According to the British Medical Journal maintaining scientific dialog is a path to peace
While condemning Russia’s military action in Ukraine, the UK’s major weekly peer-reviewed medical journal, the BMJ, has refused to join the academic boycott of Russian authors.
“We will continue to consider papers for publication from Russian authors and institutions. Our view is that science and health have the potential to bring people together in common purpose to improve understanding, cooperation, and relationships,” the journal’s editor in chief, Kamran Abbasi, said in an official statement published on Thursday.
He said that Russian researchers can be boycotted to not only marginalize scientists, but also hurt civilians.
“If our purpose is to improve outcomes related to health and wellbeing then a boycott of Russian science is likely to achieve the exact opposite,”He added. He also reminded everybody that academic boycotts have been a longstanding opposition of the BMJ.
“If truth is indeed the first casualty of war, our response is to spread as much of BMJ’s reliable information as widely as possible,”Abbasi has been added
The journal did, however, condemn Russia’s “aggression and destruction in Ukraine.” The BMJ also pledged to put all papers from Russia under thorough scrutiny considering they might contain Kremlin’s “state propaganda and manipulation” narratives.
Abbasi admits that Russia’s military operation in Ukraine will affect the health and wellbeing of people not only in Russia and Ukraine but also in nations imposing sanctions on Moscow.
An earlier announcement by the Journal of Molecular Structure stated that they had stopped publishing Russian studies.
Following Russia’s offensive against Ukraine, launched at the end of February, scores of financial, business, sporting, cultural, and scientific organizations have cut ties with Russia. For example, the Munich Philharmonic fired Russian conductor Valery Gegiev while the International Paralympic Committee decided that Russian athletes would not be allowed to compete in the Paralympic Games. Since Russian troops entered Ukraine via Belarusian territory, sanctions have been placed on the latter.
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