About NEJM
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is recognized as the world’s leading medical journal and website. Published continuously for over 200 years, NEJM delivers high-quality, peer-reviewed research and interactive clinical content to physicians, educators, researchers, and the global medical community.
Our mission is to publish the best research and information at the intersection of biomedical science and clinical practice and to present this information in understandable, clinically useful formats that inform health care practice and improve patient outcomes.
To these ends, NEJM sets the highest standards for:
- Editorial, peer, and statistical review processes to evaluate manuscripts for scientific accuracy, novelty, and importance.
- Policies and practices to ensure that authors disclose all relevant financial associations and that such associations in no way influence the content NEJM publishes.
As a truly global brand and flagship of NEJM Group, NEJM keeps health care professionals at the leading edge of medical knowledge, fosters broad understanding in their areas of interest, and provides a variety of engaging and innovative ways to learn.
NEJM History
1812
John Collins Warren, a Boston physician and scholar, collaborated in 1811 with colleague James Jackson to establish the first medical journal in New England, publishing the first quarterly edition of the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery and the Collateral Branches of Medical Science (Boston) in January of 1812.
1921
In 1921, the journal merged with the Boston Medical Intelligencer to become the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal; it also began weekly publication that year and was purchased by the Massachusetts Medical Society.
1928
Renamed to the New England Journal of Medicine in 1928, the journal is known for many firsts in medicine, including the first to publish a full description of spinal disk rupture (1934) and the first to document success in treating early childhood leukemia (1948).
1978
NEJM becomes the first American medical journal to receive the distinguished Polk Award for journalistic excellence.
1996
Digitization of NEJM content begins with the launch of NEJM.org.
2010
NEJM launches the NEJM Archive (1812-1989), providing searchable access to an additional 150,000+ NEJM articles dating back to 1812.
For additional NEJM historical milestones, see Fact Sheet.
NEJM Today
Today, NEJM is the most widely read, cited, and influential general medical periodical in the world. More than a million people from nearly every country read NEJM in print and online each week.
Each year, NEJM receives more than 16,000 research and other submissions for consideration for publication. About 5% of original research submissions achieve publication by NEJM; more than half originate from outside the U.S.
NEJM is cited more often in scientific literature than any other medical journal. The NEJM 2021 Journal Impact Factor is 176.079, making NEJM a top-ranking medical journal in the general medicine category. [ Source : 2021 Journal Impact Factor, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2022)]
NEJM is a Public Access journal. All original research content is freely available on NEJM.org six months after the date of publication. In addition, readers in qualifying low-income countries are granted free access to all articles on NEJM.org dating back to 1990. The editors also make articles that meet the criteria for global and public health importance free to all readers immediately upon publication on NEJM.org.
With the creation of a free NEJM.org account, readers have additional options for free access to published content, including the choice of any two subscriber-only articles (from 1990 to present) each calendar month, articles coordinated with medical meetings during the meeting, unlimited views of Images in Clinical Medicine and Quick Take videos, and more.