JAMA

History

The journal was established in 1883 by the American Medical Association and superseded the Transactions of the American Medical Association. Prior to the 1920s, the editor's main concern was with filling the journal, but between the 1910s and the mid 1920s JAMA entered the "turndown era," when submission volume was high enough to start rejecting submissions based on quality. The journal did not institutionalize routine peer review until after World War II. In 1960, the journal obtained its current title, JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. The journal is commonly referred to as JAMA.

Continuing medical education

Continuing Education Opportunities for Physicians was a semiannual journal section providing lists for regional or national levels of continuing medical education (CME). Between 1937 and 1955, the list was produced either quarterly or semiannually. Between 1955 and 1981, the list was available annually, as the number of CME offerings increased from 1,000 (1955) to 8,500 (1981). In 2016, CME transitioned into a digital offering from the JAMA Network called JN Learning CME & MOC from JAMA Network. JN Learning provides CME and MOC credit from article and audio materials published within all 12 JAMA Network journals, including JAMA.

Publication of article by Barack Obama

On 11 July 2016, JAMA published an article by Barack Obama entitled "United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps", which was the first academic paper ever published by a sitting U.S. president. The article was not subject to blind peer-review. It argued for specific policies that future presidents could pursue in order to improve national health care reform implementation.

Policy shift

After the controversial 1999 firing of an editor-in-chief, George D. Lundberg, a process was put in place to ensure editorial freedom. A seven-member journal oversight committee was created to evaluate the editor-in-chief and to help ensure editorial independence. Since its inception, the committee has met at least once a year. Presently, JAMA policy states that article content should be attributed to authors, not to the publisher.

Artwork

From 1964 to 2013, JAMA used images of artwork on its cover and it published essays commenting on the artwork. According to former editor George Lundberg, this practice was designed to link the humanities and medicine. In 2013, a format redesign moved the art feature to an inside page, replacing an image of the artwork on the cover with a table of contents. The purpose of the redesign was to standardize the appearance of all journals in the JAMA Network. The arts feature was discontinued in 2024.

Racism controversy

A February 2021 JAMA podcast proposed that "structural racism is an unfortunate term to describe a very real problem" and that "taking racism out of the conversation would help" to ensure "all people who lived in disadvantaged circumstances have equal opportunities to become successful and have better qualities of life." A JAMA tweet wrote "No physician is racist, so how can there be structural racism in health care?” The comments were immediately criticized by some, resulting in deletion of the podcast and resignation of the Deputy Editor. On June 1, 2021, the editor-in-chief announced that he would resign effective June 30, 2021 to "create an opportunity for new leadership at JAMA." and the episode was highlighted as a case study of social media, polarization, and radicalization in Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott's 2023 book The Canceling of the American Mind.

Previous chief editors

The following people have been editor-in-chief of JAMA:

• Nathan S. Davis (1883–1888)
• John B. Hamilton (1889, 1893–1898)
• John H. Hollister (1889–1891)
• James C. Culbertson (1891–1893)
• Truman W. Miller (1899)
• George H. Simmons (1899–1924)
• Morris Fishbein (1924–1949)
• Austin Smith (1949–1958)
• Johnson F. Hammond (1958–1959)
• John H. Talbott (1959–1969)
• Hugh H. Hussey (1970–1973)
• Robert H. Moser (1973–1975)
• William R. Barclay (1975–1982)
• George D. Lundberg (1982–1999)
• Catherine D. DeAngelis (2000–2011)
• Howard C. Bauchner (2011–2021)

Journal ranking summary

JAMA – Journal of the American Medical Association consistently ranks among the leading journals in the medical field. The table below outlines its recent citation-based performance across major indexing platforms.

Journal ranking summary (2023)

Abstracting and indexing

JAMA is abstracted and indexed in:

• Academic OneFile
• Academic Search
• BIOSIS Previews
• Biological Abstracts
• CAB Abstracts
• Chemical Abstracts
• CINAHL
• Current Index to Statistics
• Current Contents/Clinical Medicine
• Current Contents/Life Sciences
• Elsevier BIOBASE
• Embase
• Global Health
• Index Medicus/MEDLINE/PubMed
• PsycINFO
• Science Citation Index
• Scopus
• Tropical Diseases Bulletin

References

References

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3. "Web of Science Master Journal List - WoS MJL by Clarivate".
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9. (July 11, 2016). "United States Health Care Reform – Progress to Date and Next Steps". JAMA.
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11. (2016-07-13). "#ObamaJAMA: Obama Just Became the First Sitting President to Publish an Academic Paper".
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17. Showalter E. (1999). "Commentary: An inconclusive study". BMJ.
18. (2013). "JAMA gets a new look!". JAMA.
19. (7 March 2021). "JAMA Posts Podcast On Structural Racism, Here Is The Backlash". Forbes.
20. "JAMA Podcast Transcript: NRSG-515-1: Race, Health, and US History – Spring 2021".
21. (27 May 2021). "Structural Racism Is Not An Exemption From Accountability". [[Health Affairs]].
22. (4 March 2021). "JAMA Editor Apologizes for Tweet Saying 'No Physician Is Racist'". The Wrap.
23. (2021-03-27). "How Whiteness Works: JAMA and the Refusals of White Supremacy".
24. Mandavilli, Apoorva. (2021-03-25). "JAMA Editor Placed on Leave Following Racial Controversy". The New York Times.
25. Lee, Stephanie M.. (March 1, 2021). "After JAMA Questioned Racism In Medicine, Scientists Are Boycotting".
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