The BMJ. Last accessed on 12th July 2020. Available on https://www.bmj.com/about-bmj/resources-authors/article-types

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Samiran Nundy

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Institute for Global Health and Development, The Aga Khan University, South Central Asia, East Africa and United Kingdom, Karachi, Pakistan

Zulfiqar A. Bhutta

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Nundy, S., Kakar, A., Bhutta, Z.A. (2022). How to Write an Editorial?. In: How to Practice Academic Medicine and Publish from Developing Countries?. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5248-6_26

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Guidance for new authors

The BMJ offers many opportunities for first-time authors and newly qualified doctors to get published. If you are stuck thinking about how to get started this guidance will help.

Medical students and doctors within two years of qualifying should also read how you can contribute to our Student section .

Why publish?

Newly qualified doctors are encouraged to get publications. Besides improving your CV, there are many motives and reasons for newly qualified doctors to publish their work. Getting published gives you the opportunity to say something important, provoke debate, share your experiences, educate others, change practice, and occasionally make some extra money.

What to write about

Unless you have a track record as an author, it is unusual for a journal to give you an idea to write about, or to commission an article. Usually it is down to newly qualified doctors to come up with an idea.

As a newly qualified doctor, you are likely to spend a lot of time with patients. Why not start by keeping an eye out for interesting cases, images, or situations where you have learned a lot?

One of these could prompt you to write a case report, based on an unusual case or to remind others of an important message. Alternatively you might have an idea for an education article – these are usually based on more common or typical situations and presentations. If you have not written before, consider working with a peer or senior colleague who is familiar with how to write this type of article.

You may come across a medical issue or a new development that you would like to write about. Or you might form an opinion, see, or read something that others may be interested in too. This could form the basis of an opinion or review article.

Some medical journals are developing online communities. You could build your confidence in writing by starting or joining a discussion. Post on a medical forum, or submit a Rapid Response to an article that has spurred your attention. Or you could write a blog for the BMJ Opinion site . To do this, contact Juliet Dobson at [email protected]

Audit and research

Newly qualified doctors are often involved in audit, and sometimes in research, which specific journals may be interested in. If you get involved in such projects make sure you negotiate how your work will be acknowledged. Will you be named as a contributor or as an author?

Developing your idea

Before you commit time to writing an article, consider your idea and all the options available to you. Talk to colleagues. Take a look online, perhaps on a general search engine such as Google , or medical search engine such as Pubmed and get an idea about what has already been written on the topic you hope to write about. This might help you gauge how original, well documented, or topical the subject is.

Editors are after the best content for their readers so consider how relevant your article will be to the readers of the journal that you plan to submit to. It is worth considering if your article is relevant to specialists, or to a wider audience, to doctors in a specific area of the country, nationally, or internationally.

To browse BMJ Journals follow this link . To look at the content of a specific journal, choose from the dropdown list on the right hand side, and select “go”. This will take you to the homepage. You will be able to look at recent content and think about how your idea might fit in.

From most of the BMJ Journals’ home page, you can select the link “About the journal” on the navigation bar - for example, the Emergency Medicine Journal . This will bring up a section on the remit of the journal. On a further navigation bar that appears beneath “About the journal” you can also click on and read “Instructions for authors” from this screen.

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Before you commit time to writing you could consider contacting the relevant editor to discuss your submission. Contact details can be found on journal websites. It is best to keep this brief. Outline your idea, the type of article you want to write, what you qualifications have (and those that any co-authors may have), and how you can be contacted.

It is unusual for a journal to make a commitment to publish an article without seeing the finished product, and it is common for ideas to be rejected. Do not be put off. You may be able to present your idea to another journal, and you are likely to learn something from this process.

Top BMJ articles for newly qualified doctors to write

Tips for writing, what happens once your article has been submitted.

First your article will be read by one of the editors. If they think the article is promising it may be sent to another editor for a second opinion, or out for external peer review depending on the article type. This means that other clinicians will be asked how suitable they think the article it is for publication. Their comments should be constructive. If the editors decide to pursue your article they may ask you to make some alterations. If the article is accepted you will be contacted at a later date to make minor alterations and clarifications as the article is prepared by the production staff for publication.

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How to Write a Commentary for Medical Journals in Six Easy Steps

Table of contents.

Commentaries and editorials are among the most underrated and underutilized tools in healthcare writing. Writing a medical journal commentary is one of the best ways to break into academic writing, establish your voice in a particular field or topic area, and/or make a large impact for a relatively small investment of time and energy.

 While the idea of inserting opinions into professional writing might seem daunting, having a systematic approach to this form of writing can make the entire process easier. This article will explore the concept of the commentary and break down a simple approach to writing a commentary on any topic.

What is a commentary?

Commentaries are medical journal articles that contain the subjective thoughts or opinions of the author. A commentary typically intends to make a persuasive point or take a stance on an issue. They are sometimes called “editorials” or “perspectives” and these terms may be interchangeable or may denote different characteristics, depending on the publication. For instance, at JAAPA , an article is called a “commentary” if it is written by a guest author and it is called an “editorial” if it is written by a journal editor or member of the editorial board. These semantics shouldn’t distract you; you can think of a commentary as the medical journal equivalent of an op-ed or opinion column of a newspaper.

Despite their opinionated nature, commentaries should still be written with high standards. They should be well-written, carefully structured, and should have a focused thesis (the single, central idea) with supporting points. They often contain references, albeit far fewer than a review article, and should be thoroughly fact-checked. Commentaries may or may not reference material within the journal they are published and often incorporate the unique perspective of the author.

