Synergist Policies 

Publication Policies

Industrial hygiene professionals possess a wealth of knowledge on occupational and environmental health and safety issues. The Synergist encourages AIHA members to submit ideas for articles, contribute copy and offer their services as story sources.

If you are interviewed for a Synergist article, please note that it’s the policy of The Synergist not to submit copy to interviewees for review prior to publication. If contributing writers’ articles are edited substantially, an edited version will be sent to them to check technical accuracy.

Technical articles beyond the abilities of editorial staff to evaluate are reviewed for technical accuracy by industrial hygienists on AIHA’s staff. If the article is not within their areas of competency, a member of the Synergist Editorial Advisory Board or a professional recommended by the board will review articles. The members of the Editorial Advisory Board are listed in the masthead of each month’s Synergist.

Letters to the Editor

The “Letters to the Editor” section of The Synergist is meant to facilitate free and civil debate among readers. If you have comments you would like to make about topics in The Synergist or issues you feel are important to the AIHA community, please send your letter to synergist@aiha.org.

All letters submitted are for possible publication. The Synergist reserves the right not to publish letters and to edit letters for space and clarity. Letters that include inappropriate personal comments will not be published.

To preclude a single discussion from dominating the letters page, The Synergist will follow these guidelines:

  1. Authors of articles that appear in The Synergist will have an opportunity to reply in print to any letters submitted in response to their article. Once the authors’ reply has been published, no further responses will appear in The Synergist. Subsequent discussion will be directed to the Synergist blog or the appropriate AIHA online community.
  2. Rebuttals to previously published letters are eligible to appear in The Synergist. Once the rebuttal is printed, no further responses will appear in The Synergist. Subsequent discussion will be directed to the Synergist blog or the appropriate AIHA online community.
  3. The Synergist may occasionally print selected posts to the Synergist blog, with the author’s permission. The Synergist will not print any blog post without the author’s written permission.