The Lancet and colonialism: past, present, and future.

The historical and contemporary alignment of medical and health journals with colonial practices needs elucidation. Colonialism, which sought to exploit colonised people and places, was justified by the prejudice that colonised people's ways of knowing and being are inferior to those of the colonisers. Institutions for knowledge production and dissemination, including academic journals, were therefore central to sustaining colonialism and its legacies today. This invited Viewpoint focuses on The Lancet, following its 200th anniversary, and is especially important given the extent of The Lancet's global influence. We illuminate links between The Lancet and colonialism, with examples from the past and present, showing how the journal legitimised and continues to promote specific types of knowers, knowledge, perspectives, and interpretations in health and medicine. The Lancet's role in colonialism is not unique; other institutions and publications across the British empire cooperated with empire-building through colonisation. We therefore propose investigations and raise questions to encourage broader contestation on the practices, audience, positionality, and ownership of journals claiming leadership in global knowledge production.
Competing Interests: Declaration of interests MSK is on the editorial boards of PLoS Global Public Health and Health Policy and Planning and was a member of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine's governing council (August, 2020–July, 2023). TN is an associate editor on PLOS Global Public Health. IT is a member of the International Council of the Global Society on Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Health and strategic advisor at the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. SA is Editor in Chief of BMJ Global Health and on the editorial board of PLoS Global Public Health. JBB is on the editorial board of Health Systems & Reform, and is also a board member of Aidspan. MNN has received royalties from Spinger Nature to write a book on the homeless youth of Pakistan and received financial support from Aga Khan University to attend the 7th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research in Bogota, Colombia.
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