Below is a letter I have sent to Elsevier, the publisher behind Lancer:

To Mr. Reller, Vice President for Global Corporate Relations at Elsevier

I share the feelings expressed in the letter sent by Prof. John Buse (below). I will also avoid publishing in Elsevier or purchasing Elsevier products until such time I can be assured you have put in place guidelines that would prevent the publication of obscene letters such as the political pamphlet the Lancet chose to publish. I do not wish to have my publications in the same issue as such a letter, nor do I wish to read one upon purchasing your products. Who knows, some editor might choose to publish an letter about the Jewish custom of including Christian blood in Passover Mazzah, or discuss the Jewish consiperacy to control the world - "Truths" that have led to the killing of most of my family hardly 70 years ago.

If Elsevier has taken steps to prevent misuse of their publication platform in the future that I am not aware of, please accept my apologies and my sincere intent to continue working with your all otherwise amazing product line.

Eitan Rubin, PhD

Ben Gurion University of the Negev

Israel

----- Original letter forwarded to my from John Buse:

From: "Buse, John B"

Subject: Gaza letter in The Lancet (d-i)

Date: September 28, 2014 at 11:17:43 AM MDT

Cc: "Reller, Tom (ELS-NYC)"

My apologies for bothering all of you blind copied here on the weekend to bring this to your attention. You may not be aware of the controversy around a letter to the editor published in The Lancet regarding Gaza on July 23rd. A link to it is here:

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)61044-8/fulltext

Though I do feel that the response by Israel to attacks from within Gaza resulted in unfortunate and large numbers of civilian casualties, there are many sides to the issue not reflected in the letter. More importantly, science can be an unifying force in a world with much conflict and many difficult issues. Unbalanced treatment of the complex issues is divisive and unhelpful. If the piece were more generic in its focus on the many conflicts worldwide and the tremendous impact of modern weaponry delivered from a distance on civilian populations, I would have no objection to the piece. But I am sure you recognize that this was not the focus of the letter and the letter could only be published because of the lack of appropriate editorial policy at Elsevier, the publisher of The Lancet.

I have had the opportunity over the last several years to work on specific projects with Palestinians and Jews, Cubans and Americans and many other groups where substantial discord exists on areas of mutual interest with great effect. Further these efforts spill over into the bigger issues of enhancing trust and mutual respect between groups of people where misunderstanding often amplified by crass political concerns muddles the waters.

Over a month ago I wrote to Elsevier, the publisher of The Lancet to encourage them to develop an editorial policy that avoids the entanglement of their science journals in political issues as it is by nature divisive while science seeks to be integrating. Science journals are not Time or Newsweek. There are more appropriate venues for political discourse. And news magazines do have editorial policies about balanced treatment of issues and I suspect most would not have published that letter. Similar requests to Elsevier have been pressed by many colleagues before and since and on numerous occasions by me in the last weeks. There has been no public action by Elsevier. Politics outside of health and science policy simply has no place in science and medicine.

Though it pains me greatly, in order to make the point as clearly as I can, today I have:

1) resigned from the editorial board for Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice,

2) resigned from the editorial board for Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology,

Further, I pledge with regret that until this issue is resolved to my satisfaction:

1) I will not subscribe to, submit articles to or review articles for any of Elsevier’s 2952 journals (list available here:http://www.elsevier.com/journals/title/a);

2) further, I will try not to reference articles published in their journals in my future writing;

3) I will withdraw my name from publications under review with their journals and encourage my coauthors to withdraw the publications from review; and

4) I will not purchase any of the ~25,000 Elsevier books, complete the book chapters that I have in process (specifically theWilliams Textbook of Endocrinology) or agree to participate in other books published by Elsevier.

I would encourage you to:

1) contact Mr. Reller, Vice President for Global Corporate Relations at Elsevier (copied here), and

2) reach out to your friends and colleagues to make sure that they are aware of this issue and suggest that they also consider at least communicating their concerns if not acting.

There have been a number of similar actions from colleagues interested in diabetes. Our feelings in this regard were brought to a point through discussions that arose at recent international meetings in Vienna. I hope other scientific communities will also take up similar concerted activities to press the point with Elsevier. Finally, I hope that the general public and companies also take up this cause.

Thank you for your attention. Best regards, John

This message is for the designated recipient only and may contain privileged or confidential information. If you have received it in error, please notify the sender immediately, delete the original and destroy any paper copies. Any other use of the email by you is prohibited.

John B. Buse, MD, PhD

Verne S. Caviness Distinguished Professor Director, Diabetes Care Center Chief, Division of Endocrinology Executive Associate Dean, Clinical Research Deputy Director, NC Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute University of North Carolina School of Medicine CB# 7172, Burnett-Womack 8027

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