We believe the recent criticisms of Satoshi Kanazawa's work cannot be justified ("Damage limitation: evolutionary psychologists turn on controversial peer", 2 June). Contrary to the assertion that Kanazawa does poor work, he has published 70 articles in peer-reviewed journals in the fields of psychology, sociology, political science, biology and medicine. These are listed on his London School of Economics web page and many of them have been published in top high-impact journals.

The critics assert that many of these papers are "bad science" and have been published only as a result of a faulty peer-review process. This cannot be accepted. The editors of journals send the papers submitted to them to reviewers with expertise in the fields in question and publish only those that are deemed to be sound. Thus, all of Kanazawa's papers have been judged as sound by competent reviewers. Others may disagree, and in the case of innovative papers of the kind Kanazawa writes, frequently do. Time eventually tells whether the authors or their detractors are right.

The critics complain that when Kanazawa has a paper rejected by one journal, he sends it to another and publishes it there. Who among the academy's members has not done that? Reviewers frequently misjudge a paper and editors accept their recommendations. The author then sends it elsewhere and it is accepted. If there were anything wrong with this practice, then, as the first online comment under "Damage limitation" puts it: "A few Nobel prizes will have to be returned."

The detractors assert that Kanazawa rarely responds to brickbats. On the contrary, we believe that while he sometimes does not respond immediately, he frequently deals with criticisms in his subsequent work.

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For example, in respect to the criticisms made by Columbia 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ's Andrew Gelman about his paper reporting that physically more attractive parents are more likely to have daughters, Kanazawa replicated his earlier finding with a different dataset from a different nation, and published the replication in the Reproductive Sciences journal earlier this year.

Kanazawa even sought Gelman's comments on the draft and the Columbia academic's contribution is acknowledged in the published paper.

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Kanazawa's 2010 American Psychologist article also responds to many of the criticisms that were levelled against his 2004 Psychological Review article.

Finally, we believe that the proper place to make criticisms of academic papers is in the journals in which they were published, not in letters to the press where they cannot be adequately answered.

Alex Beaujean, department of psychology, Baylor 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ

Christopher Brand, department of psychology, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Edinburgh (1970-1997)

Bruce Charlton, department of psychology, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Buckingham

Eric Crampton, department of economics, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Canterbury

Aurelio Jos¨¦ Figueredo, department of psychology, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Arizona

Gordon G. Gallup, Jr., department of psychology, State 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of New York

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Paul Gottfried, department of history, Elizabethtown College

Henry Harpending, department of anthropology, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Utah

Richard Lynn, department of psychology, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Ulster

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Kevin MacDonald, department of psychology, California State 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ

Gerhard Meisenberg, department of biochemistry, Ross 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ Medical School

Michael E. Mills, department of psychology, Loyola Marymount 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ

Helmuth Nyborg, department of psychology, Aarhus 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ

Byron Roth, department of psychology, Dowling College, New York

J. Philippe Rushton, department of psychology, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Western Ontario

Stephen Rushton, College of Education, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of South Florida

Donald Templer (retired), department of psychology, Alliant International 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ

James Thompson, department of psychology, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ College London, UK

Birgitta Tullberg, department of evolutionary ecology, Stockholm 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ

Fredrik Ull¨¦n, department of cognitive neuroscience, Karolinska Institute

Tatu Vanhanen, department of political science, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Tampere

Erich Weede, department of sociology, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Bonn

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Predrag Zarevski, department of psychology, 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Zagreb