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Publishing and Events2024-10-21T15:35:26+00:00

Publishing & Events

Influencing health policy and practice, and connecting communities of academics, researchers, clinicians and funders through impactful research publications, data tools and event delivery.

Join us in advancing healthcare through trusted medical and scientific publications and events. Explore our journals today and see how BMJ Group is influencing health policy and practice worldwide.

Leading medical publisher

BMJ Group publishes some of the world’s most cited and widely read journals. Our flagship journal, The BMJ, was first published in 1840, making it one of the world’s oldest general medical journals.

Today, The BMJ is ranked number 3 across the Medicine, General and Internal category, and number 5 across all 21,848 journals in Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports (JCR) database. It has an official impact factor (IF) of 93.6, and sits in the 99th percentile. 

British Journal of Sports Medicine (IF 11.6) is ranked first in its Sports Science category. The Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery (IF 4.5), Journal of Medical Ethics (IF 3.3) and Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (IF 20.3) are all ranked second in their categories.

Retaining impressive rankings

BMJ Group publishes 6o journals, many of which are the most influential titles in their field.

Our continuous innovation ensures that our journals and events remain relevant to rapidly changing global audiences and market conditions.

British Journal of Sports Medicine

Number 1 out of 127
in Sports Sciences

11.6 JIF | 27.1 CiteScore

Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery

Number 2 out of 15
in Neuroimaging

4.5 JIF | 9.5 CiteScore

Journal of Medical Ethics

Number 2 out of 23
in Medical Ethics

3.3 JIF | 7.8 CiteScore

Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases

Number 2 out of 57
in Rheumatology

20.3 JIF | 35 CiteScore

The BMJ

Number 3 out of 325
in Medicine, General & Internal

93.6 JIF | 19.9 CiteScore

BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health

Number 4 out of 66
in Family Studies

3.4 JIF | 5.1 CiteScore

BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health

GUT

Number 5 out of 143
in Gastroenterology & Hepatology

23 JIF | 45.7 CiteScore

Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry

Number 5 out of 290
in Surgery

8.7 JIF | 15.7 CiteScore

Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine

Number 5 out of 64
in Anesthesiology

5.1 JIF | 8.5 CiteScore

Thorax

Number 7 out of 100
in Respiratory System

9 JIF | 16.1 CiteScore

Family Medicine and Community Health

Number 7 out of 30
in Primary Health Care

2.6 JIF | 9.7 CiteScore

BMJ Quality & Safety

Number 10 out of 174
in Health Care Sciences & Services

5.6 JIF | 9.8 CiteScore

Why partner with BMJ Group?

By partnering with royal colleges and leading scholarly and professional medical organisations, we ensure the publication of the latest and most relevant research. This collaboration benefits health professionals everywhere by providing access to cutting-edge medical knowledge and evidence-based practices.

As a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Medical Association (BMA), we understand the challenges faced by membership organisations.

A collage of human brain graphics on a pink background

Inspiring real change through global brand reach and recognition

Typically, research takes five to 15 years to impact clinical guidelines. Our brand recognition and global reach have the ability to accelerate this process, thereby improving clinical practice worldwide.

In October 2020, an observational study comparing outcomes after treatment with autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) and alemtuzumab (ALZ) in patients with relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis, was published in our high-impact, open access Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.1

In less than four years, the research paper demonstrated real-world impact. It received 27 academic citations and was cited in clinical guidelines in three countries: Canada, Germany, and The Netherlands, with references from four different sources. It also helped lower-income countries (LMICs) provide affordable care for people living with multiple sclerosis, offering clear treatment outcomes that shaped guideline amendments and impacted care practices globally.

Supporting significant research output in lower-middle income countries

Since 2002, BMJ Group has actively participated in the the World Health Organization‘s Research4Life Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI) programme, allowing developing countries to access over 8500 journals and 7000 e-books. This initiative benefits thousands of health workers and researchers in more than 100 countries, improving global health.

Fostering transparency and quality in systematic reviews

The joint BMJ Group and Maastricht University PhD programme recruits PhD students to contribute to vital research in the field of the responsible conduct of  publishing scientific research. It now proudly supports three students tackling diverse topics such as systematic review search strategies, librarian involvement in peer review, communication of retraction notices, and the use of AI in peer review.

