Professor Abbasi is one of the most prominent figures in academic medical publishing. He leads The BMJ, one of the world's oldest and most respected general medical journals, and oversees the wider BMJ Group portfolio. He previously served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
A medical graduate of the University of Leeds and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of both London and Edinburgh, Professor Abbasi is a member of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. He holds visiting professorships at the Universities of Cambridge, Manchester, and Imperial College London, and serves as a Patron of the South Asian Health Foundation and a Trustee of The Orwell Foundation.
The appointment reflects the department's interest in strengthening the support available to early- and mid-career researchers navigating academic publishing – from placing their first papers to understanding how the digital transformation of research communication is reshaping the landscape.
Professor Abbasi said:
‘I’m delighted and honoured to be appointed a visiting professor in this department. Academic publishing faces an unprecedented complexity of challenges, but we can navigate them by being open to new ideas and methods. However, we must maintain our commitment to rigorous science that prioritises outcomes related to health and wellbeing. Academic primary care has a central role to play in this. I hope my experience in medical academic publishing can help progress the tremendous work being done here and support the next generation of leaders in academic primary care. I’m grateful to Aziz and other senior colleagues for affording me this opportunity.’
Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh, Head of the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, said:
'We’re delighted to welcome Kamran as our Visiting Professor of Academic Medical Publishing. Kamran is one of the world's most distinguished medical editors, and under his leadership the BMJ and BMJ Group have taken major strides in advancing open science-based approaches to medical publishing. We are as a department keen to learn from and work with Kamran to ensure that we are using state-of-the-art approaches to ensure that our work is as transparent and as reproducible as possible, as these are fundamental to maintaining public trust in science.
He is also a strong advocate of democratising science, and we are in this vein particularly keen to work with Kamran to maximise opportunities for our outstanding cohort of early- and mid-career researchers and create opportunities for academics working in low-resource settings to publish in top-tier journals.
We look forward to working with Kamran to put on training courses and workshops on medical publishing that we hope will be of widespread interest to colleagues across the Department, Medical Sciences Division and the University.’
The appointment supports the department's strategy for 2025–2030, much of which depends on research findings reaching and influencing the people who can act on them.