BMJ  2004;328 (28 February), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7438.0-g

Editor's choice

Nothingness: the role of journals

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

A whole issue of a journal devoted to what doesn't work. An orgy of failure. Isn't this a mad idea? Don't our readers want to hear about medicine's remarkable successes rather than its ignominious defeats? Maybe some do, but many, I suspect, will experience a shiver of delight on reading this litany of ineffectiveness. It's much closer than usual issues of the journal to the real world of misunderstood patients, wrong diagnoses, lost tests, illegible writing, incomprehensible instructions, failed treatments, broken relationships, and shattered dreams. For this week at least we will be closer to Shakespeare than Enid Blyton.

So this celebration of what doesn't work is, I think, a brilliant idea, and I can say that because I didn't have it. The idea came from Trish Groves, one of the BMJ editors, who, together with Phil Alderson and others, has created a treasure trove of negativity (p 473. . . [Full text of this article]

rsmith@bmj.com

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