This programme reflects our dedication to advancing the quality and transparency of research. Unlike other publishers, we uniquely open our doors to collaborate with external researchers, cementing our position as the leading publisher doing research on research.

Embarking on a PhD programme is a transformative journey marked by rigorous research, academic growth, and specialised expertise development. It offers scholars like Melissa Rethlefsen, a platform to delve deeply into their chosen field, contribute to cutting-edge research, and shape the future of their discipline. With a background in improving systematic review reporting and quality, Melissa saw this as an opportunity to formalise her work and contribute significantly to the field.

Melissa’s research focuses on a randomised control trial involving librarians and information specialists in peer review and improving the reproducibility and transparency of systematic review search strategies. Through the PhD programme, she has leveraged her research to conduct webinars and workshops for medical librarians and researchers worldwide, promoting best practices in systematic review reporting. It has significantly influenced Melissa’s career, providing her with mentorship from leading experts in the field. 

Join us in shaping the future of healthcare. Partner with BMJ Group and be part of a community dedicated to making a difference.

Our mission and values

BMJ Group is a global healthcare knowledge provider with a vision of a healthier world. We share knowledge and expertise to improve patient outcomes.

Our values and vision of a healthier world define our actions and behaviours. We publish, convene and collaborate in a way which is ethical, sustainable, efficient, and equitable. 

Our values

Our values give us the focus and direction to bring about our vision for a healthier world by sharing knowledge and expertise to help health professionals improve healthcare outcomes.

Making patient and public partnerships an ethical imperative

The BMJ is the first ever medical journal to receive the ‘Patients Included’ award for its strategy to encourage doctors and patients to work together as partners to improve healthcare. This important initiative has rippled across the business, with 75% of BMJ Events advisory committees including at least one patient, and 90% of all BMJ Best Practice leaflets have been reviewed by a patient panel.

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 articles 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.

Delivering responsible metrics

Delivering responsible metrics

The impact of academic research cannot be defined by any single metric. As a DORA signatory, BMJ Group believes that the journal impact factor (JIF) is best shared alongside other metrics that can help an author decide where to publish.

These include Citescore, Total Altmetric mentions, and time to first decision, amongst others. They are made available on all our individual journal sites and demonstrate how BMJ Group is meeting researchers’ needs for timely publication, reach and influence.

Anca Babor

Everything we do is evidence-based. We carefully create and curate the evidence we share to drive better patient care within the spirit of openness and transparency.

Anca Babor
Director Customers and Markets, Publishing & Events

Ensuring users can trust the integrity of all the content we publish

The content we publish is always of the highest standards, ensuring its reliability to influence care. Our dedicated Content Integrity team focuses on upholding the highest standards of research integrity and publishing ethics. Their role is pivotal in maintaining robust editorial practices. By preventing, detecting, investigating, and advising on integrity breaches, they always prioritise the safety of patients and the public. This relentless commitment to content integrity reassures authors, readers, funders, and institutions of the reliability of our publications.

Our Content Integrity team’s key responsibilities include:

We contribute regularly to guidelines and discussion documents created by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). As co-authors of official COPE guidance, we address issues such as manipulation of the publication process and recently collaborated on developing disclaimers and guidance for dealing with historically offensive content.

By continually advancing our practices and policies, we ensure that institutions can trust us to uphold the highest standards of integrity in research publications.

Safeguarding the integrity of science

Our collaboration with over 15 leading publishers as an official participating member of the STM Integrity Hub, a powerful platform being built to detect integrity issues in manuscripts submitted for publication to scholarly journals. Representatives from BMJ Group are part of the collaboration group looking at Image Manipulation Detection, and play a key role on the Governance board for the project. Through this hub, publishers can effectively and efficiently respond to the increasing and alarming volume of materials entering scholarly communications that violate accepted research integrity.

Strengthening ethics within the publishing community

BMJ Group’s content integrity team developed guidance and a visual summary illustrating the cycle of injustice. It complements the guide for editors, which gives practical strategies to advance equity, diversity and inclusion. It was consequently adopted as a formal part of the American Chemical Society (ACS) Publications e-learning course curriculum and supplementary guide for ACS journal editors on practical strategies to advance equity, diversity and inclusion.

“I am reaching out because we have continuously come back to your page on ‘Five things you should do as a journal editor to support social justice’ – particularly the graphic on the cycle of injustice. This visual is quite impactful and will aid in our efforts for editors to understand how their journal strategies and decisions affect the broader research ecosystem.” 

