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DOJ Accuses CHEST and Other Medical Journals of Bias, Demands Response by May 2 [1]
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Date: 2025-04
On April 14, Editor-in-Chief of CHEST, Peter Mazzone, MD, received a letter from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) intimating that the journal’s content was inappropriately biased. Mazzone, who is also a pulmonologist at the Cleveland Clinic, was asked to respond to a series of questions by May 2, 2025.
A peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American College of Chest Physicians, CHEST is 1 of at least 3 scientific journals that have been targeted by the DOJ via similar letters, according to published reports.1,2 Receipt of the letter, which was published on X (previously Twitter) without the association’s knowledge or consent, was confirmed by CHEST spokesperson Laura DiMasi.
The letter, sent by the Interim US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Edward Martin Jr., stated: “It has been brought to my attention that more and more journals and publications like CHEST Journal are conceding that they are partisans in various scientific debates, that is, that they have a position for which they are advocating either due to advertisement (under postal code) or sponsorship (under relevant fraud regulations). The public has certain expectations and you have certain responsibilities.”
“ CHEST adheres to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME) and the COPE [Committee on Publication Ethics] ethical guidelines for scholarly publishing, applying strict peer review standards to ensure scientific rigor.
The letter went on to request that Dr Mazzone answer the following questions by May 2:
How do you assess your responsibilities to protect the public from misinformation?
How do you clearly articulate to the public when you have certain viewpoints that are influenced by your ongoing relations with supporters, funders, advertisers, and others?
Do you accept articles or essays from competing viewpoints?
How do you assess the role played by government officials and funding organizations like the National Institutes of Health in the development of submitted articles?
How do you handle allegations that authors of works in your journals may have misled their readers?
“I am also interested to know if publishers, journals, and organizations with which you work are adjusting their method of acceptance of competing viewpoints,” wrote Martin. “Are there new norms being developed and offered?”
The DOJ request is currently under review by CHEST’s legal counsel, said DiMasi.
Notably, Martin was appointed interim US attorney shortly after Trump was sworn into office. He is also former Chair of the Missouri Republican Party and succeeded the late Phyllis Schlafly as President of the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund.3
DiMasi said the American College of Chest Physicians has published an “official statement in affirmation of the principles and practices of our nearly 100-year-old journal” on its website. Published within days of the DOJ letter on April 18, the statement said that “CHEST adheres to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICJME) and the COPE [Committee on Publication Ethics] ethical guidelines for scholarly publishing, applying strict peer review standards to ensure scientific rigor.” The statement concluded that “As the publisher, the American College of Chest Physicians respects and supports the journal’s editorial independence.”
The DOJ’s letter to CHEST was posted on X by Eric Reinhart, MD, a resident at Northwestern University’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in Chicago. In prelude to posting the letter, Dr Reinhart wrote, “The Trump regime is now using US Attorneys to intimidate academic journals by sending them letters demanding they explain how they ensure ‘viewpoint diversity.’ Journal editors should be public about this and coordinate to refuse to comply with these fascist tactics.” On his web page, Dr Reinhart indicates his articles have been published in numerous medical journals, including Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, and The Lancet.
Editor’s Note: Since this article’s publication, the New England Journal of Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology confirmed that they received letters from the Department of Justice similar to the one received by CHEST, as reported by STAT and MedPage Today. This article was updated April 25, 2025, to reflect these reports.
This article originally appeared on Pulmonology Advisor
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[1] Url:
https://www.empr.com/news/doj-accuses-chest-and-other-medical-journals-of-bias/
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