The Journal of the American Medical Association has announced that Editor-in-Chief Dr. Catherine D. DeAngelis will be leaving her position as of June 30, 2011. Dr. DeAngelis has been serving as Editor-in-Chief of the journal since January 2000. She also oversees the nine Archives specialty medical journal publications.
Dr. DeAngelis has been a leader among journal editors to increase the integrity and ethics of medical journal publishing. Working with the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), she encouraged other editors to agree to a requirement for all clinical trials to be registered as a condition of publication and to strengthen conflict of interest guidelines. In one of her most courageous stands as a journal editor, she instituted the requirement that industry-sponsored clinical trials must have an independent academic statistician to review all data before a manuscript can be accepted and published in JAMA. No other journal has this stringent requirement to ensure the integrity of data.
During her tenure as editor, JAMA's Impact Factor increased from 11.4 in 2000 to 28.9 in 2009, the most recent year for which figures are available. The journal is consistently listed as one of the top three general medical journals in the world and highest for integrity.
With the announcement of Dr. DeAngelis' departure, the AMA has started the search for a new Editor-in-Chief for JAMA and the Archives journals. Russell Reynolds Associates has been retained to assist with the search. The search committee will be headed by JAMA Editorial Board member Dr. Ronald G. Evens from Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis. Other members of the search committee include representatives from the Journal Oversight Committee, the AMA's Board of Trustees, AMA senior management, and JAMA/Archives. The AMA plans to have a new editor in place by July 1, 2011.
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