UKZN Medical Researcher Appointed to the Editorial Board of the NEJM

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UKZN Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Salim Abdool Karim, has been appointed from January 2015 to serve a three-year term on the Editorial Board of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), which is the ‘most widely read, cited and influential general medical periodical in the world’.

Abdool Karim, world-renowned for his research on HIV prevention and treatment, is the first scientist from Africa to be appointed on the 16-member NEJM board. The NEJM was first published over 200 years ago in 1812 and is the oldest medical journal in the world. The NEJM, which is published weekly, has an impact factor of 54.4 – a reflection of how often articles in the journal are cited on average.

Abdool Karim, who is Director of the Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), is no stranger to medical journals.  He has published over 300 journal articles, including several in the NEJM. He is a member of the Editorial Board of HIV and Infectious Diseases, AIDS Reviews as well as AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. He is a member of the International Advisory Board of The Lancet – HIV.  He has previously served as Associate Editor of AIDS Clinical Care, Reviewing Editor of eLife and Corresponding Editor of the International Journal of Infectious Diseases. He is a reviewer for more than 40 medical journals.

Commenting on his appointment, Abdool Karim said, ‘I feel honoured to be invited to join the Editorial Board of the NEJM. As a medical researcher, I am aware of its high standards and its high stature as a journal that has a huge impact on clinical medicine and health care.  Now, I am looking forward to learning more about the journal and to contributing in any way I can to the journal.’

He is also Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at Columbia University, Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Cornell University and Associate Member of The Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University. He currently chairs the UNAIDS Scientific Expert Panel and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for Global Health of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization’s Expert Advisory Panel on Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV.

Smita Maharaj