Medical Journal Operates Discriminatory ‘Mentorship’ Program for ‘Underrepresented’ Minorities

The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI): In Practice is operating a mentorship program that is only open to members of certain racial groups.

The program, titled “JACI: In Practice Underrepresented in Medicine (UIM) Reviewer Mentorship Program,” is expressly intended to increase the number of ethnic minorities in editorial positions at the journal.

“The purpose of the program is to increase the diversity and expertise of the JACI: In Practice reviewer pool and Editorial Boards,” the program description states.

The program offers selected scholars considerable opportunities to develop their careers.

These include “high level didactic training regarding how to provide optimal journal article reviews” as well as the chance to “work with four Editorial Board members on four Original Article reviews during the year.”

Moreover, “special efforts will be made to allow mentees to have the opportunity for continued reviews so as to potentially quality (sic) for Editorial Board Membership.”

However, these opportunities are restricted on the basis of race.

The program’s eligibility criteria reads as follows:

“For the purposes of this program, members of the following UIM demographic groups (as defined by the National Science Foundation and the Association of American Medical Colleges) are eligible: American Indian/native Alaskan, Black or African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native Hawaiian/Pacific islander, Underrepresented Southeast Asian populations.”

In other words, white applicants are excluded.

This is blatant racial discrimination that is not only unethical but antithetical to the purpose of medical journals to advance medical science.

It’s difficult to see how the racial composition of a journal’s editorial board will improve the quality of its product; instead, selecting these positions on the basis of race rather than merit risks degrading its quality.

JACI should select the most qualified applicants, not dole out opportunities on the basis of race.