Better evidence
Staying at the forefront of scientific advances
14K
BMJ Group articles were cited in 6K policy and clinical guidance documents published in 2022*
770K
media mentions of articles published in 2022**
Over 60%
of our journals are in the top quartile of their category, with 15% ranked in the top five for their categories
56
of our 65 strong journal portfolio have a Journal Impact Factor (JIF)
11th
most cited publisher in Clinical Medicine, 8th in Public Health, and 8th in Health Services Research ***
17
of our journals received their first JIF in 2023****
34.5K
news mentions of documents published in 2022, a 34% increase year on year
87%
of BMJ journals indexed in Scopus saw an increase in their CiteScore in 2023
Retaining impressive rankings
BMJ Group publishes 65 journals, many of which are the most influential titles in their field
British Journal of Sports Medicine
Number 1 out of 87
in Sports Sciences
18.4 JIF | 25.1 CiteScore
Journal of Medical Ethics
Number 2 out of 16
in Medical Ethics
5.1 JIF | 6.2 CiteScore
Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery
Number 2 out of 17
in Neuroimaging
4.8 JIF | 10.7 CiteScore
Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry
Number 3 out of 212 in Surgery
11 JIF | 15.9 CiteScore
The BMJ
Number 4 out of 167 in Medicine, General & Internal1
105.7 JIF | 15.3 CiteScore
Tobacco Control
Number 4 out of 21 in Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
5.2 JIF | 10.6 CiteScore
GUT
Number 5 out of 93 in Gastroenterology & Hepatology
24.5 JIF | 47.4 CiteScore
Thorax
Number 6 out of 65 in Respiratory System
10 JIF | 14.3 CiteScore
Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine
Number 8 out of 35 in Anesthesiology
5.1 JIF | 7.6 CiteScore
Advancing how the real-world impact of health and medical research is measured
Research that improves patients’ lives matters deeply to the funders, institutions and researchers who dedicate their resources to medical and health research. But evaluating the impact of this research on policy and guidelines is traditionally measured by standard scholarly metrics in the absence of more targeted analysis that relates explicitly to health improvement.
BMJ Group and the pioneering technology start-up, Overton, set out to address this challenge by collaborating to develop BMJ Impact Analytics, the first research impact tool focused on health and social care. It was launched in January 2023, and shortlisted in June 2023 as a finalist for the prestigious Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) Award for Innovation in Publishing 2023.2
The concept of real-world impact has gained importance in the past decade due to budget cuts and the public questioning the value of research funding. Traditional scholarly metrics do not sufficiently measure impact, since they need to capture how research improves people’s lives. BMJ Impact Analytics helps to fill this gap by providing evidence of research being cited in policy and guidelines.
We chose to partner with BMJ Group because of their expertise and reach in the medical research community. Their existing relationships and global presence made the organisation a valuable partner. Additionally, BMJ Group’s mission-driven approach aligned with our values at Overton.
Euan Adie
Founder and Director Overton
Advanced tracking
Previously, tracking this impact was time-consuming and costly, but BMJ Impact Analytics simplifies the process and provides more comprehensive insights. It shows links to patient outcomes (citing decision support tools), and enables a wider range of research to be assessed.
Real-world focus
BMJ Impact Analytics contributes to shifting the focus of research assessment systems towards real-world impact and recognising the diverse contributions of researchers. The tool supports evidence-based policy decisions by providing evidence of the impact of research in the real world. It helps researchers understand and showcase the value of their work.
Delivering impactful science and journalism
Kamran Abbasi, Editor in chief, The BMJ Journal
Impact, influence, and healthcare expertise are all the mainstay for global organisations, and we are benchmarked against the very best. Through the voice and global recognition of our flagship journal, The BMJ, we stimulate informed debate and encourage better medical research and education that lead to improved patient outcomes.
Our Investigations Unit’s work adds to The BMJ’s reputation as a world-renowned agent of change. Over the past year our investigative journalism has:
Raised questions over lack of “substantial evidence” for FDA approved antibiotic, Recarbrio.3 We highlighted the deterioration of safety standards at the FDA4 and warned of an era where drug effectiveness becomes an afterthought in regulatory approval.
Uncovered that the National Health Service (NHS) paid private hospitals £2bn in the pandemic to meet NHS demand, but that some private hospitals still treated more private patients than NHS ones,5 reflecting a lack of transparency and accountability between public funding and private delivery of healthcare.