How to Write a Commentary (Video)

Types of Commentaries

Commentaries are written in diverse styles for a variety of purposes. There is no right way to write a commentary, but here are some unofficial “flavors” of commentaries that you might want to try:

Commentaries that refer to an in-journal article

For some journals, a “commentary” is an article that discusses another article within that journal. This type of commentary can serve a variety of purposes. It can add perspective or context to a non-editorial article—like a research article—or it can serve as a counterpoint to another editorial or opinion-based article. These are often written by members of a journal’s editorial staff or by invited authors, but journals might also accept unsolicited submissions. Like letters to the editor, these articles should very clearly state which article they reference and should be written and published along with, or soon after, the referenced article to maintain timely relevance.

Here’s an example of an editorial that commented on a research study published in the same journal. It offered a contrary opinion to the discussion of that research and elicited a response from the authors in the form of a letter to the editor. This back-and-forth allows readers to watch an academic discussion play out in real time. This particular author also seems to have fun creating waves.

How to write a commentary on another academic article:

1. understand the target article’s context.

Of course, you should read and understand the article on which you will write a commentary. But you should also seek to understand the background and context of that article so that you can intelligently comment on its place in the larger academic literature and conversation. Is this article consistent with previous research or is it groundbreaking? Does it contradict established knowledge? Is it absurd or iconoclastic? Is it written by a newcomer or an established giant in the field? Do your research so that you can speak from a place of authority.

2. Decide your stance

Commentary doesn’t have to mean criticism . You may offer counterpoints or criticism of the work, or you might want to elevate and elaborate on work that you find important. An above example shows how to use commentary as a rebuttal, but here is an example of a commentary article that simply elevated and expanded upon excellent research in an important field. No matter your perspective, be specific. Avoid general criticism or praise and take a stand on a particular element(s) of the article.

3. Play by the rules

Commentary articles often must follow the specific rules of the journal in which they appear. But here are some general rules to follow when drafting your commentary:

  • Mention the original article within the first 2-3 sentences of your commentary and explain its relevance at the top of the commentary.
  • Build up or connect to a larger idea, theme, or issue. Scientific articles are often very specific. A good commentator will provide broader context and connect a topic to a more expansive train of thought.
  • Bring in 2-3 outside references that give additional context to the original article and/or your thesis.
  • If you critique, do it respectfully without insulting or disparaging.

Commentaries that address current events

Some commentaries place major current political, economic, social, or environmental events in the context of medical practice and explore their impact on healthcare. Despite the broad reach of these topics, the editorial articles should still address the primary audience of the publication in which they are published and ensure they are relevant to the scope of that publication. For example, this NEJM Perspective article explores the impact that the end of Roe v. Wade has on the delivery of healthcare.

Commentaries that add nuance

Sometimes a topic that seems straightforward deserves deeper exploration and analysis. A commentary is an excellent way to show new sides of a particular topic, problem, or event. When scandal ravaged the Veterans Health Administration in 2014, I wrote this commentary article with an investigative slant that attempted to add an element feared by writers and readers alike: nuance. It won an ASHPE Silver Award for Best Commentary.

Commentaries from a deeply personal perspective

An author’s personal perspective may be the most important element in an editorial. For some articles, this perspective might rely on extensive experience or expertise. In other cases, the key ingredient is much more personal. Some commentaries pull from deeply personal experiences in an author’s personal and professional life. This NEJM commentary written by Dr. Justin Bullock, for example, details a young doctor’s journey through medical training with bipolar disorder.  The raw, personal humanity of his story makes his advocacy much more potent.

Differnt Types of Commentary Articles (Video)

The 6 Easy Steps to Writing a Medical Journal Commentary

Steps for Writing a Commentary Article for medical journals

1. Choose the subject matter

The first step may be the most important. Choose a topic that is relevant to the audience you want to reach, that meshes with your knowledge, experience, or expertise, and for which you have a particular passion. Subjects that personally resonate with the author tend to produce better commentaries.

If you’re struggling to think of or narrow your topic, try the free guide below. The First Five Steps to Publication for Healthcare Professionals walks you through the entire process of finding and narrowing a topic that will appeal to readers and editors.

how to write an editorial medical journal

2. Conduct the research

How much research do commentaries require? It’s a tough question and the answer varies by the subject, perspective, and purpose of the article. Wise authors will conduct a focused literature review to address their blind spots, but most commentaries include only a few references in the final version.

To make my commentaries stand out, I like to get creative in the research phase. For my commentary on the VHA scandal , among other things I interviewed a former Veterans Affairs employee (see my chaotic early research in the photo below). For this NEJM blog on toxic workplaces , I researched a relevant high-profile incident in a different industry. And for this editorial on advance directives , I read 50 advance directive forms on the AARP website , just so I could say that I did it.

Research notes for a commentary on the VHA scandal

1. Choose the subject matter 2. Conduct the research 3. Write a thesis statement 4. Outline the supporting evidence 5. Create a hook 6. Call for action

If you are still feeling stuck, I created this guide to walk you step-by-step through the first stages of the writing process:

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How to Write a Manuscript for Medical Journals: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

write a manuscript

Why do you need to learn to write a manuscript? Good question! Medical journals are some of the most highly regarded and trusted sources of scientific knowledge today. Thus, writing a manuscript and submitting your research or findings to medical journals is a great way to get your work recognized as well as give it the exposure it deserves. If you are an aspiring scientist, researcher, medical writer, or doctor and aspire to publish your findings in a medical journal, then this article will come in handy. If you are a medical writer, someone will ask you to write a manuscript sooner or later. One of the main challenges that most researchers or medical writers face while submitting their manuscripts to leading medical journals is the complexity of their manuscript formatting.

