On Sat, Dec 12, 2015 at 10:58 PM, Mahta Moghaddam <mahta@usc.edu> wrote:

Dear Dr. Catt,

I have read your article as it appears on the web page you provided. I have several comments:

1. Your article comes across as appearing to criticize the authors of the 2012 article at a personal level. I cannot defend or reject the contents of the 2012 article because I had no role in its publication and was not in any way involved with the Editorial Board of the AP Magazine at that time. If your counter-argument is that because you believe that they appeared to be unfairly criticizing your writings then you can reciprocate, that would not be a supportable point of view for me.

2. The AP Magazine will not knowingly publish any articles that in any way are (or appear to be) directly or indirectly offensive to any nationality. As such, singling out "Italians" as the subjects of your criticism, for example, will not be something that I would allow to be published in the Magazine. Same is true for calling out "westerner" and "southerner" groups in the context that you have chosen.

3. Procedurally, all AP Magazine article submissions have to be made online via the following portal: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/apm-ieee. Keeping the above comments in mind when you revise your letter, you may create an account on the APM manuscript central web site and submit your article there. Once submitted, per established procedure, I will send your letter to the original authors and ask them to provide their response. 

Your letter and their response will then be printed at the same time.

Hope this is helpful.

Best regards,

Mahta Moghaddam