How political should a general medical journal be?

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7393.820

BMJ 2003;326:820 ( 12 April )

Letters

How political should a general medical journal be?

We cannot be apolitical

Medical journal is no place for politics

Medical journals may have had role in justifying war

Politics, health, and justice are intertwined

Health is political

Politics could become evidence based with BMJ's help

Politics are part of general medical journal

We cannot be apolitical

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Delamothe asks to what extent a general medical journal should be political.¹ Every medical article published isthe culmination of a long journey that started from a politicaldecision: devoting resources to medical care and research. Thereis nothing to fear about being political, so long as we are preparedto accept the consequences and deal with the criticism of manywho strongly believe that a person or a journal should be apolitical.The BMJ's political stand is the clinical, scientific, social,political, and economic factors affecting health.²

What a reader expects from a journal such as the BMJ is that it maintains a balance in terms of the views expressed and scientificarticles published. If there is controversy it has to be stated,and if there are conflicting views on the same topic they haveto be given equal time and coverage. That is to be . . . [Full text of this article]

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How political should a general medical journal be?: Tony Delamothe
BMJ 2002 325: 1431-1432. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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