BMJ Group unveils 2025 impact report, spotlighting global health influence and policy reach

BMJ Group has published its 2025 impact report, underlining the healthcare knowledge provider’s growing influence on health systems, clinical practice, and global policy.

As a signatory to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), BMJ Group promotes a more rounded picture of research quality and impact. Alongside the Journal Impact Factor, BMJ journals report additional measures such as CiteScore, Altmetric mentions, and time to first decision, helping institutions, authors, and funders see not only how widely research is cited but also how quickly it informs debate, shapes policy, and changes practice.

Across the portfolio, more than half of the Group’s 65-plus journals ranked in the first quartile of their fields, with 20% in the global top ten of their categories. Evidence, the Group says, of consistent, broad based impact beyond headline metrics.

Every story in this year’s report shows how trusted evidence drives change in healthcare. If pressed to single out a few, highlights include:

• Evidence in action: Research published by The BMJ helped prompt the UK government’s decision to mandate folic acid fortification of flour, a landmark policy that will prevent thousands of neural tube defects
• Equity in innovation: A BMJ Innovations study accelerated the development of the first device designed to eliminate racial bias in oxygen monitoring, ensuring safer diagnostics for all skin tones
• Proving research influence: The Office of Health Economics used BMJ Impact Analytics to show that 27% of its research was cited in policy, four times the global average, helping secure funding and demonstrate real world value

Charlotte Ashton-Khan, director of external affairs, Office of Health Economics, said: “BMJ Impact Analytics has given us valuable insight into how our research is being received and used. It’s helped us stay relevant and responsive without compromising our integrity. That was the missing piece for us.”

• Championing children’s rights: BMJ Paediatrics Open, under the editorial leadership of Professor Shanti Raman, has become a platform for improving the health and wellbeing of street and working children worldwide. Its special collection not only provides practical tools for clinicians and policymakers but also amplifies the voices and lived experiences of children too often ignored
• Strengthening health systems – From Ireland to Cyprus, BMJ Best Practice has been adopted nationally to support confident clinical decisions and patient empowerment, showing how trusted knowledge can transform care at scale

Professor George Samoutis, chairman of the coordination committee of the National Centre for Clinical Evidence, Cyprus, said:  “BMJ [Group]’s tools and events don’t just inform our thinking – they shape it.”

BMJ Group’s digital tools also featured strongly: Ireland’s Health Service Executive has adopted BMJ Best Practice patient leaflets to tackle unreliable health advice head on. With 288,000 sessions and 1.7 million interactions in a year, the concise, evidence based resources give patients clarity, build trust, and empower shared decision making alongside their clinicians.

Brendan Leen, area library manager (HSE Library), Health Service Executive, Ireland, said: “Part of the value of making a resource available universally, for all Irish citizens, is that it improves conversations between healthcare professionals and patients, and supports shared decision making around treatments or lifestyle choices.”

Commenting on the launch, BMJ Group said the report demonstrates “a ripple effect of impact, from research to real world results, shaping stronger health systems and better patient outcomes everywhere.”

The full 2025 impact report is available at: https://info.bmj.com/impact-report-2025/

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For information, please contact Ingrid Bray, Senior Corporate Brand & Communications Manager, BMJ Group: ibray@bmj.com