‘We’re probably going to stop publishing in The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and … other journals because they’re all corrupt,’ Kennedy said.
Federal government scientists will likely be told to stop publishing in medical journals such as The Lancet, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a new podcast.
Kennedy said that if that happens, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will launch its own journals to publish research from its scientists.
Kennedy was speaking on the Ultimate Human Podcast in an interview released on May 27.
The health secretary said existing journals have serious problems, including not publishing datasets. That makes it hard to replicate studies and incentivizes cheating, he said.
“What we’re going to do is we’re going to devote probably 20 percent of NIH’s budget to replication; every study has to be replicated,” Kennedy said.
“We’re going to publish the peer review for the first time. We’re probably going to stop publishing in The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and those other journals because they’re all corrupt.”
Kennedy cited Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet. Horton has written that “much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue,” with issues such as conflicts of interest and small sample sizes plaguing the field.
Kennedy also referenced comments from former New England Journal of Medicine editor Marcia Angell, who wrote in 2009 that “it is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines.”
The current publication system means researchers must pay to get their research published, and often involves pharmaceutical companies funding research that supports their products, Kennedy said.
“Unless these journals change dramatically, we are going to stop NIH scientists from publishing there, and we’re going to create our own journals in-house in each of the institutions,” he added later. “And they’re going to become the preeminent journals.”
