The psychiatry ashes: It’s not cricket!

The pitch

Earlier this year, it came to my (Gin Malhi) attention that Kamaldeep Bhui (esteemed Editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry, and fellow ‘hobnobee’ of the Institute of Psychiatry in London) received a prestigious Queen’s Honour; and although he insisted C.B.E represented Commander of the British Empire, to me as a nascent Ozzie, it signified ‘Can’t Beat England!’ Thus, the concept of a competition between old mates germinated and the Psychiatry Ashes Test was conceived. I then approached Kam under the ruse of building links between the journals, and having Googled his recent interests, I knew that he would be vulnerable to a googly proposal involving an expanse of grass, a sticky wicket and leather clad balls. Cricket it had to be.

The Ashes Test is currently taking place in Australia and provides a fitting backdrop against which to have some friendly competition between two journals, editorial boards and long-standing friends; and why not? After all, the ANZJP and BJPsych represent sister journals that serve similar schools of psychiatrists across two countries, linked inextricably by royal patronage, genetic-constitution, culture (applied loosely of course), language – though only just, and yet separated literally by being on opposite sides of the world. This has meant that over time they have drifted apart and now enjoy vastly different vistas and viewpoints on lifestyles, not to mention hours of sunshine or inches of rain per year. A common trait, however, that still joins them at the hip-pad, is that of being fiercely competitive, with the subtle but important difference, that the English always intend to ‘give it their best’ in noble defeat, whereas Australians aim to win athletically, emphatically and with the least sweat.

Seriously, for one moment, the reasons for having the psychiatry equivalent of the Ashes are manifold. The two communities of psychiatrists genuinely have many similarities, and the College Journals (ANZJP and BJPsych) are of similar ilk, so it is only natural to have some cross talk – mutual admiration – and discussion and debate. Playing the game will hopefully kindle interest in psychiatry more generally and refocus our attention on what academic psychiatry in particular is trying to achieve – that is, to bring new knowledge and advance our understanding so that we provide better care for our patients, and to do this in a reasonable timescale. The emphasis is to build knowledge, stand on the shoulders of our ancestors and make small but decided movement towards better care. These are, and must be, common goals; ones which many of those that publish in the two journals strive for as demonstrated by their commitment to the best research and teaching within clinical practice. Thus, in addition to hopefully providing some much-needed levity and amusement, in what is an increasingly challenging clinical and academic environment, the Psychiatry Ashes is intended to unite us and remind us of the importance of underpinning our profession with advances in research. We hope to also give rise to much banter, friendship and scholarship.

The match

The aim of the 2018 Psychiatry Ashes is to generate a healthy competition between ANZJP and BJPsych. The match will be played within the pages of the two journals and will involve two teams drawn from the respective Editorial Boards. For the purposes of the game, the strength of players will be determined on the basis of their publications (note that no papers published within either ANZJP or BJPsych will be included) and the scores will be determined by the number of citations chosen papers attract (note that citations in ANZJP or BJPsych will not count towards the score of either team). Members of each team, in discussion with their team captain, will identify papers that can be used for ‘batting’ in the game. In keeping with cricket, there will be 11 players on each team and each player can nominate a number of ‘batting papers’ that will be announced in advance. Only citations to these papers will score ‘runs’ and results will be provided from time to time in both journals. Detailed rules will be published in a subsequent editorial along with the names of team members. The match will begin in January 2018 and run throughout the rest of the year.

The teams

The two teams have been selected by the two Captains; the respective editors of the two journals. Players have to be affiliated with the respective journals (e.g. on the board or have served as an editor or advisor). Naturally, they have to express loyalty to a particular team, and both captains have to agree to their assignment to a team. Many factors played a role in selection, and of these, availability to play and having an interest in doing so were important, but they also had to be actively involved in their local journal either in terms of submitting papers for publication or reviewing them. In addition, players also had to be a good sport, be in possession of a competitive academic profile, and have demonstrated a flare for publishing, especially in recent years. To assist the editors in these difficult determinations, brief independent profiles were conjured up by the Statistical Gurus (see below). The editors then discussed the decisions prior to finalising the teams.

The umpires and their referee

One of the aims of this match is to have some fun, but whenever there is competition, there is always the possibility that a dispute may arise. Therefore, to maintain harmony, and along the lines of a proper Test Match, the game will be governed by two umpires – Professors Richard Porter and Kenneth Kaufman, who will be overseen by the match referee, Professor Scott Henderson, whose decision will be final. All three arbiters are ‘independent’, but only because their allegiances are slippery, murky and difficult to discern. For instance, Scott is proud of his Scottish heritage (rightly so), but is at the same time a very active member of the British College, while clearly working and residing in Australia and serving as Associate Editor of the ANZJP. Richard is also originally (and the possibility exists that he still is) a Scotsman, who happens to reside in New Zealand, where he is Chair of one of the leading Departments of Psychiatry and has a nephew who recently played for the New Zealand cricket team. Curiously, he too serves as an Associate Editor of the ANZJP. Ken is an American, and is therefore seemingly quite independent, but he is also the newly appointed Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Psychiatry Open and a member of the BJPsych board. And so, in reality the allegiances of all three umpires are open to interpretation and would not be better decided by a genome-wide association study.

The Master and his gurus

Two Stats Gurus (Amber Hamilton and Grace Morris) will tally the scores of both teams under the watchful eye of the left-arm slow-medium Master of Scores (Dusan Hadzi-Pavlovic). To identify citations, they will use only recognised databases and ensure that interim scores and updates are provided regularly.

Follow on

The teams and more details will be published in the next issue of the journal. In the meantime, it is time to put on your whites or put on the kettle and get ready for the first delivery.

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