After all, these journals have very strict standards when it comes to how a manuscript needs to be formatted and structured. They will not even consider reading a manuscript if it does not meet these standards. Fortunately for you, we explore everything you need to know about writing a manuscript for medical journals in this blog post so that you can get started on yours immediately.

In This Article – Write a Manuscript

write a manuscript

Step 1: Find the right journal and read their authors’ guide

Step 2: write the abstract, step 3: write the introduction, step 4: write the methods and materials, step 5: write the results, step 6: write conclusion and discussion, in previous articles.

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The first step towards writing a manuscript for a medical journal is to find a journal that suits your field of research. There are hundreds of medical journals across the world that publish various kinds of research and findings. Therefore, you need to choose one that is most appropriate for your field of research.

You can do this by simply browsing through journals online and looking for ones that publish research in your area of interest. You can also consult your supervisor, colleagues, or mentors for recommendations. Alternatively, you can also use one of the many online databases such as PubMed or the Directory of Open Access Journals to find medical journals that publish in your area of research.

After you have found the appropriate medical journal(s) for your manuscript, you need to read the authors’ guide carefully. This guide will give you detailed information about the journal’s format, language and style of writing, length, and submission process. This will ensure that you submit your manuscript according to their standards and that it has the best chance of being accepted.

The journal abstract is a short summary of the research findings and conclusions of your manuscript. Typically, the abstract is limited to 250-350 words. Therefore, you need to write an abstract that is concise and clear. This will help the journal readers and reviewers to get a basic understanding of your research findings quickly, and they can decide whether to read the complete manuscript or not. The first paragraph of your abstract should start with a statement that summarizes your research findings. If possible, avoid using information that is not relevant to the research findings. This can help you to avoid including unnecessary details in the abstract.

The rest of the abstract should include information about the research method and sample size, the main findings, limitations, and conclusions that you have drawn from the research findings.

It is often better to write your abstract last. That way, you ensure that the abstract is a perfect manuscript summary.

The introduction of your manuscript is the first part that is read by the journal editor and reviewers. Therefore, it is extremely important to write it well so that it attracts the editor and reviewers to read the complete manuscript. The introduction should be able to answer the question of why this research is important for others. You can also use this part to summarize the research question and hypothesis statement. You can also include any limitations and/or challenges that you faced during the research process.

The editor and reviewers will be able to understand the importance of your research findings if you have written them in a way that is clear and understandable. If you have used complex or difficult language in this part, you might lose the editor and/or reviewers. Therefore, make sure that you write the introduction part in a simple and straightforward manner.

Medical journals publish peer-reviewed research papers that have been conducted with proper research methodology and methodology is the process followed by researchers while conducting research. Therefore, if you have conducted your research with proper methodology, then you can include it in the methods and materials part of the manuscript. If your research did not follow proper methodology, then editors and reviewers will not consider publishing it in their journal. Therefore, you need to make sure that you conduct your research using the proper methodology.

The methods and materials part of the manuscript is also known as the experimental part. This is where you need to describe how you conducted your research, the type of research method you used (e.g. case study, experimental research, etc.), and the equipment or materials that you used while conducting the research.

The results are the findings that you have obtained after conducting your research. The results section of the manuscript is one of the most important parts. However, you need to write it in a way that is easy for the journal readers to understand. You should avoid using complex or complicated language in this section. The results section is where you can include graphs, tables, figures, images, and/or diagrams that help the reader to understand your findings better.

It is recommended that you use graphs and/or tables to present numerical data as they are easy to understand. You can use figures and images to present non-numerical data.

This is the last step in writing a manuscript. The conclusion and discussions section of the manuscript is where you need to summarize the findings that you have obtained during your research. You can also discuss the limitations and challenges that you faced during the research process. You should not use complex or difficult language in this section. Make sure that you write it in a simple and straightforward manner so that even non-experts can understand your findings.

Write a manuscript – Conclusion

Now that you have written the manuscript, you need to format it according to the journal’s guidelines. We recommend that you use Microsoft Word while writing and formatting your manuscript. You can change the font size, color, indentation, spacing, and alignment according to your preference. You can also use track changes and comments to write your manuscript and make changes as needed. We recommend that you submit your manuscript to a few medical journals at a time. It is better to submit your manuscript to a few journals than submit it to a few journals simultaneously.

This will give you enough time to respond to the reviewers’ comments and make necessary changes to your manuscript until it is accepted by one of the journals. Once your manuscript is accepted by a journal and you have signed the copyright transfer agreement, you can start marketing it to your audience. You can also submit your manuscript to open-access journals if you have the right to do so. Finally, remember to keep researching and writing so that you can publish more manuscripts in the future!

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Teaching & Learning

The legal profession in 2024: ai.

Harvard Law School’s David Wilkins says that generative artificial intelligence has the potential to transform the practice of law

Last June, an attorney filed a legal brief he had written with the help of the generative AI platform, ChatGPT. The document included citations to a series of legal cases that seemingly offered precedents that supported his client’s position. There was only one problem. As the judge in the case discovered, six of those cases didn’t exist. Instead, they’d been dreamed up by the online tool. This was only one of several high-profile incidents in which new technology has stymied — and sometimes embarrassed — the lawyers using it (just Google “I am not a cat.”). Yet, many legal experts believe generative AI will also change the legal profession in ways that will aid lawyers and their clients.

