A look at CMAJ: A misty image indeed

Full Text The date: Feb 20, 2006. Medical publishing was rocked by the sudden dismissal of the Editor In Chief of the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal), John Hoey, and a Senior Deputy Editor Anne Mary Todkill. The Editor appointed in the interim, Stephen Choe and another Deputy Editor Sally Murray, also resigned in a week's time, on 28 Feb to be precise. Along with them also went Jerome Kassirer, a former CMAJ editorial board member and a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), appointed to frame regulations or governance plans about editorial independence. All these are well-respected professionals in the field of biomedical publication and there has been a huge outcry, both in the medical as well as popular press, at their abrupt sacking. If this were not enough, fifteen out of the nineteen members of the editorial board of the CAMJ also resigned, precipitating a grave crisis. In the meanwhile, the CMA, in an attempt at damage control, appointed an interim Editor, Noni Macdonald, along with an Editor Emeritus, Bruce Squires, who has been an earlier editor of CMAJ , and a founder member of WAME. A retired Chief Justice of the Canadian Supreme Court has been appointed to chalk out a Governance Plan for Editorial independence. Changes are also envisaged in the JOC (Journal Oversight Committee). The CMA President is exhorting everyone concerned to move on, and has assured a policy of editorial independence. The atmosphere, at the time of writing this, is combative and smoldering, and a distinct unease prevails.