Talk:Acta Paediatrica

Affiliation of foundation with Karolinska

I don't know what kind of reference is needed for the obvious fact that the foundation that owns the journal has an affiliation with Karolinska Institute. The formal address of the foundation is Karolinska University Hospital[1], the foundation is established by professors at Karolinska Institute, all editors of the journal as well as all chairmen of the board of the foundation over the last century have been professors there, and the journal's office is located in one of the buildings of Karolinska Institute in Solna. The journal's ties to Karolinska are also covered by several of the references. The foundation in question has the publication of this journal as its only activity. --Lucas Garn (talk) 17:08, 24 July 2018 (UTC)

• "Obvious": please see WP:OR and WP:SYNTH. "All professors work at Karolinska, so there must be a connection." "Affiliated" can mean a lot of things. Is the foundation owned by Karolinska? Is Karolinska just hosting them to do its professors a favor? Having an address for the edirotial office at Karolinska doe not, in fact, establish any formal link between the journal and Karolinska. Most editors of scientific or medical journals have an academic affiliation and the editorial address is in such cases almost always the same as the editor's address, without the institution having anything to do with the journal. This is why we need a reference for that assertion. --Randykitty (talk) 17:15, 24 July 2018 (UTC)
  • A foundation cannot be "owned" by anyone. A foundation is in Scandinavia by definition a self-owning nonprofit entity set up to further an idealistic aim, in this case an entity set up by Karolinska professors to publish a journal and maintaining its de facto association with Karolinska for almost a century. The Nobel Prize in Medicine isn't "owned" by Karolinska either, but few would disagree that it is affiliated with Karolinska. It's also quite normal for universities and other institutions in Sweden to have this type of de facto affiliations with such, formally self-owning foundations set up for a limited purpose such as awarding a prize or grant, or publishing a journal. --Lucas Garn (talk) 17:20, 24 July 2018 (UTC)
    • Sorry, used the wrong word. Is Karolinska a partner in this foundation? What exactly is the nature of this "association"? As for the Nobels, there are of course plenty references on the exact relationship between them and the Karolinska. --Randykitty (talk) 17:38, 24 July 2018 (UTC)
      • I've already changed the wording to "hosted". Would that be acceptable? The foundation was established at the same time as the journal (in 1921) solely to support the publication of the journal, and has no other activity than that. Like all foundations in Sweden, it is a non-profit entity without legal owners, and is bound by law to use its resources (around 16 million SEK according to [2]) for the purpose stated in its bylaws (which are nearly impossible to amend). It isn't possible for a university to be a "partner" in such a foundation, only to have such de facto ties and cooperation as I mentioned above (and the foundation's legal address has also been Karolinska or Karolinska (University) Hospital for its entire existence). --Lucas Garn (talk) 17:41, 24 July 2018 (UTC)
        • Foundations can be set up by companies or institutions, not just individuals. A foundation is administered by one or more persons, and it could be that some of those are named by Karolinska (although generally new administrators are nominated by the existing ones). In any case, "hosted" is clear and supported by the address, it doesn't imply any other relationship, so I have no problem with that. It's a really minor factoid, though. --Randykitty (talk) 17:54, 24 July 2018 (UTC)
          • The address itself is a minor issue, but the journal's long-standing, close ties to Karolinska are not. It is correct that the bylaws may determine that an institution can name board members. I didn't find the bylaws on the Internet, so I don't know if that is the case, but in any event it's also true in Sweden that board members of foundations are most commonly named by the existing board members, even if the foundation is de facto affiliated with e.g. a university. All the chairmen of the board have been Karolinska Institute faculty members, including the current chairman Göran Wennergren. --Lucas Garn (talk) 18:02, 24 July 2018 (UTC)