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Promoting Global Health
Abstract
The Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of MCH and AIDS (IJMA) is a member of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME). The Editorial Board of IJMA believes it is important that the statement on promoting global health and this accompanying editorial is brought to the attention of our readers. Medical journal editors have a social responsibility to promote global health by publishing, whenever possible, research that furthers health worldwide.
Keywords
WAME
Global health
Research
Low-and middle-income countries
The published medical research literature is a global public good. Medical journal editors have a social responsibility to promote global health by publishing, whenever possible, research that furthers health worldwide. For purposes of this statement global health is defined as follows: “Global health is an area for study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving equity in health for all people worldwide. Global health emphasizes transnational health issues, determinants, and solutions; involves many disciplines within and beyond the health sciences and promotes interdisciplinary collaboration; and is a synthesis of population-based prevention with individual-level clinical care.”[1]
More specifically, all medical journal editors, regardless of their location, should strive to:
Publish research addressing the greatest global health concerns;
Specifically encourage the publication of innovative and solution-focused research in all fields of medicine, public health, and health promotion; in particular, research applicable to low- and middle-income countries;
Encourage the publication of research from authors in low- and middle-income countries;
Provide free web-based access to research articles to readers in countries that cannot afford to pay for them;
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Provide publication fee waivers for research conducted and authored primarily by researchers from low- and middle-income countries; and,
For editors in high-income countries:
Invite researchers from low- and middle-income countries to participate on editorial boards of their journals;
Invite researchers from low- and middle-income countries to participate as peer-reviewers for articles submitted to their journals;
Invite researchers from low-and middle-income countries to write editorials and commentaries on the local or regional impact of and, if relevant, responses to global health issues to help educate readers in high-income countries about the human costs and consequences of these issues.
Editorial Note
About WAME
Established in 1995, WAME (pronounced “whammy”) is a nonprofit voluntary association of editors of peer-reviewed medical journals from countries throughout the world who seek to foster international cooperation amoung the education of medical journal editors. Membership in WAME is free and all decision-making editors of peer-reviewed medical journals are eligible to join. Membership is also available to selected scholors in journal editorial policy and peer review. As of August 25, 2013, WAME has more than 1915 members representing more than 1000 journals from 92 countries.
WAME has the following goals:
to facilitate worldwide cooperation and communication amoung editors of peer-reviewed medical journals;
to improve editorial standards, to promote professionalism in medical editing through education, self-criticism and self-regulation; and
to encourage research on the principles and practice of medical editing.
For more information about WAME, please click here: http://www.wame.org/
References
- Towards a common definition of global health. Lancet. 2009;373(9679):1993-5. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60332-9. Also available at https://www.globalbrigades.org/media/Global_Health_Towards_a_Common_Definitition.pdf.
- [CrossRef] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