To learn more about how AI is expected to transform the legal profession, as well as other important industry trends in the year ahead, Harvard Law Today recently spoke with Professor David Wilkins ’80 , director of the Center on the Legal Profession at Harvard Law School. In the first installation of a two-part interview, Wilkins briefly summarizes legal industry trends he will be following this year and outlines both the opportunities and challenges AI will likely present. In part two, Wilkins will discuss a range of other questions, from lawyering in an election year, to salary trends, to the changing work and priorities of general counsels, and what they mean for the future of legal education.

Harvard Law Today: What do you see as some of the biggest trends in the legal profession this year?

David Wilkins: This has really been a very eventful year for the legal profession, with many important changes and potential disruptions, all of which are interrelated. Let me touch briefly on a few. Leading the list, of course, is artificial intelligence. Every other conversation I have is about ChatGPT and how it will impact the practice of law. Those conversations often lead quickly to talking about legal careers and AI’s potential employment effects. The IMF has said that 40% of all jobs in the world could be affected by AI and that it’s mostly going to be felt in the white collar and professional ranks. That clearly has implications for lawyers.

Another important trend is that, according to 2024 NALP data, the majority of associates at law firms are now women, which has led to a whole series of questions about how diversity will be treated in the legal profession moving forward, particularly in light of the fact that a majority of minority law students are female.

There are also discussions around the role of the legal profession in a time of global unrest. For example, what will be the effects of rising geopolitical tensions — the war in Ukraine, the conflict in the Middle East, competition with China — on markets? Two years ago, ESG [environmental, social, and corporate governance] was the global zeitgeist. And while it is still a powerful organizing force in Europe, it has become a highly contentious issue here in the United States. And, of course, we are entering an election year here in the United States. Lawyers are going to have critical roles to play in helping America and the world protect democracy in a time of increasing polarization and conflict.

Last — but here at HLS, certainly not least — we need to think about what all this means for legal education. How can we best prepare students for the new realities of legal careers in the middle decades of the 21st century? And just as important, how will legal education itself be disrupted by technology and other emerging trends?  

“Basic legal information is going to be more and more accessible through technology to more and more people. The problem is that access to basic legal information is just one step in the process of legal services.”

HLT: Let’s start with AI. We’ve seen some high-profile instances of AI gone wrong, when lawyers have used it to write legal briefs, only for the court to discover that the AI made up cases that didn’t exist. What role is AI playing in the legal profession today, where do you see it going in the next year or so, and what checks should we be thinking about putting on its use?

Wilkins: We are just at the very tip of the iceberg in thinking about the implications of AI. When we spoke at this time last year , nobody but perhaps our friends at the Berkman Klein Center had ever heard of generative AI, let alone used ChatGPT. Now, it’s everywhere. In my conversations with lawyers, people started out very skeptical that you could use it for anything useful in the day-to-day work of a practicing lawyer. And now, increasingly, people are more comfortable using it in a wide range of settings.  

AI is also getting much better and hallucinating less [a term experts use to refer to inaccurate information generated by AI]. The industry is moving from non-specialized AI to AI trained on legal materials, designed to tackle specific, complex legal problems. Most lawyers I’ve talked to say that if you ask ChatGPT, let alone a more sophisticated version, to write a memo about a legal question, you will get something approximately as good as what a first-year law firm associate would produce. Of course, a lawyer will still have to review it — just as any good senior lawyer will review the work of their juniors before sending it out into the world — but when you think about the relative cost of AI versus a first-year associate, you can begin to see the transformative potential.

HLT: Can you envision a time when clients in need of legal assistance can turn to AI, instead of lawyers, for help, at least in more routine private law matters like divorces or smaller lawsuits? Maybe the plaintiff’s AI talks to the respondent’s AI and to the judge’s AI and the various AIs sort everything out without the humans needing to get too deeply involved. I’m half joking, but then again, did the horse and buggy manufacturers immediately understand the implications of the automobile?

Wilkins: It sounds very futuristic, except we know that things like this are already happening in all sorts of fields. For example, when I get sick, I go to WebMD to see what I might have and what I might be able to do about it, including questions that I should ask my doctor. There are so many sites now where you could get access to information and generative AI is allowing that information to become more interactive. To answer your question, if the issue is access to basic legal information, that is going to be more and more accessible through technology to more and more people. The problem is that access to basic legal information is just one step in the process of legal services. It is already possible to have an AI that fills out basic legal forms—think LegalZoom. It’s clear that the bar is not going to be able to stop this sort of access. More sophisticated, interactive analysis with an AI lawyer? That may now be on the horizon — and more controversial. One of the key challenges in all of this is going to be that access to the kinds of legal tools that AI can provide are not going to be equally available. When I talk to lawyers in the legal services community, they see the potential for AI to help their clients, but they worry that the most sophisticated tools will be in the hands of the most sophisticated, already well-resourced parties who will be able to leverage that technology to gain even further advantage.

“One of the key challenges in all of this is going to be that access to the kinds of legal tools that AI can provide are not going to be equally available.”

HLT: Doesn’t that asymmetry in access to justice exist today? Some people can hire top law firms to help with their legal problems, but many others can barely get access to any lawyer at all.

Wilkins: Of course, you’re absolutely right that some people and organizations have always had more access to legal services than others. As Marc Galanter wrote in his pathbreaking article  “ Why the ‘haves’ come out ahead ,” published half a century ago this year, “repeat players,” including big corporations, who engage in a lot of litigation are always able to invest in a way that gives them an advantage over smaller “one shot” litigants, by, for example, hiring experienced lawyers and playing for the rules by deciding which cases to appeal or investing in lobbying. In one sense, therefore, technology is just another advantage that the privileged will be able to pay for.

