New England Journal of Medicine

New England Journal of Medicine
Title	New England Journal of Medicine
Discipline	Medicine
Language	English
Publisher	Massachusetts Medical Society
Country	United States
History	1812–present
Frequency	Weekly
Issn	0028-4793

New England Journal of Medicine is a weekly peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is one of the oldest and most cited medical periodicals, with a broad international readership among clinicians, researchers, and policymakers. The journal has published landmark clinical trials, practice-changing research, and influential editorials that intersect with institutions, public health events, and major figures in medicine.

History

The journal traces its origins to the early nineteenth century in Boston, connecting to institutions such as the Massachusetts Medical Society, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Medical Library, and figures associated with the American Medical Association and Johns Hopkins Hospital. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it paralleled developments at Yale School of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, and Mayo Clinic. Editors and contributors have included physicians and scientists who trained at Guy's Hospital, King's College London, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, McGill University Faculty of Medicine, and University of Oxford Medical Sciences Division. The journal’s editorial direction reflected major events such as the American Civil War, the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, the rise of antibiotics following work at Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research and Institut Pasteur, and the era of randomized controlled trials pioneered at Oxford and Nuffield Department of Medicine. Institutional relationships have linked the publication to professional organizations like the Royal College of Physicians, European Society of Cardiology, World Health Organization, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Editorial Structure and Peer Review

Editorial governance has involved editors-in-chief drawn from leading centers including Brigham and Women's Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Cleveland Clinic, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Yale-New Haven Hospital. The board has included representatives affiliated with University College London, Imperial College London, Karolinska Institutet, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, and specialty societies such as the American College of Physicians, American Heart Association, and European Respiratory Society. Manuscript handling uses peer review systems involving reviewers from institutions like John Radcliffe Hospital, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. The review process has been debated in contexts involving agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, Medical Research Council (UK), Wellcome Trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and regulatory bodies including the Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency. Ethical oversight has intersected with panels from Institutional Review Boards at Cornell University, Duke University School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, and Washington University School of Medicine.

Content and Publication Types

The journal publishes original research, review articles, case reports, clinical trials, meta-analyses, and editorials, often discussing studies conducted at centers like Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, University of Melbourne, and Seoul National University College of Medicine. It features randomized controlled trials involving collaborators at University of Oxford, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, Mount Sinai Hospital (New York), and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Review commissions have included authors from Salk Institute, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Scripps Research, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. Clinical practice articles reference guidelines from American College of Cardiology, European Society for Medical Oncology, Infectious Diseases Society of America, National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and World Health Organization expert panels.

Impact and Reception

The journal’s impact is measured by citation indices and its influence on clinical guidelines from bodies such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, American Diabetes Association, American Psychiatric Association, and American Society of Clinical Oncology. It has been cited in major historical accounts involving Florence Nightingale, Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, Alexander Fleming, and institutions like the Royal Society. Policymakers at United States Congress, White House, European Commission, United Nations, and G7 have referenced findings appearing in the journal. Its prominence has inspired parallel high-impact journals including The Lancet, JAMA, BMJ, Annals of Internal Medicine, and Nature Medicine.

Notable Articles and Controversies

Notable publications have included landmark trials connected with investigators at University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, Vanderbilt University, Stanford Medicine, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Controversies have involved debates over trial data, conflicts with pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer, Merck & Co., GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, and Novartis, and discussions around editorial decisions that engaged commentators from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and BBC. Ethical disputes touched on historical cases linked to research at Tuskegee Institute, Nazi medical experiments, and regulatory inquiries involving Department of Justice and European Court of Human Rights considerations. High-profile retractions and corrections have been analyzed alongside scholarship from Retraction Watch, COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics), and legal commentary from firms interacting with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Access, Distribution, and Digital Initiatives

Distribution has combined print subscriptions with digital access through partnerships involving libraries at Harvard Library, New York Public Library, British Library, Wellcome Library, and consortia like HathiTrust and JSTOR. Digital initiatives have included multimedia content, open-access options influenced by mandates from funders such as the National Institutes of Health, European Research Council, Wellcome Trust, and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The journal’s website and platforms have been discussed in relation to technology firms and standards from Google Scholar, CrossRef, ORCID, PubMed, and Scopus. Outreach and education programs have involved collaborations with institutions like Khan Academy, Coursera, edX, and clinical trial registries such as ClinicalTrials.gov.

Category:Medical journals