The New England Journal of Medicine
| The New England Journal of Medicine | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Abbreviated title (ISO) | N. Engl. J. Med., NEJM |
| Discipline | Medicine |
| Language | English |
| Edited by | Jeffrey M. Drazen |
| Publication details | |
| Publisher | Massachusetts Medical Society (United States) |
| Publication history | The New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery (1812–1826); The New England Medical Review and Journal (1827); The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal (1828–1927); The New England Journal of Medicine (1928–present) |
| Impact factor | 50.017 (2008) |
| Indexing | |
| ISSN | 0028-4793 (print) 1533-4406 (web) |
| Links | |
The New England Journal of Medicine (N. Engl. J. Med. or NEJM) is an English-language peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is the oldest continuously published medical journal in the world, and is the most widely read, cited, and influential general medical periodical in the world.[1][2]
Contents |
[edit] History
The NEJM was founded by Dr. John Collins Warren in 1812[3] as a quarterly called The New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery. For one year, 1827, it was named the New England Medical Review and Journal. In 1828, it became a weekly, and was renamed The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal; one hundred years later, it took on its present name.
It publishes editorials, papers on original research, widely-cited review articles, correspondences, case reports, and has a special section called "Images in Clinical Medicine".
After being rejected by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Henry K. Beecher's famous article 'Ethics and Clinical Research' was published by the NEJM in 1966.[4] Other authors have included Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Hans Zinsser, and Lewis Thomas, along with other prominent physicians. One of its early editors, Jerome V. C. Smith, resigned in 1857 to assume his duties as mayor of the City of Boston.
[edit] Influence
The website for the George Polk Awards noted that its 1977 award to the New England Journal of Medicine "provided the first significant mainstream visibility for a publication that would achieve enormous attention and prestige in the ensuing decades."[5]
The journal usually has the highest impact factor of the journals of clinical medicine (including the Journal of the American Medical Association, and The Lancet); in 2006, the impact factor was 51, according to Journal Citation Reports, the first research journal to break 50.
[edit] Vioxx Correction Controversy
In the early 2000s, the reputation of the New England Journal of Medicine was affected by a controversy involving its response to problems with research on the drug Vioxx. A study was published in the journal in November 2000 which noted, but explained away, an increase in myocardial infarction amongst those taking Vioxx. According to Richard Smith, the former editor of the British Medical Journal, concerns about the correctness of that study were raised with the journal's editor, Jeff Drazen, as early as August 2001. That year, both the US Food and Drug Administration and the Journal of the American Medical Association also cast doubt on the validity of the data interpretation that had been published in the NEJM.[6] Despite clear evidence that Vioxx had serious cardiovascular side effects, including the drug's manufacturer, Merck, withdrawing the drug from market in September 2004, the NEJM waited five years, until December 2005, to publish an expression of concern about the original study. During that five year period, Merck paid the NEJM a total of US$836,000 for article reprints that Merck used as advertising.[7] The journal was publicly rebuked for its response to the research issues in editorials appearing in publications including the British Medical Journal[6] and the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.[8]
[edit] Open access policy
NEJM provides delayed free online access to its research articles (it does so six months after publication, and maintains that access dating back to 1993). This delay does not apply to readers from the least developed countries, for whom the content is available at no charge for personal use.
NEJM also has two podcast features, one with interviews of doctors and researchers that are publishing in the journal, and another summarizing the content of each issue. Other offerings include Continuing Medical Education, Videos in Clinical Medicine (showing videos of medical procedures), and the weekly Image Challenge.
[edit] Editors
- Walter Prentice Bowers, 1921–1937
- Robert Nason Nye, 1937–1947
- Joseph Garland, 1947–1967
- Franz J. Ingelfinger, 1967–1977
- Arnold S. Relman, 1977–1991
- Jerome P. Kassirer, 1991–1999
- Marcia Angell, 1999–2000
- Jeffrey M. Drazen, 2000–present
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.boston.com/news/health/blog/2009/05/new_england_jou_2.html
- ^ http://www.amazon.com/New-England-Journal-Medicine/dp/B001HBHESW
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/05/health/the-doctor-s-world-editor-of-journal-envisions-new-directions-and-lighter-tone.html
- ^ Beecher, H. K. “Ethics and clinical research: special article.” N Engl J Med 274, no. 24 (1966): 1354-60.
- ^ The George Polk Awards for Journalism
- ^ a b Dobson, Roger (July 15, 2006). "NEJM “failed its readers” by delay in publishing its concerns about VIGOR trial". http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1502213/. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
- ^ Trudo Lemmens & Ron A. Bouchard, "Regulation of Pharmaceuticals in Canada" in Jocelyn Downie et. al., eds., Canadian Health Law and Policy (Canada: LexisNexis, 2007) at 336.
- ^ Smith, Richard (August 2006). "Lapses at the New England Journal of Medicine". http://www.rsm.ac.uk/media/downloads/j06-07smith.pdf. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
[edit] External links
- NEJM Online
- NEJM Image Challenge
- NEJM Videos in Clinical Medicine
- NEJM's Audio interview RSS feed, in XML format
- Pubmed search for New England Journal of Medicine
- New Internal Medicine Journals Search Engine