But we also know that technology often produces exponential change in ways that create the potential for magnifying existing inequalities exponentially. Thus, it’s not just that some litigants can hire a better lawyer to draft or analyze a contract than others. In the world of AI, these better resourced parties can deploy a tool that can read every relevant contract in ways that no human could ever do. And yet, it is not a simple one-way street, since we have seen how technology also disrupts the powerful. Take the music business. It used to be that the music business was completely controlled by the big record companies, which decided who got to make music and how you bought it — an album, or later CDs (remember those?!) complete with 16 songs and beautiful cover art. And then technology allowed people to order any one song and put them together in any way they wanted. And the record business has been decimated. Now, there are still big players in the record business who figured out how to make money on the top artists. But it’s a whole different business than it was 25 or 30 years ago because of technology. It’s hard to predict exactly how this is going to play out in the legal business, but you are likely to see both an accentuation of the inequality as people at the top are able to access the best technology and therefore get the best results, and the disruption of existing hierarchies as new players enter the legal marketplace offering new kinds of services, leveraging technology in a way that was not possible before.

HLT: I went to school before the age of personal computing, but I’m sure I must have wondered why I needed to learn math when calculators existed to do that work for me. Do we lose something if we become too highly reliant on technology?

Wilkins: Yes, there’s no question. But here’s the challenge. There are two reductive schools of thought, neither of which can be true. One is that every advanced technology is unequivocally good, and the less repetitive labor that humans have to do, the better. The problem with that is that one day we might end up on Barcaloungers like the people in the movie WALL-E. We also know that there’s a huge amount of valuable development that goes into learning the basics, even if once you learned them, you don’t do these elemental tasks anymore. We now let kids use calculators in school once they’ve learned the basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Law firms and lawyers need to ask themselves the same question. If we want well trained, mid-level and senior lawyers, those mid-level and senior lawyers need to do some amount of junior lawyer work so that they understand what it is to do in-the-weeds legal research or to craft and write a well-written brief. But the question is, how much of this type of training is needed? If the point is just memorization or information recall, machines will always do it better. Maybe you need to do at least enough to understand what the information is. But you certainly don’t need to do seven or eight years of it just to be a competent partner or a senior level lawyer.

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  • Published: 21 February 2024

A 3D nanoscale optical disk memory with petabit capacity

  • Miao Zhao   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4941-4699 1   na1 ,
  • Jing Wen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3558-2322 2   na1 ,
  • Qiao Hu   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6187-958X 1 ,
  • Xunbin Wei 3 , 4 ,
  • Yu-Wu Zhong   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0712-0374 5 ,
  • Hao Ruan   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0003-3693-653X 1 &
  • Min Gu   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4078-253X 6 , 7  

Nature volume  626 ,  pages 772–778 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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  • Laser material processing
  • Nanophotonics and plasmonics
  • Optical data storage
  • Sub-wavelength optics

High-capacity storage technologies are needed to meet our ever-growing data demands 1 , 2 . However, data centres based on major storage technologies such as semiconductor flash devices and hard disk drives have high energy burdens, high operation costs and short lifespans 2 , 3 . Optical data storage (ODS) presents a promising solution for cost-effective long-term archival data storage. Nonetheless, ODS has been limited by its low capacity and the challenge of increasing its areal density 4 , 5 . Here, to address these issues, we increase the capacity of ODS to the petabit level by extending the planar recording architecture to three dimensions with hundreds of layers, meanwhile breaking the optical diffraction limit barrier of the recorded spots. We develop an optical recording medium based on a photoresist film doped with aggregation-induced emission dye, which can be optically stimulated by femtosecond laser beams. This film is highly transparent and uniform, and the aggregation-induced emission phenomenon provides the storage mechanism. It can also be inhibited by another deactivating beam, resulting in a recording spot with a super-resolution scale. This technology makes it possible to achieve exabit-level storage by stacking nanoscale disks into arrays, which is essential in big data centres with limited space.

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how to write an editorial medical journal

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available at https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.13342 (ref. 50 ).  Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

The MATLAB code used in this study is available at https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.13342 (ref. 50 ).

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Acknowledgements

J.W. acknowledges the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, project no. 62175153). M.G. acknowledges the support from the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (project no. 21DZ1100500) and the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project. M.G., J.W. and H.R. acknowledge the financial support from the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission Innovation Action Plan (project no. 18DZ1100400). M.G. and H.R. acknowledge the financial support from the National Key R&D Program of China (project no. 2021YFB2802000). Y.-W.Z. acknowledges the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, project no. 21925112). X.W. acknowledges the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, project no. 62027824). We thank Z. Gan from Huazhong University of Science and Technology for the adjustment of the optical writing set-up. We thank F. Liu from the Integrated Laser Microscopy System and Computation System at the National Facility for Protein Science in Shanghai (NFPS), Zhangjiang Lab for providing usage and technical support for the STED microscope. We thank H. H. Li and E. K. Zhang from Leica Microsystems (Shanghai) Trading Company Ltd for time-resolved photoluminescence detection and emission spectrum measurement. We thank D. Y. Lei and S. Y. Jin from the City University of Hong Kong for the discussion of the measurement of fluorescence lifetime in microscale. We thank H. X. Xu from Wuhan University, and D. Pan and C. J. Zhang from East China Normal University for helping with the Raman measurement in microscale. We thank T. C. Tang from the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology for data baseline cutting in the Raman measurement. We thank W. X. Cao from the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences for joining the shelf lifetime measurement of the sample.

