Tasman Medical Journal welcomes you to our blog page. Our purpose is to float and respond to respectable and scientifically justified but sometimes potentially controversial medical ideas in a way that avoids the need for peer review and stimulates discussion amongst our readers. But we will ensure that a high standard of scholarship applies. The rules for commenting are:
- Submitted comments must relate directly to the blog post or formal paper under which they appear and should aim to maintain an acceptable level of academic discussion appropriate to a medical journal.
- Where comments are submitted in relation to a formal paper, the journal may publish the comment as a letter to the editor, on condition that full disclosure of your identity, professional qualifications and contact details is provided.
- If your comment makes a claim of fact, you must cite the primary source, just as you would for a paper.
- A word limit of 600 will apply to comments. Where your comment exceeds this amount we may reject your comment and ask you to edit and resubmit.
- Comments will be scrutinised to prevent publication of insulting or defamatory material, frankly unscientific or crank ideas or illogical claims, and to ensure the above rules is met. We may reject a comment outright without notification, or notify you to edit and resubmit the comment.
- Tasman Medical Journal aims to maintain acceptable standards of well-written English. We reserve the right to edit your comment to maintain these standards, but may also reject your comment for the very same reasons and ask you to edit and resubmit.
To start things off we present two blogs, one on the contribution to annual global CO2 emissions from human breathing, and one on whether Herpes simplex viruses (cold sores) can cause skin cancers.
We look forward to hearing from you!