Sacking of CMAJ editors is deeply troubling

Abstract

On Feb 20, 2006, John Hoey and Anne Marie Todkill, the Editor-in-Chief and Senior Deputy Editor, respectively, of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) were dismissed by the company that manages the journal on behalf of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA). A short statement on the CMA website gave no reasons for the dismissals, but sources close to the journal believe that a dispute over editorial independence was to blame. The scandal first came to light in an editorial published in the CMAJ detailing a “transgression” that occurred in preparation of the journal's Dec 6 issue. According to the CMAJ, the journal's publisher ordered a news article containing a survey of women's experiences of trying to obtain the Plan B morning-after pill (levonorgestrel) to be withheld, after receiving a complaint from the Canadian Pharmacists Association. The CMA's withdrawal request was justified on the grounds that the survey of women's experiences constituted scientific research, rather than journalism, and the editorial team should therefore have sought ethical counsel and peer review of the article. After publishing a shortened version of the contentious news article, the journal editors decided to publish an editorial to “set in motion a process to ensure the future editorial independence of the journal”. Expressing deep concern over the dismissals, the Council of Science Editors has called for owners and publishers to respect the boundaries between their responsibilities and those of journal editors. The World Association of Medical Editors and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors have also condemned the decision. Medical journals have a long history of investigative journalism through which they perform an important watchdog function by challenging the forces that undermine the values of medicine. What seems to be an attempt by the CMA to deprive editors of the capacity to bring to account those responsible for the perverse consequences of badly implemented policy or wrongheaded principles is deeply troubling. To distinguish between a journal's responsibility to publish peer-reviewed research and investigative journalism is false. Journals have a responsibility—in fact, a duty—to do both. CMAJ editors dismissed amid calls for more editorial freedomTwo Canadian editors have been dismissed in what their publisher claims was a decision to bring a “fresh approach” to their journal. But members of the journal's editorial board say the move is a veiled attempt to forcibly align the journal's views with those of its owner. Paul Webster reports. Full-Text PDF