https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9382-0379
Abstract
Medical Teacher is a leading international journal in health professions education. The Journal recognizes its responsibility to publish papers that reflect the breadth of topics that meet the needs of its readers around the globe including contributions from countries underrepresented in the health professions education arena. This paper sets out the Journal’s policy with regard to Equity Diversity Inclusion (EDI) and the steps to be taken to implement the policy in practice.
Introduction
Equity Diversity Inclusion (EDI) is on the agenda in Health Professions Education (HPE). Recently published papers have articulated a) the existence of a leaky pipeline in HPE publications (Kusurkar Citation2022) and the dominance of the Global North (Khan et al. Citation2022), b) skewed authorship dominated by the Global North (Buffone et al. Citation2020; Maggio et al. Citation2023), c) skewed representation from the Global North on editorial boards (Yip and Rashid Citation2021), d) barriers to publications from the Global South (Kusurkar Citation2022), and 5) author parasitism (Rees et al. Citation2021), in which Global North authors collect data from the Global South and do not give Global South authors important author positions in their publications. There is a clear problem that the knowledge synthesis in the HPE field is dominated by the Global North leading to inequity in publication practices, HPE and healthcare practices (Naidu Citation2021; The Lancet Global Health Citation2021; Kusurkar Citation2022; Horton Citation2023).
While we use the terms Global North and South in this editorial, we acknowledge that these terms are currently being debated and are evolving. In the absence of more appropriate terminology, we have used these terms in relation to this significant problem in HPE publishing today to reflect the geopolitical power differences and effects of colonization (Khan et al. Citation2022; Sims Citation2023).
Why is it necessary as well as urgent to have an EDI policy for Medical Teacher?
Medical Teacher, in particular, has a special responsibility with regard to EDI given its broad international and multicultural dimensions, and its focus on the practicing teacher and evidence-based practice. Thus, Medical Teacher is in a unique position to contribute meaningfully towards correcting the northern tilt in HPE. Medical Teacher has a broad global readership; publishing diverse topics from authors worldwide is likely to have significant impact. Medical Teacher also publishes BEME and AMEE guides and, acknowledging the dominance of Global North authors of guides in the past, the journal is actively taking steps to address this issue in future publications. Even with small scale measures Medical Teacher can create a great impact on HPE authorship practices. EDI is being increasingly recognized in HPE and some journals have published their policy statements (Cianciolo Citation2020; Ajjawi et al. Citation2022).
In this editorial recognising that Medical Teacher has a role to play with regard to EDI, we describe below the journal’s policy as formulated by the Editorial Board:
Medical Teacher will strive to achieve representation from the Global South as well as the Global North with regard to the journal’s stakeholders or actors, including the Editorial Board, the Editor-in-Chief, the Managing Editor, Associate Editors, reviewers and authors.
Authors will be asked to consider both Global South and Global North perspectives in their manuscripts and cite the appropriate literature in order that it has the widest possible application to the international readership of the journal.
Authors will be asked to ensure that collaborative work reported should accurately reflect the contributions they have made to the paper. This is particularly important with regard to Global North/Global South collaborations with Global South authors identified where appropriate as first and last authors.
The journal’s stakeholders or actors listed above are encouraged to support colleagues from Global South and other underrepresented groups in their quest for publication of their work in Medical Teacher. They should strive to provide assistance with the conceptualization and preparation of work that may be appropriate for publication in the journal including providing constructive feedback when asked to do so.
The journal’s EDI policy should be transparent and communicated to all journal stakeholders.
The implementation of the journal’s policy with regard to EDI will be monitored and the results presented annually to a meeting of the Editorial Board.
It is recognized that the situation with regard to EDI is an evolving one and the journal’s policy or position will need to be continuously reviewed and revised as necessary. This is an area where there are major benefits to be gained by collaboration of the different health professions education journals.
With this editorial, Medical Teacher recognizes the need to remain relevant to the global community and to publish papers that further develop the scholarship and practice of health professions education. Submissions must be representative and are equally welcomed from all members of the community. This mission is aligned to the central principle of inclusivity to celebrate individual and collective diversity, with the intention of enhancing social justice for all. We will do our best to provide a fair and inclusive review and publication process and to ensure that Medical Teacher continues to meet the needs of its international readership.
Disclosure statement
Rashmi Kusurkar is Associate Editor for EDI for Medical Teacher
Pat Lilley is Managing Editor of Medical Teacher
Ronald Harden is Editor-in-Chief of Medical Teacher
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Rashmi A. Kusurkar
Rashmi A. Kusurkar is professor and research programme leader, Research in Education, at Amsterdam University Medical Centers (UMC) location Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; She is Associate Editor on EDI for Medical Teacher, a Fellow of AMEE, a Fellow of KIPRIME (Karolinska Institute Prize for Research in Medical Education) and a Fellow of GSMC-FAIMER Regional Institute.
Pat Lilley
Pat Lilley is Managing Editor of Medical Teacher.
Ronald Harden
Ronald Harden is Editor-in-Chief of Medical Teacher and Professor Emeritus in Medical Education, University of Dundee.
References
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