Reporting on Health and War in Medical Journals

We write to respond to the Viewpoint by Greenland et al that proposes a form of content moderation for medical journals. Greenland et al suggest that articles dealing with health care and health consequences during war should assiduously avoid discussing the politics of war. While JAMA and other medical journals routinely practice content moderation as part of the editing process, the application of content moderation by medical editors is based on the quality and importance of the science and the insights for medicine and public health. Greenland et al are proposing something quite different. They insist that a specific area of content, the health consequences of war, should be regulated and subject to moderation by all medical journals.