All but one member of the editorial advisory committee for Australia's top medical journal have resigned following the sacking of its eminent editor.
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 of the prestigious Medical Journal of Australia after he raised concerns about a decision by the journal's publisher AMPCo to outsource the journal's production to Elsevier.
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 which has published "fake medical journals". Nineteen of the Medical Journal of Australia's 20 editorial advisory committee members co-signed a letter of resignation.
"It's a disgrace and very undignified," Professor Zimmet said. "Stephen Leeder is one of the most respected academics in Australian medicine, a great commentator and a very ethical guy. He was sacked about a matter which a number of us are concerned about." Professor Zimmet said global publishing giant Elsevier, had produced "fake" medical journals in Australia that were funded by pharmaceutical companies and not subject to peer review.
Elsevier in 2009 declared as "unacceptable" its creation of publications in 2000 to 2005 that were sponsored by Merck to promote the drug Vioxx, which was discontinued because of its links to safety risks, including heart attack. "The publications were mainly directed at the products of those companies, but their overall appearance and the way they were published made it look like they were real journals," Professor Zimmet said. Professor Zimmet said the anti-vaccination movement was fuelled by the research published in the Lancet, an Elsevier publication.
AMPCo Board chairman, Richard Allely, said 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 declined to comment "on any external commentaries surrounding the decisions made by AMPCo".
