The discoveries and advancements of the medical community over the last two centuries have been chronicled – and aided – by the New England Journal of Medicine. “The Journal has enormous influence both in this country and around the world,” said Ed Wing, M.D., chairman of the department of medicine at Brown University. “It attracts some of the best clinical articles. I think if you had to name one medical journal as the most influential, this is it.”
The New England Journal of Medicine, published in Boston, is the oldest continually published medical journal in the world. First established in 1812 as the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery, and the Collateral Branches of Science, it changed its name sixteen years later (after incorporating another magazine, the Boston Medical Intelligencer) to the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal.
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Its influence grew well beyond the environs of Boston, transforming it into an international forum. In 1921, it was purchased by the Massachusetts Medical Society for $1, and in 1928 changed its name to the New England Journal of Medicine.
“We have 230,000 subscribers,” said Jeffrey Drazen, M.D., editor-in-chief at the New England Journal of Medicine and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Most of them are physicians who are practicing internal medicine. That makes up the largest single group.”
Drazen estimated that anywhere from a quarter to a third of Journal subscribers are academics – physician-teachers.
“Even though they’re not a large fraction, they are the most critical of the audiences,” he said. “Our articles are aimed mostly at this audience – they’re our external editors.”
Physician-teacher Wing praised the various sections of the publication which include original articles based on laboratory research and studies, reviews, editorials and letters.
“The editorials are very influential,” Wing said. “The editorial board tends to take strong views. They’re not just about medicine, they’re about public health, ethics, law.”
Each issue also features an installment of “Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital” in which a patient’s condition is described – complete with charts and graphs – and the reader must guess the correct diagnosis.
How difficult is it to get published in the Journal?
“We get about 2,500-3,000 original articles submitted each year,” Drazen said. “We publish about 200 of them.”
Drazen said authors are “quicker to be rejected, longer to get accepted” because of the arduous and thorough evaluation process conducted by area specialists once an article is submitted.
In the medical profession, publishing and practicing go hand-in-hand, according to Drazen.
“You can’t participate in the medical process until you become involved with the publishing process,” he said. “It is the mark of success in this profession.”
Drazen cited the magazine’s mission as “to provide physicians with the best information possible, so that when they treat patients, they can give them what’s correct, what’s up to date.”
And of course, Wing is quick to put the Journal in the hands of his students.
“When I was a student, that’s the journal I started reading – of course, I didn’t understand it then,” he laughed.
