“Beyond the reach of my ethical tolerance”: Professor Stephen Leeder. Photo: Supplied
A group of prominent doctors is rallying members of the profession against a decision to outsource the country’s leading medical journal to a global publisher that has promoted the pharmaceutical industry’s interests in publications that were made to look like scientific journals.
Dr Peter Arnold, a member of the newly formed Friends of the Medical Journal of Australia, said the group is calling for a reversal of a decision to outsource production of the journal to Elsevier Publishing.
The group is also calling for the resignation of the board of Australian Medical Publishing Company (AMPCo), its publisher, and wants the publication’s former editor-in-chief Stephen Leeder? reinstated, as well as an independent inquiry into his recent sacking, which he described as “brutal” and the most “humiliating professional experience” of his life.
Dr Peter Arnold, a former deputy chairman and member of the AMPCo Board, said the Friends of the MJA steering committee “calls for the AMPCo Board to stand down pending a formal review of its actions and the future of the MJA“.
Friends of the MJA convenor Dr Kerry Breen said the MJA is the most widely read medical publication in Australia, with more than 30,000 readers.
“In the brief two years of his editorship, Professor Leeder has improved its quality and influence enormously,” Dr Breen said. “The steering committee believes a full enquiry should be held into the dismissal of Professor Leeder and the decision to outsource to Elsevier.”
Most of the members of the MJA’s editorial advisory committee resigned following the sacking of its eminent editor. Professor Gary Wittert, the head of medicine at Adelaide University and among those who resigned, said AMPCo’s track record in sacking editors, including Dr Annette Katelaris in 2012, and its commercial arrangements with Elsevier “does not inspire confidence in editorial independence”.
Stephen Leeder, an emeritus professor of public health at the University of Sydney and chair of the Western Sydney Local Health District Board, was sacked as editor after he raised concerns about AMPCo’s decision to outsource the MJA’s production to Elsevier. AMPCo is a wholly owned subsidiary of the AMA.
Professor Leeder has said he was “bereaved” by his departure from the MJA, but said that working with Elsevier was “beyond the reach of my ethical tolerance”.
Leading doctors from around the country are outraged at the decision and appalled at the treatment of Professor Leeder, saying they share his concerns about Elsevier.
Professor Leeder says he was supervised out of the office after his sacking. The AMA and AMPCo dispute that he was “marched out”.
AMPCo Board chairman Richard Allely wrote an earlier email to Professor Leeder which warned him to “be careful you don’t usurp the management decision-making of AMPCo with any direct contact with the AMA in relation to the outsourcing of production of the MJA as this would be both inappropriate and I can assure you you don’t want to deal with the repercussions”.
Professor Paul Zimmet, from the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, said the treatment of Professor Leeder, who he described as an “Australian icon”, was “a disgrace and very undignified”.
?The president of the AMA, Dr Brian Owler, has defended AMPCo’s decision to outsource production of the medical journal, saying the cost of continuing publication is unsustainable.
“The only thing that is being outsourced is production, not editorial content,” he said.
Mr Allely has said that views on the outsourcing proposal were sought and concerns raised by Professor Leeder and the editorial team were considered by the board.
“It was deemed necessary to seek operational efficiencies to put the journal on a sound financial footing,” he said.
A spokesman for Elsevier has declined to comment on AMPCo’s decisions, while a spokeswoman for AMPCo said the company had no further comment at this time.