Dr. JACC & Mr. Rxiv
Two stances about peer-review with a COI in the middle — who is this person?
There’s a strange case upon the land — an individual with editorial philosophies in fundamental conflict, one side of his persona embracing “elite” content, top-notch publishers, and stringent standards, while another flouts professional publishers, peer review, and accountability.
It is the case of Harlan Krumholz, who by day is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) and by night is the Treasurer for openRxiv.org and co-leader of medRxiv.
JACC has an acceptance rate of 7%, typical for a high-prestige journal with a strong position in a specialist community. Its latest stated editorial direction claims it “seeks to publish the highest quality peer-reviewed articles highlighting all aspects of cardiovascular disease.”
openRxiv and its initiatives eschew and denigrate peer review before posting papers for public availability. medRxiv is a preprint server based on cyberlibertarian conceptions of “free speech,” meaning any intervention filtering out someone’s scientific claims is tantamount to censorship. Krumholz defends this way of thinking.
openRxiv is a non-profit initiative owned now by CZI LLC, a private, for-profit company known for selling off initiatives once they reach fruition. openRxiv recently named its new CEO, with Krumholz praising the selection and the anti-peer review sentiments preprints represent:
This is an auspicious time for preprints and an exciting moment to transform medical publishing, and Dr. Tracy Teal is an exceptional choice to lead openRxiv. She is creative, collaborative, and deeply committed to open-source ecosystems, and she will propel the organization to new heights in serving scientists and the public.
While Krumholz uses the euphemism of “transform,” what he is really advocating is upending medical journals and evidence-based systems in general, substituting an “open” (laissez-faire) approach CZI LLC can exploit for some vision of an AI-infused science fiction fantasy.
So, who is Krumholz? A highly selective editor rejecting thousands of papers per year? Or a cyberlibertarian “anything goes” disruptor-by-preprint?
Is Krumholz Dr. JACC or Mr. Rxiv?
The possibility matrix isn’t reassuring.