BMJ  2006;332:565 (11 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7541.565-a

News

CMAJ owner fails to guarantee editorial independence

Quebec

The editorial autonomy of the CMAJ, the journal of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), "is to an important degree illusory," says a highly critical commentary published last week. The commentary was produced by an ad hoc committee of the journal's editorial board following the firing of the journal's editor and deputy editor (BMJ 2006;332: 503, 4 Mar[Free Full Text]). Soon after the commentary was published the acting editor resigned after the association refused to accept a plan he drafted that was aimed at ensuring editorial independence.

In an early release published online on 28 February (www.cmaj.ca), the committee said that the association and its publishing company, CMA Holdings (CMAH), "must make a choice about what kind of publication it wants CMAJ to be." It said that the choice is between a publication that accepts as inviolable editors' responsible exercise of editorial independence and one that makes publicly clear that its editors' conduct must "be consonant with the political, ideological, and strategic objectives of the CMA."

The committee said, "Any attempt by the CMA to impose its influence on the editors would be catastrophic for the CMAJ's reputation as well as damaging to the reputation of the CMA... CMAJ cannot be deemed to be a CMA newsletter, a cat's paw that is under the editorial direction of its custodians, the CMA/CMAH... In fact, the `highest interest' of the CMA and of CMAJ can and should coincide."

John Hoey, the editor in chief of CMAJ who was dismissed with his deputy, Anne Marie Todkill, on 20 February by Graham Morris, publisher of the journal and president of CMA Media, a subsidiary of CMA Holdings (BMJ 2006;332: 503[Free Full Text]), had asked the committee to review a series of events that he said had compromised the journal's independence. These involved interference by the CMA and CMAH over a number of news stories.

The committee noted that the CMAJ is ranked fifth in impact factor (a rating of journals' influence) among general medical journals. To sustain its standing immediate corrective action is needed, the committee said. It recommended that improvements be made to the journal's oversight committee, which it said had become "an instrument through which CMA/CMAH can complain about journal content considered politically inconvenient."

The committee also expressed concern about the structure and operation of the journal's oversight committee.

---

Longer versions of these articles are on bmj.com

The review and related articles can all be seen at www.cmaj.ca.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

CMA draws criticism for sacking editors

David Spurgeon
BMJ 2006 332: 503. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Isn't balanced reporting a funcion of good journalism?

Andrew J Ashworth
bmj.com, 10 Mar 2006 [Full text]