Annals of Internal Medicine is an academic medical journal published by the American College of Physicians

American College of Physicians

The American College of Physicians is a national organization of doctors of internal medicine —physicians who specialize in the prevention, detection, and treatment of illnesses in adults. With 130,000 members, ACP is the largest medical-specialty organization and second-largest physician group in...

 (ACP). It publishes research articles and reviews in the area of internal medicine

Internal medicine

Internal medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases. Physicians specializing in internal medicine are called internists. They are especially skilled in the management of patients who have undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes...

. Its current editor is Christine Laine. The journal had a 2008 impact factor of 16.2, which makes it among the most-cited of general clinical medical journals, only exceeded by Journal of the American Medical Association

Journal of the American Medical Association

The Journal of the American Medical Association is a weekly, peer-reviewed, medical journal, published by the American Medical Association. Beginning in July 2011, the editor in chief will be Howard C. Bauchner, vice chairman of pediatrics at Boston University’s School of Medicine, replacing ...

, The Lancet

The Lancet

The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal. It is one of the world's best known, oldest, and most respected general medical journals...

and New England Journal of Medicine

New England Journal of Medicine

The New England Journal of Medicine is an English-language peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It describes itself as the oldest continuously published medical journal in the world.-History:...

.

History

Founded in 1927, Annals of Internal Medicine has been published twice monthly since 1988. Former Editor-in-Chief, Edward Huth, has published details of the journal's history.

Medical publishing innovations by the journal include:

• 1987: Proposal for structured abstracts published in the April issue; first structured abstracts published.
• 1994: Research on the effects of peer review.
• 1997: Guidelines for the use of Bayesian interpretation of significance testing included in information for authors.
• 1999: Summaries for patients introduced for original research articles.
• 2003: Editors' notes introduced to summarize the articles' findings, implications, and limitations.
• 2004: Limitations section added to standard structured abstracts.

Online availability

An archive of issues from 1993 is available at the journal's website in text and PDF (from 1999) formats. Some material over six months old is freely accessible, and access to all papers is provided free of charge to developing countries.

External links

• Annals of Internal Medicine website