A Call to Reclaim Scientific Debate

Editor’s note: This comment originally appeared as a response to the editorial, “The Importance of Health Equity Scholarship in Uncertain Times,” published in JAMA Health Forum.

Healthy scientific discourse thrives on skepticism and debate. The scientific process advances when it avoids premature closure or pseudo-certainty. JAMA’s editorial policy, however, as stated in “The Importance of Health Equity Scholarship in Uncertain Times,” promises to publish only articles based upon an unproven assumption—that health equity research will “allow all people to live longer, healthier lives.” The policy presumes a wide consensus and declares that there is, and, ominously, should be, “alignment across journals, institutions, and disciplines around the goals that animate health equity work.”

Read the full comment at JAMA Health Forum.