Are comments considered publications

Question

The journal Science has two sections for submission, Research articles and Commentary. http://www.sciencemag.org/site/feature/contribinfo/prep/gen_info.xhtml

Under commentary, there is a section for 'Policy Forum'. Unlike 'Education Forum' there is nothing explicit about research related to Policy. If one submits (not invited) a manuscript to Policy Forum, is this considered peer reviewed publication? Is there a difference in citation both in format of a citation and if it is common to cite a manuscript published in Commentary?

Answer 1

The general discussion for the Commentary section mentions this:

Commentary material may be peer-reviewed at the Editors' discretion.

If you look up a sample Policy Forum paper online, you can download the citation information. For example,

NUCLEAR WASTE  
Yucca Mountain  
Rodney C. Ewing and Allison Macfarlane 
Science 26 April 2002:  296 (5568), 659-660. [DOI:10.1126/science.1071886]

and then in various formats. Here's the BibTeX entry:

@article{Ewing26042002,
author = {Ewing, Rodney C. and Macfarlane, Allison}, 
title = {Yucca Mountain},
volume = {296}, 
number = {5568}, 
pages = {659-660}, 
year = {2002}, 
doi = {10.1126/science.1071886}, 
URL = {http://www.sciencemag.org/content/296/5568/659.short}, 
eprint = {http://www.sciencemag.org/content/296/5568/659.full.pdf}, 
journal = {Science} 
}

Answer 2

In general, a "Comment" is always a publication. However, your question is whether it should be listed in someone's publication list, presumably along side peer-reviewed articles. I believe the relevant criterion, as mkennedy suggests, is if the comment has itself been peer-reviewed. When yes, it can go in the regular list; if not, then it should presumably be relegated to a "additional publications" list or something of that type.