2021-02-22 OMA Agenda - Board of Trustees (002)

INSIGHTS REGARDING A SOCIETAL JOURNAL (Proposal: Journal of the Obesity Medicine Association or JOMA)

By Harold Bays MD February 4 th , 2021

The following is a summary of logistics and potential “ myths ” regarding the startup of a societal journal. While briefly mentioned, the management of the financial and contractual aspects of a societal journal are best deferred to the society Executive Director.

MYTH: An affiliated journal provides only marginal benefits to a society.

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The reputation of a medical society largely depends upon its influence on how clinicians practice medicine. A stark contrast exists between educational resources perceived to benefit clinicians, versus citations applicable to setting academic standards. Medical societies choosing not to engage in academic contributions run the risk that opinions and practices of their leaders and members are devalued, perhaps bordering on irrelevance in the academic world. Objective evidence supports more clinicians use the Obesity Medicine Association Obesity Algorithms in preparing for the Obesity Medicine Board exam, compared to all other educational resources combined. However, interactions with academicians suggests the Obesity Algorithms lacks authoritative standing, because the Obesity Algorithms are not published in a reputable peer review journal, and not searchable by PubMed. Thus, academic leaders gravitate towards citing decades-old, outdated obesity scientific statements and guidelines, in preference to up-to-date and clinically applicable OMA Obesity Algorithms. The same principle applies to citations in pharmaceutical educational slide decks.

Bottomline: A clear line of difference exists in reputation and influence between societies with and without an affiliated journal.

• MYTH: The Editor of the journal is mainly a political appointment of an opinion leader, because Elsevier manages journal operations.

Among the surest ways for a journal to fail is if the journal is run by an Editor who has a poor understanding of the applicable science, who has limited experience in publishing, and/or who lacks operational, managerial, and motivational skillsets necessary to move manuscripts through the publication process in a quality and timely manner. Other potential Editor pitfalls include Editors having single-minded agendas and an inability to balance: (1) compromise versus (2) ethical and scientific lines that should not be crossed. Finally, among the most common failings of a journal Editor is the repeated delays in the journal article management. Other potentially unrecognized duties of a journal Editor include: o Creation/edits of letter templates (Associate Editor invitations, reviewer invitations, response to authors, etc.) o Creation/edits of “Instructions to Authors” webpage

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