Promoting Global Health

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:  

(a) Publish research addressing the greatest global health concerns;  

(b) 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;  

(c) Encourage the publication of research from authors in low- and middle-income countries;    

(d) Provide free Web-based access to research articles to readers in countries that cannot afford to pay for them;   

(e) 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:  

(f) Invite researchers from low- and middle-income countries to participate on editorial boards of their journals;

(g) Invite researchers from low- and middle-income countries to participate as peer reviewers for articles submitted to their journals;  

(h) 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.    

Addendum (approved by WAME Board of Directors on December 23, 2019): 

WAME encourages all medical journal editors to encourage authors to
provide abstracts in the language of the location where the research
took place and that journals should make those abstracts available to
readers when provided.

Reference  

1. Koplan JP, Bond T, Merson M, Reddy K, Rodriguez M, Sewankambo N. 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.  

This Statement has been approved by the WAME Ethics and Policy Committee and endorsed by the WAME Board. May 31, 2015  

See also the accompanying editorial: Promoting Global Health: The World Association of Medical Editors’ Position on Editors' Responsibility

Posted May 31, 2015;  Addendum December 23, 2019