 | Jocalyn Clark International Editor - The BMJ Sociology, Bioethics - Medical Ethics, Global | Public Health |
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03.04.2023-28.04.2023
Social and ethical dimensions of pandemic publishing: Challenges and responsibilities from the front-line
The Covid-19 pandemic has unleashed a tsunami of scientific output. In the first 5 months, the number of Covid-19 publications (>16,000) was already 3 times that of HIV publications in the past 20 years. LitCovid records 221,660 Covid-19 publications as of Feb, 2022. Never before have researchers all over the world focused so urgently on a single topic.
Medical journals have been at the ‘front-line’ of publishing research and commentary to inform the public health response to Covid-19. Publications are key: they shape policy and public opinion via coverage in social and traditional media. Journals and editors adapted quickly to Covid-19 by offering fast track consideration, waiving publication fees, removing paywalls, encouraging pre-prints and working overtime to meet the demands for rapid dissemination of new knowledge. The work of researchers and editors during this public health emergency is largely viewed positively: a triumph of the collective research and publishing communities to tackle a global threat.
But these achievements over the past 2 years have overshadowed consideration of the costs. Of these costs, 2 deserve further examination from a social and ethical perspective. First, the invisibilising of women’s expertise. Covid-19 publishing has overwhelmingly advanced the output of male over female authors. The gender disparity is devastating for careers and the literature. Women’s careers are set back because publication is a form of recognition and academic ‘currency’ that impacts on leadership opportunities, compensation and advancement. For women with intersectional identities (such as women of colour) this will be compounded. For the literature, dominated by men from high-income countries, the lack of inclusion of women and racialised individuals vastly limits the diversity of expertise and perspectives brought to bear on research questions, interventions, priorities and policy recommendations, which shape future knowledge, including pandemic preparedness.
Second, the unfettered effort to produce more and more publications rapidly, without a critical perspective on why? To what end? While much Covid-19 research (and publishing) has been data-driven, explanatory and necessary, much appears opportunistic. Is production of science an end in of itself, or should pandemic publishing only have the aim of population health and wellbeing? Should publications during a global pandemic be held to a higher standard? Are journal processes fit for purpose?
These 2 areas need more critical examination because of the seismic impacts the pandemic has had on the production, publication, rewards, and equity and diversity of health sciences. This project aims to fill that gap using social theory and an intersectional feminist lens, leveraging the unique perspective of a professional journal editor trained in the social sciences applied to health.
Dr Jocalyn Clark is a public health scientist and professional medical journal editor. In August 2022 she was appointed International Editor of The BMJ (British Medical Journal). Previously she was Executive Editor of The Lancet (2016-22) and lead of #LancetWomen to advance women in science, medicine and global health; Executive Editor at the public health research organisation icddr,b in Dhaka, Bangladesh (2013-16); and Senior Editor at PLOS Medicine (2006-13). She serves as a scientific advisor to the INDEPTH Network of health surveillance systems, board member of women’s rights organisations Global Health 50/50 and WomenLift Health, and Chair of the governance council of the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). A Canadian national, Dr Clark holds a BSc in biochemistry & microbiology, and MSc and PhD in public health sciences (with gender studies), during which she was a Canadian Institutes of Health Research fellow. Dr Clark is an adjunct professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and an elected fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in recognition of her scholarship and leadership advancing gender equity and the social contexts of health globally.
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