CMAJ loses most of its Editorial Board

Fifteen Editorial Board members of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) quit this morning -- following the resignation of their colleague Jerome Kassirer earlier in the week. The move comes following weeks of debates over editorial independence between the journal and its publisher, the Canadian Medical Association, sparked by the CMA's decision to fire the journal's top two editors.Another of the CMAJ's remaining part-time editors, Claire Kendall, has also resigned, Josephine Sciortino, the CMAJ's managing editor, told The Scientist. Kendall is the sixth editor to leave the journal in less than a month. The saga began February 20th when editor John Hoey and senior deputy editor Anne Marie Todkill were abruptly fired after publishing an investigative article noting that pharmacists were asking buyers of emergency contraception personal questions, including about their sexual history. One week after Hoey and Todkill left, their replacements also resigned. The departing Editorial Board...