Birth of the pathway A few miles west of Mont Blanc, eighty years ago, Marie Curie arrived at a sanatorium in the foothills of the Alps to spend her final […]
Editors at large
Readers’ editor: Influence beyond the impact factor
The BMJ’s impact and influence should be measured by more than just established metrics such as impact factor. But the new figures, released two weeks ago, are very welcome. The journal’s impact factor rose more […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Are there any aspects of healthcare about which you are passionate?
Health inequality. As an editor, we see lots of papers on health inequality; an anodyne, antiseptic term that trips off the tongue without baggage. Not much new. But, in practice […]
Helen Macdonald: Do I practise global health?
I was strolling around the poster hall at the WONCA conference in Prague yesterday, when the question occurred to me. I fell into conversation with the presenters of two linked […]
Birte Twisselmann on the HighWire Spring Publisher’s conference—massive, open, online, and individualised
Every three years or so I am lucky enough to attend our webhost HighWire’s spring publisher’s meeting at Stanford University in sunny California. This year was no exception—the meeting was […]
Readers’ editor: International research
The BMJ wants its research papers to help doctors make better decisions, which is why they are open access and free to view. But to deliver on the pledge our […]
Trish Groves: What does Tamiflu do, and how will we know?
Jonathan Nguyen-Van-Tam, virologist and researcher from the University of Nottingham, told a group of triallists and virologists last week “we must remember why we’re here—because of the controversies. The clinical […]
Trish Groves: Data sharing—making it real
The evidence base for current treatments has been built largely on aggregated results published in journal articles—articles that report trials initiated and sponsored by industry in order to get marketing […]
Domhnall MacAuley: The US champions primary care
When the US starts to champion primary care, it is time to sit up. With its traditionally specialist focus, this may seem out of character, but as a result of […]
Domhnall MacAuley: Unintended misconduct identified in research
Two recent stories provoked a fascinating discussion on misconduct in research—that have nothing to do with the authors, and in the most unlikely of journals. The May 15th edition of […]