Led an investigation in partnership with The Guardian, finding that hospital trusts fail to protect staff and patients against sexual assault and harassment in the NHS.6 Our investigation revealed that only one in ten NHS trusts has a dedicated policy to deal with sexual assault and harassment, leading to a call in Parliament for a new and improved sexual complaints system.7
Holding politicians accountable
In 2022, The BMJ’s UK Covid Inquiry Series highlighted how the political response to the covid-19 pandemic often failed to properly consider science.
The articles10 raised important questions about the transparency and accountability of political decision making during the pandemic. They question the government’s resistance to scrutiny, lack of transparency, and failure to correct mistakes as knowledge and experience accumulated.
Modelled after the UK Covid Inquiry Series, The BMJ’s Canada Covid Series called for a national inquiry and accountability for the failings in Canada’s response to covid-19. That week, four out of five of the top-read analysis articles were from that series, and 52% of The BMJ Analysis readers were from Canada. It received lots of attention online, in the news, and the research community, and led to a statement provided by the office of Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos.11
The UK issue covered points that question the evidence behind government decisions,12 all of which has been submitted as evidence to the inquiry.
Influencing with evidence-based advocacy
The BMJ is also influencing parliamentary select committees, with one such example occurring on 21 February 2022. Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England, gave evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee at the beginning of the inquiry into prevention in health and social care.13 At the hearing, Whitty discussed an editorial14 he co-wrote for The BMJ with other chief medical officers. In the editorial, Whitty and colleagues argued for restoring and extending secondary prevention in the NHS, highlighting that such efforts had declined during the pandemic.
With further work underway to evaluate the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the United States and Canada, as well as a Commission on the Future of the NHS, our science and journalism is focused on achieving impact in clinical practice and policy making.
Leading the world of medical journals in patient partnerships
Providing increased access to the opinions and perspectives of patients; unfiltered and first hand
Patient insights and experiences bring a critical dimension to our work and thinking. We view these partnerships as an ethical imperative, essential for enhancing the quality, safety, value, and sustainability of health systems.15 Whether in research or education, we collaborate with patient editors, patient and public reviewers, and a patient advisory panel to ensure our content and information are directly relevant to policy making and clinical practice.
Our proactive measures to promote patient and public involvement in the co-production of research help us recognise its significant impact on improving healthcare delivery and outcomes.16 A few journals have embraced patient and public review, but it is The BMJ Group that continues to lead the way in this important initiative.
87%
of research papers first submitted to The BMJ in 2022 and sent out for peer review were also sent to a patient and public reviewer for their opinion
89%
of BMJ Best Practice patient leaflets have been reviewed by the patient panel (as at end 2022)
This shift is driven by empirical evidence17 showing that involving patients in healthcare decision-making enhances overall satisfaction with care, regardless of the decisions made and clinical outcomes. Shared decision-making particularly yields the highest satisfaction levels.18 In the past three years, between 60% and 75% of our annual events have included a patient representative on their committees, and we’re working hard to increase this.
It is essential to acknowledge the challenges associated with this endeavour, particularly the considerable resources required to establish and manage new patient and public reviewer lists. Despite these obstacles, we are always looking for new ways to build better processes and maintain the high standards we have set.
Advancing equity in open access publishing
At BMJ Group, we want to support authors from low and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs) to publish their research by means of open access in their journal of choice.
Our waiver policy has been updated so that all BMJ journals offer waivers for the full Article Processing Charge (APC) with a 100% discount for authors in LMICs.19 We will always consider discount requests from countries not currently covered by that policy on a case-by-case basis. BMJ Group has been giving free online access to our journals via Research4Life (R4L) for over 20 years. With other publishers participating in the R4L initiative, resources have collectively been provided to more than 11,000 institutions in 125 LMIC countries.
“BMJ Group involves patients from the outset. Engaging communities in this way has gained traction and is growing, such as helping to build resilient healthcare systems in response to health emergencies. It’s one of those occasions where BMJ Group got ahead of the game from its competitors.”
Dr Luis Gabriel Cuervo
Senior Advisor, Washington, USA and Colombia
In 2022, 55.9% of all LMIC-originated research was published open access, up from 36.4% in 2021.