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Editorial Board Resigns after Corporate Takeover of Worker-Oriented Public Health Journal
Editorial Board Resigns after Corporate Takeover of Worker-Oriented Public Health Journal
November 22, 2017
The entire 22-member Editorial Board of the International Journal of Occupational and Environment Health resigned this morning after a months-long struggle with the Journal’s new owners who have “have acted in a profoundly unethical fashion” and have moved the worker-oriented publication to a more corporate focus. ... The fate of the IJOEH is important to worker health in this country. A recent article in ProPublica explains that under the new owner, the IJOEH is moving toward favoring “corporate interests over independent science in the public interest.”
IJOEH is best known for exposing so-called “product defense science” — industry-linked studies that defend the safety of products made by their funders. At a time when the Trump administration is advancing policies and nominees sympathetic to the chemical industry, the journal seems to be veering in the same direction.
....
The problem began when the British-based Taylor & Francis, one of the largest publishers of academic journals, bought IJOEH in 2015. Last year, without consulting the Editorial Board, Taylor & Francis hired a new editor-in-chief, Andrew Maier. Maier, an environmental health professor at the University of Cincinnati, runs a program for research fellows at TERA (Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment), a consulting firm that analyzes chemical safety. Tera was founded by Michael Dourson, a former tobacco industry defender, and Trump’s highly controversial (and possibly unsuccessful) nominee for EPA Assistant Administrator for Toxic Substances.
The publisher claimed to have contacted one Board member, Jukka Takala, about Maier’s appointment, although according to Retraction Watch, Takala claims that “I was never consulted on Dr Maier and had no information about him.” ... In addition to bypassing the Board on the appointment of Maier, the new owners also withdrew and peer-reviewed article by journal’s former editor-in-chief David Egilman — after it has been published. Egilman’s article criticized Union Carbide Corporation’s efforts to oppose workers’ claims of asbestos exposure. The publisher also flagged three other articles that had been approved while Egilman was editor-in-chief.
November 22, 2017
The entire 22-member Editorial Board of the International Journal of Occupational and Environment Health resigned this morning after a months-long struggle with the Journal’s new owners who have “have acted in a profoundly unethical fashion” and have moved the worker-oriented publication to a more corporate focus. ... The fate of the IJOEH is important to worker health in this country. A recent article in ProPublica explains that under the new owner, the IJOEH is moving toward favoring “corporate interests over independent science in the public interest.”
IJOEH is best known for exposing so-called “product defense science” — industry-linked studies that defend the safety of products made by their funders. At a time when the Trump administration is advancing policies and nominees sympathetic to the chemical industry, the journal seems to be veering in the same direction.
....
The problem began when the British-based Taylor & Francis, one of the largest publishers of academic journals, bought IJOEH in 2015. Last year, without consulting the Editorial Board, Taylor & Francis hired a new editor-in-chief, Andrew Maier. Maier, an environmental health professor at the University of Cincinnati, runs a program for research fellows at TERA (Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment), a consulting firm that analyzes chemical safety. Tera was founded by Michael Dourson, a former tobacco industry defender, and Trump’s highly controversial (and possibly unsuccessful) nominee for EPA Assistant Administrator for Toxic Substances.
The publisher claimed to have contacted one Board member, Jukka Takala, about Maier’s appointment, although according to Retraction Watch, Takala claims that “I was never consulted on Dr Maier and had no information about him.” ... In addition to bypassing the Board on the appointment of Maier, the new owners also withdrew and peer-reviewed article by journal’s former editor-in-chief David Egilman — after it has been published. Egilman’s article criticized Union Carbide Corporation’s efforts to oppose workers’ claims of asbestos exposure. The publisher also flagged three other articles that had been approved while Egilman was editor-in-chief.