Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Editor's Choice

A big mistake

BMJ 2006; 332 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.332.7540.0-f (Published 02 March 2006) Cite this as: BMJ 2006;332:0-f

Rapid Response:

Speaking Truth to Power

The recent firing of Dr. John Hoey and Ann Marie Todkill as editors
of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, followed rapidly by the
departure of Senior Editor Dr. Stephen Choi and Editorial Fellow, Dr.
Sally Murray, earlier this week is a disturbing and shameful chapter in
the history of the journal.

As Fiona Godlee has pointed out, under the leadership of Dr. Hoey and
Ms. Todkill the CMAJ has substantially improved its impact factor and
become one of the leading general circulation medical journals in the
world. In my opinion it has also neatly balanced the publication of high
quality research, clinically relevant articles for the practising
physician, news, and thoughts and reflections on the art of medicine
itself.

A petition has been circulated electronically, protesting against
these firings and I would encourage all physicians who care about the
integrity of the CMAJ and its editorial independence to sign it. The
petition can be found at http://www.chaps.ucalgary.ca/cmaj.htm.

Dr. Hoey and the other members of the editorial team should be
strongly supported in their courageous attempt to speak truth to power.

Competing interests:
None declared

Competing interests: No competing interests

03 March 2006
Nicholas J G Pimlott
Assistant Professor
Department of Family and Community Medicine, Women's College Campus, 60 Grosvenor Street, Toronto, O