Editorial misconduct

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7401.1224

BMJ 2003;326:1224-1225 (7 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7401.1224

Editorial

Editorial misconduct

Medical editors need effective self regulation

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

As with members of any group—be they doctors, politicians,or cardinals—some editors misbehave. Managing their misbehaviouris complicated by widespread devotion to the principle of editorialfreedom, a devotion that is energetically promoted by editors.When an organisation takes the nuclear option of firing itseditor—as the American Medical Association did in 1999—theroof falls in.^{1
2} How can the circle of editorial independenceand the need to discipline erring editors, of whom there aremany, be squared? The answer may be self regulation, some sortof general medical journalists council.

Regular readers of the BMJ will imagine that it is my own misbehaviourthat prompts me to meditate on the theme of editorial misconduct. My sins in the past two months include publishing an obituaryseen by many as a hatchet job,^{3
4} publishing research fundedby the tobacco industry that implied that passive smoking didnot kill,⁵ carrying an offensive . . . [Full text of this article]

Richard Smith, editor

BMJ

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