Dear ICMJE Secretariat:

 

We have recently read reports where papers submitted to journals by Israeli authors returned with critiques that assailed Israel’s military actions instead of weighing the article’s scientific merits.https://www.wsj.com/articles/boycotting-israel-is-an-attack-on-science-fcca893c

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We know that the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) is committed to the principle that editorial decisions should be based on the relevance of a manuscript to the journal and on the manuscript's originality, quality, and contribution to evidence about important questions. https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf

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The actions reported in the article are not in keeping with that principle. There should be zero tolerance and no place in the scientific community for that sort of behavior.  

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We respectfully request that ICMJE consider editorial and peer review critiques directed against an authors’ religion, ethnicity, or country of origin as potential instances of scientific misconduct and recommend that they be investigated as such. 

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Sincerely,

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Shmuel Shoham, M.D.

Professor of Clinical Medicine 

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

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Nigel Paneth M.D., MPH

University Distinguished Professor, Emeritus

Departments of Epidemiology & Biostatistics and Pediatrics & Human Development
Michigan State University

College of Human Medicine

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Lewis H. Romer, M.D.

Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine

Cell Biology, Biomedical Engineering, and Pediatrics

Center for Cell Dynamics

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

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Avi Z. Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Pathology

Director, Division of Autopsy Pathology 

Director, Research Autopsy Program

Department of Pathology

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

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Steven L. Salzberg, Ph.D.

Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, and Biostatistics

Director, Center for Computational Biology

Johns Hopkins University

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Avi Vanderwalde, M.D., MPH

Global Chair of Clinical Trials

Caris Life Sciences