There are many medical and scientific journals but only a few are the most prestigious medical journals. For any area of specialty or field of study, there are most likely multiple publications competing for the title of “go to” authority. So when you are picking out a journal, whether it is as a credible source or as a place to publish your own research, it can be tough to pick the right one. However, over time, certain publications have risen above the rest. These make up our most prestigious medical journals list.
“Prestige” simply means that a particular institution is held in high regard. While an NFL team may have many pro-bowl players or a movie might win a slew of awards, in the world of scientific publishing prestige is generally measured by a score called “impact factor”. Impact factor, basically, means that the work within a particular publication has been referenced by other works in the field. This can be taken as a rough approximation of the journal’s influence, or impact, on the community at large. Impact factors are how we determined the most prestigious medical journals currently.
The most prestigious medical journals – sorted by their most recent impact factor
1) CA – A Cancer Journal for Clinicians
ISSN:1542-4863
Impact Factor: 223.679
Link: https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15424863
Description: CA is an oncology journal that has been published for the American Cancer society since the 1950s. It is a bimonthly peer-reviewed medical journal published by Wiley-Blackwell. The journal covers aspects of cancer research on diagnosis, therapy, and prevention. This was not what we expected to be at the top of our MOST prestigious medical journals list. Our guess for #1 actually came in as #2.
2) New England Journal of Medicine
ISSN: 0028-4793
Impact Factor: 74.699
Link: https://knowledgeplus.nejm.org/products/
Description: The New England Journal of Medicine is the queen of all general medical journals. It is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is known as the most prestigious medical journals as well as the oldest continuously published one.
3) The Lancet
ISSN: 0140-6736
Impact Factor: 60.392
Link: https://www.thelancet.com/
Description: For the last 197 years, The Lancet has been publishing top-tier scientific medical research with the simple goal of improving human lives. It is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal. It is among the world’s oldest and best-known general medical journals. It definitely deserves a place in the top 3 most prestigious medical journals.
4) Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology
ISSN: 1759-4782
Impact Factor: 53.276
Link: https://www.nature.com/subjects/biomarkers/nrclinonc
Description: Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology publishes up-to-date summaries of the state of cancer research intended for advanced medical audiences.Basically, it is a peer-reviewed journal for oncologists. The journal was renamed from Nature Clinical Practice Oncology in April 2009. Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology is one of eight Clinical Review journals published by the Nature Publishing Group. We thought Nature, not one of the Nature Reviews would be in the top 5 most prestigious medical journals, so this one and the following one and the following 2 were a surprise.
5) Nature Reviews Cancer
ISSN: 1474-175X
Impact Factor: 53.030
Link: https://www.nature.com/nrc/
Description: Nature Reviews Cancer publishes articles on the modern study of cancer intended for a broad readership. It is still mainly focused on oncologists.
6) Nature Reviews Immunology
ISSN: 1474-1741
Impact Factor: 44.019
Link: https://www.nature.com/nri/
Description: Nature Reviews publishes comprehensive surveys of research on all levels of immune response studies. It is a monthly review journal covering the field of immunology. The journal also publishes “Research highlight” articles, which are short summaries written by the editors that describe recent hot research papers.
7) Nature
ISSN: 1476-4687
Impact Factor: 42.778
Link: https://www.nature.com/
Description: Nature is a British weekly scientific journal founded and based in London, England. As a multidisciplinary publication, Nature features peer-reviewed research from a variety of academic disciplines, mainly in science, technology, and the natural sciences. This is widely known as one of the most prestigious journals to publish in.
8) Nature Reviews Disease Primers
ISSN: 2056-676X
Impact Factor: 40.689
Link: https://www.nature.com/nrdp/
Description: Nature Reviews Disease Primers publishes introductory articles outlining medicine’s current understanding of any one, specific condition from any medical field. Basically, it is a peer-reviewed medical journal publishing broad review articles about disease areas, offering a global overview of the field and outlining “key open research questions”.
9) World Psychiatry
ISSN: 1723-8617
Impact Factor: 40.595
Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/20515545
Description: As the official journal of the world psychiatric organization, World Psychiatry aims to communicate significant psychological research findings to the world. It is the official publication of the World Psychiatric Association. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell and the Editor-in-chief is Mario Maj.
10) Cell
ISSN: 1097-4172
Impact Factor: 38.637
Link: https://www.cell.com/
Description: Cell is a peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing research papers across a broad range of disciplines within the life sciences. This one is no surprise in the top 10 most prestigious journals.
