We can put issues on the agenda, but perhaps not achieve reform
For Thomas Wakley, the founder of The Lancet, an important function of his journal was to reform medicine, which he saw as full of incompetence, quackery, corruption, and nepotism. He wanted to reform as well as inform. But can journals reform? Can they lead? Are medical journals important for leadership in medicine? Or is this grandiosity on the part of editors? Aren’t journals there to follow, reflect, and comment rather than to lead?
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Richard Smith was the Editor of the BMJ and the chief executive of the BMJ Publishing Group from 1991 to 2004. He is now a member of the board of the Public Library of Science.