Author information

These authors contributed equally: Miao Zhao, Jing Wen

Authors and Affiliations

Photonic Integrated Circuits Center, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

Miao Zhao, Qiao Hu & Hao Ruan

Engineering Research Center of Optical Instrument and Systems, Ministry of Education and Shanghai Key Lab of Modern Optical System, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

Biomedical Engineering Department, Peking University, Beijing, China

School of Biomedical Engineering, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China

Key Laboratory of Photochemistry, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Research Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Science, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Yu-Wu Zhong

Institute of Photonic Chips, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

Zhangjiang Laboratory, Shanghai, China

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Contributions

M.G., H.R. and J.W. conceived the original concept and initiated the work. J.W., M.Z. and Q.H. performed the theoretical analysis and conducted the simulation. M.Z. and J.W. synthesized the material. M.Z., J.W. and H.R. developed the set-up and performed the measurements. J.W., M.Z., H.R., Y.-W.Z. and M.G. analysed the data and explained the mechanism. M.G., J.W., H.R., M.Z. and Y.-W.Z. discussed the results. J.W., M.G., M.Z., X.W. and H.R. wrote the paper and all authors reviewed the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jing Wen , Hao Ruan or Min Gu .

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended data fig. 1 optical setup of dual-beam volumetric nanoscale writing..

L1, L2, L3, and L4, collimation lenses; L5, collection lens; L6, tube lens; PH1 and PH2, pinholes; HWP, half-wave plate; QWP, quarter-wave plate; VPP, vortex-phase plate; DC1 and DC2, dichroic filters; S, electronic shutter; M, mirror; BS, beam-splitter; MMF, multi-mode fibre; and CCD, charged coupled device. Source images of the optical components provided courtesy of Thorlabs, Inc.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Summary of an aggregation-induced emission dye-doped photoresist (AIE-DDPR) film.

a–c , Fluorescence images of the ODS medium doped with tetraphenylethene (a) , no AIEgens (b) and hexaphenylsilole (c) obtained by the Leica microscope. d–f , Intensity profiles (d) , (e) and (f) are extracted from (a–c) . g , Transmission electron microscopy image of a cured AIE-DDPR film. h , Expansion of the blue-boxed area in (g) . i , Transmittance of a cured AIE-DDPR film with a thickness of 130 µm (blue line) and a pure silica substrate with a thickness of 980 µm (red line).

Source data

Extended data fig. 3 aggregation-induced emission dye-doped photoresist (aie-ddpr) recording medium in colloidal and solid states and fluorescence images of the volumetric writing with different layer spacings..

a , AIE-DDPR in the colloidal state under white-light illumination (left) and ultraviolet (UV)-light illumination (right). b , Cured spin-coated AIE-DDPR film under white-light illumination (left) and UV-light illumination (right). c , Base disc comprising the substrate. d , Disc spin-coated with a film of AIE-DDPR that has been cured (a blank disc yet to be written with information). e–g , There was strong cross-talk of the signal when the layer spacing was 0.5 μm (e) or 0.7 μm (f) , and no cross-talk of the signal when the layer spacing was 1 μm (g) .

Extended Data Fig. 4 Binary bits of the encoded image (a) and the recalled image (b) in Fig. 2e .

In a , ‘1’ and ‘0’ represent the writing beam being ‘on’ and ‘off’ which are controlled by the electronic shutter in Extended Data Fig. 1 . In b , ‘1’ and ‘0’ represent the fluorescent signal from the recording medium being ‘on’ and ‘off’.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Schematic illustration of the writing principle of volumetric nanoscale ODS and simulations.

a , Jablonski diagram of 2-isopropylthioxanthone photoinitiators for the explanation of polymerization by two-photon absorption and depolymerization by triplet–triplet absorption. The green arrows indicate the absorption of the two photons, the brown arrow indicates the radiative relaxation of the fluorescence, the blue arrow indicates the radiative relaxation of the phosphorescence, the grey dashed arrow indicates intramolecular vibrational redistribution (IVR), the red arrow indicates triplet–triplet absorption, the yellow arrows indicate intersystem crossing (ISC)/IVR (dashed arrow) or reverse ISC/IVR (solid arrow), and the black arrow indicates radical formation. The energy levels are not to scale. The solid horizontal lines indicate nonvibrational electronic states whereas the dashed horizontal lines indicate vibrationally excited electronic states. b , Principle of dual-beam nanoscale optical writing. A 515-nm femtosecond Gaussian laser beam initiates polymerization in a medium via two-photon absorption, and a 639-nm CW doughnut-shaped laser beam then deactivates locally the polymerization at the periphery of the focus, which reduces the polymerization volume to the subdiffractive level. c , Simulated profiles of photo-polymerization conversion rate versus deactivating intensity in a dual-beam writing process. The threshold was set to 42%, with the area above 42% representing the third state in Fig. 3 , and the area below 42% representing the second state in Fig. 3 . d and e , Simulated superresolution STED images of a 4 × 4 pattern formed by the 515-nm femtosecond writing laser beam without (d) and with (e) subsequent application of the 639-nm deactivating beam. f , Simulated confocal image of the pattern formed by the dual-beam writing configuration. g , Intensity profiles extracted from (d–f) .

