• Letters to the editor are important to science because they are a form of post‐publication review.
• Examination of 3,203 letters published in exercise science and physical therapy journals revealed letters are indexed inconsistently.
• Issues exist with letter titles, letter authorship, and letter digital object identifiers (DOIs) and PubMed identifiers (PMIDs).
• Implications are that some letters are difficult to discover and cite, and some letter writers are not recognized for their intellectual contributions.
• Resolutions include indexing letters in PubMed under the “letter” [pt] search term and indexing each letter with the author's name, a distinct but consistently formatted title, and a unique DOI and PMID.

中文翻译：

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初步证据表明在PubMed以及运动科学和理疗杂志中给编辑的信索引不一致：含义和解决方案

• 给编辑的信对科学很重要，因为它们是出版后审查的一种形式。
• 在运动科学和物理治疗杂志上对3,203封信件进行的检查显示，这些信件的索引不一致。
• 信函标题，信函作者，信函数字对象标识符（DOI）和PubMed标识符（PMID）存在问题。
• 言下之意是，有些信件很难被发现和引用，有些信件作者的智力贡献却未被认可。
• 解决方案包括在PubMed中为“字母” [pt]搜索词下的字母建立索引，并用作者的名字，独特但格式一致的标题以及唯一的DOI和PMID为每个字母建立索引。