Dear sir

I am writing to you and the Editorial Board in response to your editorial titled “Effect size” which was published in Volume 115 No. 3 (September 2023),

pages 217-219.

It is worth noting that this editorial provides a summary of an answer requested in Microsoft Bing’s GPT chat about “What is the effect size?” After providing the corresponding definitions and leaving more detailed explanations for another occasion, the editorial introduced concepts and the importance of the effect size. It is noteworthy to mention that the referenced articles do not include our publication in Revista Argentina de Cirugía, co-authored by Dr. Raul A. Borracci and myself ¹. Prof. Dr. Andrés A. Santas, the founder and first director of the journal you now head, stated that “it is imperative to include publications from Argentine authors in any article we publish. This is to transcend the efforts made by surgeons in our country towards teaching, medical care, and research. This principle holds true for both past and present”.

With no intention to argue, I suggest conducting a thorough search to prevent the omission of authors who have published or will publish in the future in the journal. This aligns with Prof. Santas’ recommendation and is in line with what Dr. Borracci would do as well.

Yours sincerely,

Dear Dr. Eduardo B. Arribalzaga

I appreciate your interest in my editorial on the effect size. This brief text focuses on the standardized mean difference, which is widely used in meta-analyses, to assist authors in using it in their original articles for submission to the Journal. Please note that this is not an exhaustive review of the subject¹.

The article you have mentioned constitutes a very valuable contribution to the literature on statistics in medicine² and will be referenced in a forthcoming editorial article of my authorship on relative risk and odds ratio.

Together with the Editorial Board, we agree on the importance of attempting to incorporate relevant citations from Argentine sources.

Best regards,