One of the questions arising from the recent firing of CMAJ's editor and senior deputy editor is “To whom should the Journal and its editorial board be accountable?”1
If the CMAJ is directly accountable to its publisher, CMA Media Inc., then it effectively does not have editorial independence, despite claims to the contrary. However, I believe that CMAJ should not be directly accountable to any one organization, even its owner. The CMAJ is accountable to CMA Media to prepare a journal for publication every 2 weeks — that is all. In fact, it is CMA Media and the Canadian Medical Association that are responsible to Canadian physicians, the Canadian public, the world medical community and medical scholarship in general to ensure that we have an independent medical journal.
The CMAJ should first and foremost be accountable to its principles, and these principles must be clearly stated. In addition to articles on research and clinical medicine, the journal should be committed to publishing news and commentary about trends in Canadian and world medical practices and policies, as well as environmental issues and international health. The intersection of arts, medicine and life is also a relevant topic.
CMAJ should also be accountable to its readers, especially CMA members (after all, it is “our” journal), to the Canadian public, and to the community of world medical scholarship and publications.
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