Whose perspective underlies this article?

To the Editor: It was a pleasure reading the 20 August 2018 issue of the Medical Journal of Australia, containing many informative, broad‐ranging articles. However, the absence of the authors’ qualifications, which ultimately establish who the authors actually are — possibly reflecting their credibility — may render an article potentially less valid for the readership.

This contrasts with the detailed and impressive qualifications of the MJA staff members, faithfully and appropriately listed in each issue, transparently demonstrating their expertise. No MJA author is awarded such recognition.

The perspective by Munk and colleagues1 highlighted the threat posed by predatory journals to researchers and academic literature. The MJA lists only their affiliations; therefore, the readership is unable to establish a frame of reference for their opinions. Cursory investigation reveals lead author, Peter Munk, to be a Canadian radiologist, thereby impressing also as an authority on predatory journals.

Rochwerg and colleagues2 discuss clinical decision making with network meta‐analysis. Without their qualifications, the reader is unable to determine whether they are physicians, statisticians, health economists or politicians.

In their helpful Editorial, Shorthouse and Stone3 examine the need for additional mental health care training for rural medical practitioners. It turns out that both authors are Australian general practitioners — Molly being a rural generalist, and Louise a professorial medical educator. Interestingly, neither is a specialist psychiatrist.

Professor Olver4 discusses B‐cell non‐Hodgkin lymphoma in Queensland. Despite his fame, his Editorial would potentially have been augmented had the readership been presented with his impressive research and clinical credentials.

It seems reasonable to raise the notion that the absence of authors’ postgraduate and other qualifications could diminish their contribution to the medical literature. Our group has previously documented the importance of journals publishing authors’ qualifications.5 We published that “if the author qualifications are designated, the reader may be quite sure that the article was not written by the medical records librarian, let alone the hospital trolley boy in a moment of inspiration”.5 This is not to say the hospital trolley boy is not entitled to offer his thoughts on a medical subject. Rather, it provides the readership with perspective concerning authors’ expertise and opinions.