Extended Data Fig. 6 Properties of the standard sample of Ru(bpy) 3 Cl 2 thin film and the aggregation-induced emission dye-doped photoresist (AIE-DDPR) film for characterization of QYs and fluorescence on–off contrast of the recorded spots.

a–c, (a) Chemical formula. The QY of Ru(bpy) 3 Cl 2 thin film is 7.3% which is calculated from the absorbance (b) and the fluorescence emission intensity (c) at an excitation wavelength λ  = 480 nm. d , Fluorescence intensity of the AIE-DDPR film at an excitation wavelength λ  = 480 nm before exposure to the femtosecond laser (0 mW, i.e., the second state in Fig. 3 ) and after exposure to the 515-nm femtosecond laser with various writing powers, i.e., 0.3–1.5 mW (i.e., the third state in Fig. 3 ), and the standard sample of Ru(bpy) 3 Cl 2 thin film. e , Photobleaching: fluorescence on–off contrast of a recorded spot probed by irradiation with a 480-nm pulsed laser. f – h , Fluorescence image obtained at 7 min ( f ), 27 min ( g ), and 134 min (h) after the beginning of excitation.

Extended Data Fig. 7 Comparison of fluorescence images and aggregation sizes of the recorded spots with the 515-nm femtosecond Gaussian laser beam only and dual-beam writing.

a , Fluorescence and optical images of the recorded spots at different writing powers of the 515-nm femtosecond laser beam, as measured in the optical path. b , Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and fluorescent images of diffraction-limited spots recorded by the 515-nm femtosecond Gaussian laser beam only and subdiffractive spots recorded by the dual-beam writing configuration. Scale bar: 1 µm. c and d , Superresolution imaging of densely arranged spots of a panda yin–yang pattern. Superresolution STED-image readouts of the recording patterns formed by the 515-nm femtosecond writing laser beam without (c) and with (d) subsequent application of the 639-nm CW deactivating beam. Insets: Magnified images of 1 × 2 recording spots and the original panda yin–yang pattern. e , Intensity profiles extracted from the areas marked with the dashed lines in the magnified images in (c) and (d) . The panda yin–yang pattern is discretized to a 21 × 21 dot matrix with a spacing of 112 nm.

Extended Data Fig. 8 ODS on optical base disc and fluorescence lifetime imaging of the recording areas.

a , A base disc comprising only substrate. b , A disc with a transparent-yellow circle of the aggregation-induced emission dye-doped photoresist (AIE-DDPR) that has been subsequently cured. c , Superresolution imaging of recording spots formed by the 515-nm femtosecond writing beam without and with the application of the 639-nm CW deactivating beam. d , Intensity profiles extracted from the areas marked with the white dashed lines in the red and blue boxes in (c) . The recording-spot sizes were 107 nm and 188 nm for dual-beam writing and single-beam writing, respectively. We had to scan a portion of the optical disc as the scanning stage could not accommodate a whole disc. e and f , Scanning fast fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) image (e) and the corresponding FLIM histogram (f) for the recorded areas at different writing powers of the 515-nm femtosecond laser beam (the third state) and the background area with only ultraviolet curing (the second state). The recording areas were written at a scan speed of 2.5 µm/s and comprised parallel lines with a line spacing of 300 nm.

Extended Data Fig. 9 Lifetime and durability test of ODS.

a and b , Scanning fluorescence and white-light microscopic images of the recorded spots for the temperature stress condition of 130 °C and 120 °C. The time is incubation time. c and d , The intensities for different incubation times (c) and (d) were extracted from the fluorescence images (a) and (b) .

Supplementary information

Supplementary video 1.

A video of 100-layer recording on the AIE-DDPR film in mp4 format. The institute and university badges (‘SIOM’ and ‘USST’) and binary bits of encoded images of a tree and a flower were alternately written in the recording medium. The layer-to-layer distance is 1 μm.

Source Data Fig. 2

Source data fig. 3, source data fig. 4, source data extended data fig. 2, source data extended data fig. 5, source data extended data fig. 6, source data extended data fig. 7, source data extended data fig. 8, source data extended data fig. 9, rights and permissions.

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Zhao, M., Wen, J., Hu, Q. et al. A 3D nanoscale optical disk memory with petabit capacity. Nature 626 , 772–778 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06980-y

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How to write a Letter to the Editor

1 Liver Unit, University Hospitals Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

Emad El-Omar

2 Editor in Chief, GUT

3 Microbiome Research Centre, St George & Sutherland Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Australia

What is a Letter to the Editor?

A Letter to the Editor (LTE) is a brief communication to a journal’s editor or editorial team. It is usually written in response to a recent publication within the journal, but can also be on an unrelated topic of interest to the journal’s readership. Many journals welcome LTEs within a dedicated section of their journal (e.g. LTEs/Correspondence) to stimulate intellectual discussion between readers and authors. LTEs may be handled by a dedicated ‘LTE’ team; some may be published online format (e.g. British Medical Journal rapid responses) with selected letters chosen for the print issue. In this article, we aim to provide practical tips on writing a successful LTE.

Why write a letter?

LTEs enable prospective writers to directly interact with a manuscript’s authors and the journal’s readership and editorial team. LTEs should only be undertaken where there is genuine purpose and merit to readers and to scientific knowledge. LTEs count as publications, which can be a bridge for an early career researcher. These may also be catalogued within public repositories (e.g. PubMed) if an indexed journal selects the letter for their print edition. LTEs are mainly written for one or more of the following reasons:

  • to discuss controversial aspects of a recently published paper, e.g. methodological concerns which may affect validity, concerns on study conduct, disagreements with study interpretation or conclusions;
  • to seek clarification on any aspect of a paper;
  • to enrich the existing knowledge of a recently published paper or hot topic with professional opinions or objective data;
  • to share professional viewpoints.

