[AAHM_Clio_Project] medical history is a serious subject of study

[Jacalyn M Duffin]

Dear All

An interesting question comes from Alessandra Foscati a colleague in Italy…below.

With her permission I forward it to you all.

I sent a reply with some of my thoughts for why this happens in medical publishing.
.
But it would be interesting to hear what others have to say ….
Or if you too have had the peculiar experience of having your brilliant, pathbreaking work ignored.

And more importantly for our Clio Initiative…what can we do about it?

A hall of shame for offending journals?
A standard letter to editor when we notice it?
More real history in medical education and residency?

Explanations for Alessandra — and all thoughts welcome!
Please copy Alessandra in your replies.

Happy summer!

Jackie


From:    alessandra foscati <alessandra.foscati at GMAIL.COM<mailto:alessandra.foscati at GMAIL.COM>>
Subject: medical history is a serious subject of study

Dear  all,

a little question. Why do serious medical  periodicals, with respectable impact factors and peer review, often permit the publication of articles of history of medicine that are so naive (to use an euphemistic expression)? Is there no serious peer review by historians in medical periodicals?

It seems not.

I think it is damaging and insulting to serious scholars of medical history.

As I see it, physicians often use history at the opening of an article starting with a picture and then leap immediately to conclusions connected to current medical knowledge. Or they start with the tale of a miracle, using a casual source without dating it or using any philological interpretations or providing any references,  and so on.

I have just read a very recent example in Journal of Vascular Surgery.

Even if the periodical is dedicated to the medicine, I think that articles and parts of articles regarding medical history deserve to be seriously written and controlled.

Sorry for my outburst.

Alessandra

Alessandra

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