JAMA appoints woman editor

Dr Catherine DeAngelis takes questions at a new york press conference to announce her appointment as editor of JAMA

JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association (AMA), appointed a new editor - the first woman and the first paediatrician in its 116 year history - and pledged to maintain strict independence for the publication's editorial process.

"Editorial freedom is essential," said Dr Catherine DeAngelis, a dean of academic affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, in Baltimore, Maryland, and current editor in chief of the association's Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

"It is the absolute byword by which I will operate," she said at a news conference where her appointment was announced. "If I had any doubts, I wouldn't be standing here."

The appointment of Dr DeAngelis begins a new chapter in JAMA's leadership after the controversial firing earlier this year of her predecessor, Dr George Lundberg. The AMA was roundly criticised for hastily dismissing Dr Lundberg last January after some in the organisation's leadership accused him of publishing a paper on perceptions about sex to influence President Clinton's impeachment trial.

The dismissal fuelled a controversy over the journal's editorial independence. In a response to public criticism over Lundberg's firing, JAMA established a seven member oversight committee to serve as a buffer or wall of separation between JAMA's editorial process and the AMA's officials.

The committee's rules also say that the association "recognises and fully accepts the necessity of editorial independence for the editor in chief at all times."

Dr Lundberg, who is now editor in chief of Medscape.com, a medical information website, said that he thinks Dr DeAngelis will help to maintain JAMA's journalistic integrity.

"Dr DeAngelis is a well known and highly regarded academic pediatrician, administrator, and medical editor. I admit to considerable bias since I hired her to be the editor of the archives of pediatrics and adolescent medicine several years ago and have admired her work in that role," Dr Lundberg said.

Scott Gottlieb, New York


studentBMJ 1999;07:394-436 November ISSN 0966-6494