Update of the Editorial Governance Plan for JAMA

KEYWORDS:
• periodicals
• publishing

Four years ago, an editorial in THE JOURNAL¹ discussed, among other things, the editorial governance plan for JAMA and explained the role of the Editor-in-Chief, Senior Vice President of Scientific Publications and Multimedia Applications as contracted with the American Medical Association (AMA). However, this JAMA Governance plan, which had been published in 1999,² was never republished in a format reflecting this contracted relationship. Recent inquiries have prompted the need to clarify 2 aspects of the document.

The Editor-in-Chief reports directly to the Executive Vice President (not the Senior Vice President for Publishing and Business Services) only for business and financial operations. The remaining statement, as follows, is unchanged. The Editor-in-Chief will not report to management for any aspect of the editorial content of JAMA or the Archives Journals or other AMA publications under his or her jurisdiction. Editorial independence of the Editor-in-Chief will be absolutely protected and respected by AMA management. In order to exercise its evaluative functions, the Journal Oversight Committee (JOC) will have full access to financial information including revenue and expense statements, budgets, and actual results. In order to have access to this proprietary information, each member of the JOC who receives it will execute the AMA's standard Confidentiality and Conflict of Interest Agreements. This was point 9 in the original document.²

The 9 other governance points remain in effect as originally written.² Figure 1 below reflects the actual reporting relationship of the Editor-in-Chief.

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Most importantly, this governance model has engendered a smooth and cordial working relationship between the Editor-in-Chief and the AMA and has allowed for the great success of THE JOURNAL over the past 4 years.