Researchers urge stronger safeguards for health and medical science information

New York, NY | April 8, 2026: Editors of 20 medical, scientific, and health journals have published a joint editorial calling on science communicators, publishers, platforms, and policymakers to do more to safeguard the quality of health and medical science information.

The editorial, “Safeguarding Quality in Health and Medical Science Information Today,” warns that political attacks on science and the rapid spread of digital technologies including artificial intelligence have further contributed to a rise in misleading health information and declining support for research and scientific literacy.

“Science, medicine and public health are now under sustained attack from political populists who do not understand scientific method and are systematically defunding both scientific research and the promotion of scientific and health literacy,” says lead author Dr. Scott C. Ratzan, founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives.

“The mission of our journals is to evaluate and disseminate information based on rigorous and peer reviewed scientific enquiry,” explains Dr. Ratzan, a distinguished lecturer at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH). “Maintaining the integrity and quality of this information and its dissemination helps ensure that scientists, health professionals, policymakers and the public can benefit from it.”

“If we allow information that is biased or unclear to enter the public domain, we undermine public trust in science and debase the currency of scientific discourse that has been established over centuries from the  time of Galileo and Copernicus and sustained in the modern era by men and women such as Louis Pasteur and  Maria Slodowska-Curie,” adds co-author Sir Cary Cooper, founding editor of the Journal of Occupational Health and professor of organizational psychology and health at Manchester Business School in the United Kingdom.

Today’s editorial also points out that current political pressures on science are complicated by the simultaneous rise of transformative digital technologies, and particularly artificial intelligence, which can both accelerate and distort the transmission of scientific information.

“Artificial intelligence is a tool that journal editors should welcome with open arms and crossed fingers,” explains Professor Lawrence O. Gostin, legal and global health correspondent for the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“We can only realize these benefits in a climate of responsible stewardship, effective regulation, and vigilant oversight of digital platforms,” cautions Professor Gostin, founding director of the O’Neill Institute for National and International Health Law at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC. “AI and social media companies have a public duty to help protect the accuracy and reliability of the content they transmit, especially so when it is based on material we have published as scientific journal editors and authors.”

“Safeguarding scientific and health information is not simply an editorial responsibility. It is a public responsibility with consequences for health and trust,” says Dr. Rebecca K. Ivic, executive editor of the Journal of Health Communication and associate dean of research in communication and information sciences at the University of Alabama. “At a time when information environments are increasingly contested, the scientific community must work together to uphold standards of rigor, transparency, and accountability so that evidence remains trustworthy and accessible.”

Many of the editorial’s authors are also members of the Nature Medicine Quality Health Information for All Commission, which will issue specific recommendations next year to improve protection of the quality and integrity of health information in 2027.  

Online access to the editorial will be available in the following journals between April 9 – June 30, 2026:

• Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives, Taylor & Francis/Routledge (lead Journal)
• American Behavioral Scientist, SAGE
• AMWA Journal, American Medical Writers Association
• Cogent Psychology, Taylor & Francis/Routledge
• Crisis Risk Communication, Taylor & Francis/Routledge
• Current Medical Research and Opinion, Taylor & Francis/Routledge
• European Journal of Public Health, Oxford University Press
• F1000Research, Taylor & Francis/Routledge
• Health Communication, Taylor & Francis/Routledge
• Health Literacy and Communication Open, Taylor & Francis/Routledge
• Health Open Research, Taylor & Francis/Routledge
• Health Promotion International, Oxford University Press
• Journal of Health Equity, Taylor & Francis/Routledge
• Journal of Medical Economics, Taylor & Francis/Routledge
• Journal of Public Health, Oxford University Press
• Journal of Travel Medicine, Oxford University Press
• Patient Education and Counseling, Elsevier
• Patient Related Outcome Measures, Taylor & Francis/Routledge
• Postgraduate Medicine, Taylor & Francis/Routledge
• Public Health Research & Practice, CSIRO publishing

Media Contact:

Ariana Costakes

Communications Editorial Manager

ariana.costakes@sph.cuny.edu

About CUNY SPH

The CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) is committed to promoting and sustaining healthier populations in New York City and around the world through excellence in education, research, and service in public health and by advocating for sound policy and practice to advance social justice and improve health outcomes for all.

About the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives

The Journal of Health Communication publishes research on the communication of health information globally and developments in the field of health