Do’s and don’ts for a Letter to the Editor

According to Cicero, ‘brevity is the charm of eloquence’. First and foremost, LTEs should be short and succinct. LTEs should always be courteous, no matter how much you disagree with the authors of the article. Importantly, LTEs should not merely be critical; they should provide added value and stimulate intellectual debate. Avoid repeating points raised within the original paper, such as unnecessary duplication of results, or raising concerns that have already been reasonably discussed under the study’s limitations section. As a guide, they should follow the principles outlined in Figure 1 .

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Object name is 10.1177_2050640620956921-fig1.jpg

Dos and don’ts for writing a Letter to the Editor.

Writing the letter

Letters should be framed according to Figure 2 .

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Object name is 10.1177_2050640620956921-fig2.jpg

Top tips for writing a Letter to the Editor.

The inspiration for an LTE usually begins after reading a paper. Ensure that the paper or topic in question has been fully read and understood. Think whether an LTE is genuinely needed. Capture the salient points, e.g. strengths, weaknesses and controversies, and ensure that these have not been misinterpreted.

Once you are clear on the aim(s) and purpose for the letter, it is advisable to undertake a literature search to gain a wider understanding of the context of the paper and its discussion points. This should determine whether there is a novel angle for your LTE.

Before writing, prospective authors should first ensure that LTEs are accepted by the journal. Familiarise yourself with the manuscript submission guidelines, which are usually found under the ‘Information for Authors’ section of the journal’s website. This may also yield useful information such as limits on word count, and the maximum number of permissible figures, tables and references, which will serve to frame the letter. It is essential that you browse recently published LTEs to gain insight into the formatting, quality and style expected from the journal. This will also inform if LTEs on the same publication or topic have been published in order to avoid unnecessary duplication.

Next, think of potential co-authors to collaborate with (usually up to 3–5 authors). They should be identified early and should contribute enough to satisfy the co-authorship criteria laid out by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME). 1

Within the opening paragraph, a salutation to the LTE is optional but may erode into the limited word count. Avoid starting with the antiquated ‘Dear Sir’, and if necessary, use ‘Dear Editor’. Introduce the issues raised or the purpose of the LTE early on. Clearly mention the paper in question and provide a citation to the original paper.

Focus, brevity and flow are key to a successful LTE. Consider drafting in bullet-point format to summarise and prioritise key points, but write the letter in clear focussed sentences. Aim to limit the points raised, e.g. to a maximum of 3–4, depending on the journal’s word count. Consider structuring the letter by allocating one paragraph to each key point highlighted, but avoid using subheadings. Cite the literature appropriately using the latest and most relevant references. Avoid citing your own work excessively – LTEs are not a self-promotion exercise.

The final paragraph should provide a concise summary and end with suggestions or future recommendations. The introduction (beginning), key point paragraphs (middle) and final paragraph (end) should be weaved together to ensure flow, while maintaining a respectful tone of writing throughout. Ensure that relevant references are correctly cited and up to date, and that the manuscript complies with the journal’s requirements.

Finally, where permitted by the journal, apply a suitable title for the LTE on the cover page. Do not repeat the title of the manuscript in question; come up with a short catchy title instead. The cover page should also contain author details including name, affiliation, conflicts of interest and word count.

Submission is the final step. The LTE should be proof-read multiple times and approved by all co-authors before submission by, or on behalf of, the corresponding author.

Not all LTEs will be accepted – in most cases, these will be subjected to review by the editor-in-chief. For LTEs related to a recent publication, the editor-in-chief may offer the original authors the option to respond.

LTEs should offer constructive comments on a recent publication or on a topic of interest to the journal’s readership. They should be brief, structured and purpose-specific in conveying a message worthy of publication.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Word inscribed on ancient bronze hand resembles modern Basque word

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

Word inscribed on ancient bronze hand resembles modern Basque word

A team of archaeologists with the Aranzadi Science Society has found a word inscribed on an ancient Basque bronze hand that resembles a modern Basque word. Their paper is published in the journal Antiquity .

In 2021, a related team of archaeologists working at an Iron Age site called Irulegi, in northern Spain, unearthed a flat piece of bronze shaped like a human hand. After cleaning, they discovered that a series of words had been inscribed onto its surface representing text from a Vasconic language—one that includes Basque and several others that are now extinct.

In this more recent study, the research team worked to decipher the text. Thus far, they have found that the first word, if spelled using a Latin alphabet, would be "sorioneke" or "sorioneku"—either of which strongly resembles "zorioneko"—the Basque word for "good fortune."

The Basque people of today are a group that resides in the Basque Country, an autonomous region in Spain situated along the Pyrenees mountains, bordering France. Basque is the official language of the area, and its persistence has proven to be a puzzle for modern linguistics experts—as one of the last surviving members of the Paleo-European language family, many suggest, it should have disappeared along with most others of its kind after the arrival of Indo-European languages.

The bronze hand has been dated to approximately 2,100 years ago and the script etched into it now represents its longest example to date—the only other samples have been seen on a few coins. The research team is hoping the continued study of the text will help to better understand the Vasconic language that was spoken at Irulegi—and perhaps its link to modern Basque.

In addition to the text etched onto the hand, it also had a hole drilled where the palm would have met the wrist, which suggests the hand was meant for hanging. It was found near a door, suggesting it had once hung over the entrance to a room. This, the researchers suggest, hints at the possibility that the hand was used for a ritualist purpose, offering good fortune to those who entered.

Journal information: Antiquity

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