Shaina Lange
Manager, Publishing Integrity Office Global Editorial Operations, Journals Publishing Group, American Chemical Society

Advancing scientific discovery through open access

We support the transition of publicly-funded research to open access and are increasing the reach and utility of what we publish, actively reshaping how medical research is conducted and disseminated.

The BMJ ‘s research has always been free to read, and in 2011 we launched our first and largest open access medical journal, BMJ Open.

Today, a third of our journals are fully open access, and we also make academic research freely accessible and discoverable with hybrid publication models. 

We offer different types of open access agreements to help your researchers publish their work in leading scientific journals at a reduced cost while complying with open access mandates.

For Rest of World: Simon Neilson, Open Access Sales Manager – sneilson@bmj.com
For North America: Michael Socha, Customer and Sales Support Representative – ussupport@bmj.com

Improving the openness and accessibility of scientific findings

We know that early access to research results accelerates the pace of medical discovery. That’s why we want to reshape the way medical research is conducted and disseminated; by making preprints mainstream. BMJ Group is a part of initiatives like Initiative for Open Citations (I4OC) and Initiative for Open Abstracts (I4OA), making it easier for articles to be found, read and cited.  

In 2019, BMJ Group co-launched the preprint server for Health Sciences, medRxiv, with Yale University and Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory. It is the first health sciences preprint server and it allows fast sharing of preliminary research findings to the widest possible audience. 

MedRxiv encourages our authors to post their research as preprints. We have also invested in integrating medRxiv with our journals platform to make the submission process easier for authors and to further speed up routes to the publication of peer-reviewed evidence.

Globe and a stethoscope on a colourful background

Advancing equity in open access publishing

At BMJ Group, we support authors from LMICs in publishing their research open access in their journal of choice.

All our journals offer waivers for the full Article Processing Charge (APC) with a 100% discount for authors in LMICs. We will always consider discount requests from countries not currently covered by that policy on a case-by-case basis.

My research is particularly aimed at professionals working in low-income healthcare systems, so it is a necessity for it to be open access in order to reach them.” 

Joachim Burman, M.D. Ph.D.
Consultant Neurologist, Uppsala University Hospital, Sweden

“Science is accelerating patient care and it is essential to share the outcome of research worldwide. Our multi-year agreement for open access publishing in BMJ Group’s hybrid and Gold OA journals is one of the keystones in the Amsterdam UMC Open Science policy.”

Lieuwe Kool
Director of the Medical Library, Amsterdam University Medical Centre

Better evidence
Staying at the forefront of scientific advances

Advancing real-world impact assessment

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, by that following June, won the prestigious Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP) Award for Innovation in Publishing 2023.

“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

Connecting experts to share and compare knowledge

At BMJ Group, we bring people together for discussion, debate, and learning through our series of events — some in person and, increasingly, some delivered virtually.

Ian Leistikow

“The opportunities that BMJ Group presents through the events they lead are far reaching. They have the potential to change perceptions and mindsets of both healthcare professionals and the regulators of the healthcare systems within which they operate.”

Ian Leistikow
Inspector at Dutch Health and Youth Care Inspectorate and Professor at Erasmus University

Bringing together experts in diverse fields

Our privileged networks include close relationships with corporations, foundations, multilateral organisations, non-governmental organisations, and governments.

Our collaboration with these industry experts help us to look beyond healthcare to address issues such as sustainability, poverty reduction, gender and health inequalities, and the changing shape of academic research.

We can then share and compare knowledge through large and small-scale events, webinars and roundtables, while also contributing to the editorial BMJ Collection series.

Connecting communities

Events

From conferences to masterclasses, webinars to roundtables, our events are high-profile networking opportunities where health professionals can convene to exchange insights, share best practices, unveil cutting-edge research, and collectively address patient safety threats.

Latest Past Events

BMJ Future Health

Kings Place 90 York Way, London

Future Health We believe in the power of digital solutions to improve outcomes and build sustainable healthcare. At BMJ Future Health, we’re committed to ...

BMJ Leader Live Birmingham

The Studio, Birmingham 7 Cannon St, Birmingham

BMJ Leader Live Advance your leadership journey, honing skills for tomorrow's leaders. Explore themes like compassionate, collaborative and evolving leadership through inclusivity. Let's collective ...

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