The Lancet is one of the oldest and most respected peer-reviewed medical journals in the world, published weekly by Elsevier, part of Reed Elsevier. It was founded in 1823 by Thomas Wakley, who named it after the surgical instrument called a lancet, as well as an arched window ("to let in light"). Peer review (known as refereeing in some academic fields) is a scholarly process used in the publication of manuscripts and in the awarding of funding for research. ... A medical journal is a scientific journal devoted to the field of medicine. ... Reed Elsevier is a leading global publisher and information provider. ... 1823 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Thomas Wakley (1795 - May 16, 1862) , English medical and social reformer, was born in Devon, and was early apprenticed to a Taunton apothecary. ... Lancet may refer to: A lancet is a medical instrument, similar to a scalpel but with a double-edged blade. ...

The present editor-in-chief is Richard Horton. The Lancet is, and has been, outspoken on several important medical issues - recent examples include criticism of the WHO, rejecting the efficacy of homoeopathy as a therapeutic option and its disapproval of Reed Elsevier's links with the arms industry. 2005 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Richard Horton is the present editor of The Lancet, a Britain-based medical journal. ... Who can refer to: WHO, World Health Organization The Who, a British rock band The Guess Who, a Canadian rock band who (pronoun), an English language interrogative pronoun. ... Homeopathy (also spelled homœopathy or homoeopathy), from the Greek words homoios (similar) and pathos (suffering), is a controversial system of alternative medicine involving the use of remedies without chemically active ingredients. ... Reed Elsevier is a leading global publisher and information provider. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Impact

The Lancet has a significant readership throughout the world with a high impact factor. It publishes original research articles, review articles ("seminars" and "reviews"), editorials, book reviews, correspondences, amidst other regulars such as news features and case reports. The Lancet is considered to be one of the "core" general medical journals; the others being the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the British Medical Journal. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Citation impact. ... The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society with the highest impact factor for a general medical journal. ... JAMA, published continuously since in 1883, is an international peer-reviewed general medical journal published 48 times per year. ... The British Medical Journal (BMJ) is a medical journal published weekly in the United Kingdom by the British Medical Association (BMA)which published its first issue in 1845. ...

However, it was subject to severe criticism after it published a paper in 1998, in which the authors raised the possibility of a link between MMR vaccine and autism, a matter of continuing controversy. In February 2004 The Lancet published a partial retration of teh paper. Dr Horton went on the record to say the paper was "fatally flawed" because one of the authors had a serious conflict of interst that he had not declared to The Lancet. When it published an estimate of Iraq civilian death toll - one hundred thousand - just two days before the November 2004 US Presidential Elections, it was accused of being political. The MMR vaccine is a mixture of live attenuated viruses, administered via injection for immunization against measles, mumps and rubella. ... It has been suggested that Autism mercury be merged into this article or section. ... The vaccine controversy encompasses many concerns over the use and lack of use of vaccines - whether vaccination in general or mass vaccination in particular is beneficial to the health of individuals and the population. ...

Data fabrication scandal

In January 2006, it was revealed that data had been fabricated in an article by the cancer researcher Jon Sudbø and 13 co-authors published in The Lancet in October 2005, [1]. The fabricated article was entitled "Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and the risk of oral cancer: a nested case-control study". [2]. Within a week after this scandal surfaced in the news, the high-impact New England Journal of Medicine published an expression of editorial concern regarding another research paper published on a similar topic in the journal. Jon Sudbø (born May 3, 1961) is a dentist, consultant oncologist and medical researcher at The Norwegian Radium Hospital in Oslo, Norway. ... The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society with the highest impact factor for a general medical journal. ...

Journals family

The Lancet has now given birth to a few sub-speciality journals, all bearing the parent title - The Lancet Neurology (neurology), The Lancet Oncology (oncology) and The Lancet Infectious Diseases (infectious diseases). All of them have established significant reputations as medical journals, though most started out publishing only review articles. Neurology is a branch of medicine dealing with disorders of the nervous system. ... Oncology is the medical subspecialty dealing with the study and treatment of cancer. ... In medicine, infectious disease or communicable disease is disease caused by a biological agent such as by a virus, bacterium or parasite. ...

External links

• The Lancet
• The Lancet Infectious Diseases
• The Lancet Neurology
• The Lancet Oncology
• Guidelines for article submission.