TO THE RESEARCH COMMUNITY: We were informed only by chance of the existence of Wasim Maziak’s Letter to the Editor about our first study on CarcinoEmbryonic Antigen (CEA) levels in hookah and cigarette smokers [1][2]. We consequently sent a detailed response to the corresponding journal (JPMA: Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association) on the 7th of April 2008 (evidence available). In spite of our good faith, the journal did not accept to publish our right to the point letter, which qualifies, in my opinion, for a blatant violation of editorial ethics in biomedical journals [3]. However, we wish to inform readers that the related concerns have then been exhaustively addressed in the online Comments section of the Harm Reduction Journal which has published our second study on the same topic and building on the findings of the previous one [4][5]. Dr Kamal Chaouachi http://PublicationsList.org/kamal.chaouachi __________ References: [1] Maziak W. Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels in hookah smokers, cigarette smokers and non-smokers--a comment. J Pak Med Assoc. 2008 Mar;58(3):155. [2] Sajid KM, Parveen R, Durr-e-Sabih, Chaouachi K, Naeem A, Mahmood R, Shamim R : Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) levels in hookah smokers, cigarette smokers and non-smokers. J Pak Med Assoc 2007;57(12):595-99. http://jpma.org.pk//Misc/PDFDownload.aspx?Dow... [3] COPE, the Committee on Publication Ethics, is “a code of conduct for editors of biomedical journals”, “a suggested code of conduct for editors to guide them towards being fair to authors, researchers, and readers”: http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/guideline... [4] Sajid KM, Chaouachi K, Mahmood R. Hookah smoking and cancer. Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA) levels in exclusive/ever hookah smokers. Harm Reduction Journal 2008 24 May;5(19). http://www.harmreductionjournal.com/content/5... [5] Rebuttals to Dr Maziak : http://www.harmreductionjournal.com/content/5...