Fiona Godlee (born August 4, 1961) was

editor in chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of ''

The British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origina ...

'' from March 2005 until 31 December 2021; she was the first female editor appointed in the journal's history. She was also editorial director of the other journals in ''BMJ's'' portfolio.

Career

Fiona Godlee attended

Bedales Bedales School is a co-educational, boarding and day independent school in the village of Steep, near the market town of Petersfield in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1893 by John Haden Badley in reaction to the limitations of conventi ...

and

Marlborough College Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. Founded in 1843 for the sons of Church ...

boarding schools. She qualified as a doctor in 1985 at the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, having studied at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

. She trained as a general physician in London, and is a Fellow of the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...

. Since 1990 she has written on a broad range of issues for BMJ, including the impact of

environmental degradation Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment (biophysical), environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; an ...

on health, the future of the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

, the ethics of academic publication, and the problems of editorial peer review. In 1994, she spent a year at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

as a

Harkness Fellow The Harkness Fellowship (previously known as the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship) is a program run by the Commonwealth Fund of New York City. This fellowship was established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships and enable Fellows from several coun ...

evaluating efforts to bridge the gap between medical research and practice. On returning to the UK, she led the development of BMJ Clinical Evidence, which evaluates the best available evidence on the benefits and harms of treatments.''BMJ'
Fiona Godlee
/ref> In 2000, she moved to Current Science Group to help establish the

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which research outputs are distributed online, free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 definition), or libre op ...

online publisher

BioMed Central BioMed Central (BMC) is a United Kingdom-based, for-profit scientific open access publisher that produces over 250 scientific journals. All its journals are published online only. BioMed Central describes itself as the first and largest open a ...

as Editorial Director for Medicine. In 2003, she returned to the

BMJ Group BMJ (branded as BMJ Group until 2013) is a British publisher of medical journals. Established in 1840, the company is owned by the British Medical Association. Publications * 1840: '' Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal'' (later renamed th ...

to head up its new Knowledge division. She has served as president of the

World Association of Medical Editors The World Association of Medical Editors (abbreviated WAME, pronounced "whammy") is an international, virtual organization of editors of medical journals. It was originally founded in 1995 by a group of members of the International Committee of Me ...

(from January 2000 to December 2001) and Chair of the

Committee on Publication Ethics The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is a nonprofit organization whose stated mission is to define best practice in the ethics of scholarly publishing and to assist editors and publishers to achieve this. Mission COPE educates and su ...

(from 2004 on) and is co-editor of ''Peer Review in Health Sciences''. From 2003 to 2005 she was head of BMJ Knowledge. She was editorial director, BioMed Central, Current Science Group. Godlee was director and member of the board of ''BMJ'', a founder and board member of the Climate and Health Council and on the executive committee for the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change. At the ''BMJ'' she was succeeded by

Kamran Abbasi Kamran Abbasi is the editor-in-chief of the ''British Medical Journal'' (''BMJ''), a physician, visiting professor at the Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College, London, editor of the ''Journal of the Royal Society of Med ...

Personal life

She lives in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

with her husband and two children. Her paternal grandmother was born Barbara Lodge, youngest of the six daughters of the physicist

Sir Oliver Lodge Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, (12 June 1851 – 22 August 1940) was a British physicist and writer involved in the development of, and holder of key patents for, radio. He identified electromagnetic radiation independent of Hertz's proof and at his ...

. On her paternal grandfather's side, she is a great great great grand daughter of

Joseph Jackson Lister Joseph Jackson Lister FRS FRMS (11 January 1786 – 24 October 1869) was an amateur British opticist and physicist and the father of The 1st Baron Lister. Ancestry In 1705, Thomas Lister, a farmer and maltster, of Bingley, Yorkshire, Englan ...

, pioneer of the compound microscope and father of

Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister, (5 April 182710 February 1912) was a British surgeon, medical scientist, experimental pathologist and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery and preventative medicine. Joseph Lister revolutionised the craft of su ...

References

External links

BMJ.com
*
World Association of Medical Editors
{{DEFAULTSORT:Godlee, Fiona 1961 births Living people People educated at Bedales School Harvard University staff Medical journal editors Academic journal editors Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians