Report of the Bellagio Conference

• Participants
  
• Background
  
• Proposal
  

Abstract

The World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) was launched in Bellagio, Italy on March 16, 1995, after a 3-day conference to consider international cooperation among editors of peer-reviewed medical journals. Formal constitutional arrangements for this new organization remain to be agreed upon.

Twenty-two editors, physicians, and scientists from 13 countries met at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study and Conference Center to discuss the increasingly complex problems that editors face in maintaining and improving the quality of published medical research. Lack of knowledge about the peer-review process, variable standards in medical writing and editing, and inadequate support and training for new journal editors all contribute to the obstacles and challenges confronting editors worldwide. Given that the publication of medical research is the final common path of substantial publicly funded programs, such deficiencies are alarming and must be countered. The World Association of Medical Editors will address these acute needs by stimulating education and promotion of good standards among editors, with the eventual aim of improving the quality of medical science and practice.

A critical component of the new association's activities will be to develop an electronic communication network among medical editors which was established in advance of the Bellagio meeting with the help of the US National Library of Medicine. The Association has created an Electronic Network Task Force to take this initiative forward.

Bellagio participants also elected officers of WAME, a Board of Directors, and committees to define membership, fund-raising and ethical criteria for the new organization. The Board of Directors includes editors from Western and Eastern Europe, North and South America, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region. Before WAME, no organization existed to tackle the global concerns of medical editors.