Similar to many other biomedical journals, The Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA) is targeted to groups that have mutual interests on the one hand, but may not necessarily share the same goals on the other. These groups include professional organizations, publishers, advertisers, scientists, practitioners, subscribers and other readers, as well as the public. Although fostering good public oral health is a shared ambition of these varied groups, some may regard The Journal as chiefly a means of promoting services and merchandise, while others may see it exclusively as a source of pertinent scientific information. In truth, it serves both of those functions and others as well.

The Journal is a resource and conduit for all of its many stakeholders under the stewardship of an appointed editor. Maintaining the credibility of The Journal requires trust in a system in which the editor is not limited by the views and aspirations of any single entity, but is encouraged instead to promote honest discourse and to create a forum for the expression of differing beliefs and points of view. The editor has a wide range of publishing options to help accomplish these tasks—publishing specific scientific studies, expert opinions, messages from the professional organization, editorial commentaries and letters to the editor.

The editor has broad responsibilities to both the public and the profession—and should be guided also by his or her own moral, ethical, scientific and professional standards. Editorial comments, therefore, should not be confined to reflecting the accepted views and policies of the professional organization to which the journal belongs.

Although editorial autonomy is the sine qua non of any professional scientific journal, "[e]ditorial independence is not a right to unfettered action."¹ Organizations such as the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) have promulgated definitive guidelines on the topic of editorial autonomy. The WAME guidelines state that "[e]ditors should be free to publish critical but responsible views about all aspects of medicine without fear of retribution, even if these views might conflict with the goals of the owner" and that "[o]wners should not interfere in the evaluation, selection or editing of individual articles, either directly or by creating an environment in which editorial decisions are strongly influenced."²

A recent editorial written by Dr. O.T. Wendel and me³ generated a flurry of letters to the editor. Publishing both the editorial and the responses it engendered exemplify the ADA’s recognition and acceptance of editorial freedom, and the editor’s willingness to provide a forum for differing views. Unfortunately, many readers were not aware that editorials, written by the editor and published in JADA, do not necessarily represent the views of the ADA. A statement to this effect can be found under the heading of "Editorial Policy" in every issue of The Journal:

All the statements of opinion and of supposed fact are published under the authority of the authors, including editorials and letters. They are not to be accepted as the views of the American Dental Association or its subsidiaries unless such statements have been expressly adopted by the Association.⁴

Also, to further the "arms-length" relationship between the owner (ADA) and the editor, the editor is not an employee of the Association but an outside consultant. This gives the editor another degree of separation from one of The Journal’s several stakeholders.

JADA will continue to publish scientifically sound research and welcome editorials on diverse topics, even if they address politically sensitive issues. Editorial autonomy is a matter of trust, and with trust comes expectations. I hope that one of those expectations, shared by all stakeholders, is to have a journal that embraces critical inquiry and discourse. Such an approach can only enhance our reputation as a profession and assist us in fulfilling our responsibility to improve oral health.