11) Nature Medicine
ISSN: 1078-8956
Impact Factor: 36.130
Link: https://www.nature.com/nm/
Description: Nature Medicine focuses on publishing the evidence for and impact of cutting-edge insight into disease processes. It is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal publishing research articles, reviews, news and commentaries in the biomedical area, including both basic research and early-phase clinical research covering all aspects of medicine.
12) Nature Reviews Microbiology
ISSN: 1740-1534
Impact Factor: 34.209
Link: https://www.nature.com/nrmicro/
Description: Nature Reviews Microbiology publishes work on the current state of the field of microbiology intended for the widest possible readership.It is a peer-reviewed review journal published by the Nature Publishing Group. It publishes reviews and perspectives on microbiology, bridging fundamental research and its clinical, industrial, and environmental applications.
13) The Lancet Oncology
ISSN: 1470-2045
Impact Factor: 33.752
Link: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/home
Description: The Lancet Oncology specializes in clinical oncology and pays special attention to articles that suggest changes in cancer treatment best practices.
14) Nature Reviews Genetics
ISSN:1471-0056
Impact Factor: 33.133
Link: https://www.nature.com/nrg/
Description: Nature Reviews Genetics is a journal of reviews covering the latest advances in the expansive field of genetics. It is a monthly review journal in genetics and covers the full breadth of modern genetics. The journal publishes review and perspective articles written by experts in the field subject to peer review and copy editing to provide authoritative coverage of topics.
15) Journal of Clinical Oncology
ISSN:1527-7755
Impact Factor: 32.956
Link: https://ascopubs.org/journal/jco/
Description: The Journal of Clinical Oncology publishes any and all top-tier cancer research. It is a peer-reviewed medical journal published 3 times a month by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. It covers research on all aspects of clinical oncology. All articles older than one year are freely available online.
16) The Lancet Neurology
ISSN: 1474-4465
Impact Factor: 30.039
Link: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/home
Description: The Lancet Neurology publishes reviews and cutting-edge articles on any topic in the field of neurology.
17) Cancer Cell
ISSN: 1535-6108
Impact Factor: 26.602
Link: https://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/home
Description: Cancer Cell publishes advances in traditional and translational oncological research at the cellular level. It is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Cell Press. It covers all aspects of cancer research at the cellular-level. The journal was established in February 2002 and the editor-in-chief is Li-Kuo Su.
18) Physiological Reviews
ISSN: 1522-1210
Impact Factor: 25.588
Link: https://journals.physiology.org/toc/physrev/0/0
Description: Physiological Reviews publishes comprehensive, timely reviews on a wide variety of topics in the field of medical physiology.
19) The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology
ISSN: 2213-8595
Impact Factor: 25.340
Link: https://www.thelancet.com/landia/about
Description: The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology publishes articles outlining ongoing work in the field of endocrinology.
20) The Lancet Infectious Diseases
ISSN: 1474-4457
Impact Factor: 24.446
Link: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/issue/current
Description: The Lancet Infectious Disease publishes nearly any information that might be of interest to clinicians involved in the study of infectious disease.
21) Accounts of Chemical Research
ISSN: 0001-4842
Impact Factor: 21.661
Link: https://pubs.acs.org/toc/achre4/current
Description: Accounts of Chemical Research features to-the-point descriptions of laboratory chemical research.
22) Immunity
ISSN: 1097-4180
Impact Factor: 21.522
Link: https://www.cell.com/immunity/home
Description: Immunity publishes any high quality research that pertains to the field of immunology.
23) Annual Review of Immunology
ISSN: 1545-3278
Impact Factor: 20.760
Link:https://www.annualreviews.org/loi/immunol
Description: Annual Review of Immunology concentrates on the human immune system and its response to a wide variety of challenges.
24) Journal of the American College of Cardiology
ISSN:1558-3597
Link:https://www.onlinejacc.org/
Impact Factor: 18.639
Description: The JACC publishes research pertaining to pathologies of the heart and circulatory system.
25) Acta Neuropathologica
Link:https://www.springer.com/journal/401
ISSN: 0001-6322
Impact Factor: 18.174
Description: Acta Neuropathologica strives to publish the very best, well-validated neurological disease research available.
Conclusion – submitting to the most prestigious medical journals
Whenever writing a paper to submit to one of the most prestigious medical journals, make sure to have other scientists read your paper and give feedback. If your budget allows, consider an objective professional medical editor. Contact us for a price quote to help with your paper. We offer writing, critiquing, editing and formatting for the journal.
You can also check some of our medical-related press releases here.