Every week, The Lancet publishes the best science from the best scientists worldwide, providing an unparalleled global reach and impact on health.
Since Thomas Wakley founded The Lancet in 1823, we have strived to make science widely available so that medicine can serve and transform society, and positively impact the lives of people. We are proud to have published papers that have made a crucial contribution to science and human health. You can view a selection of our research landmarks from more than 10 000 published issues. In 2023, The Lancet celebrated its 200th anniversary. Explore how we marked our bicentennial year across The Lancet Group.
The Lancet invites submissions of any original contribution that advances or illuminates medical science or practice. We publish Articles (including randomised controlled trials and meta-analyses), Review, Seminar, Health Policy, Therapeutics, Comment, Clinical Picture, Correspondence, and World Report. We also publish Series and Commissions that aim to shape and drive positive change in clinical practice, and public and global health policy. Learn more about the types of papers we publish.
The Lancet journals are both a destination for publication and a platform to advance the global impact of research. The Lancet Group cares that your work is highly visible to a global network of researchers, clinicians, industry professionals, policy makers, media outlets, patients, and the wider public, and we work with you and your affiliated institutions to maximise the impact of your research on the world.
- Lancet journals have extensive global reach with more than 36·8 million annual visits and 98·8 million downloaded articles across TheLancet.com and ScienceDirect.
- Lancet Alerts, including our electronic Table of Contents, have over 3·6 million subscriptions.
- Lancet journals have nearly 2·4 million followers on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram , WeChat, Weibo, and YouTube.
- With over 275 000 annual mentions in news articles, research published in Lancet journals receives regular coverage in influential media such as the Associated Press, BBC, CNN, Financial Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, NPR, and The Washington Post.
- Lancet podcasts receive over 85 000 listens each month.
- Lancet Webinars have been viewed more than 5000 times by audiences in 170 countries.
The Lancet is a world-leading source of clinical, public health, and global health knowledge. The journal has an Impact Factor of 168·9 (2022 Journal Citation Reports®, Clarivate 2023) and ranks first among 167 general and internal medicine journals globally, and a Scopus CiteScore of 133·2—ranking second among 830 general medicine journals.
We recognise that Journal Impact Factor and Scopus CiteScore are just two measures of a journal's performance and encourage you to explore additional journal impact metrics, which provide a means to assess our journals. The Lancet is also indexed by the following abstracting and indexing services:
- Abridged Index Medicus
- APA PsychInfo
- BIOSIS Previews
- Biological Abstracts
- CAB Direct
- Chemical Abstracts
- Crossref
- Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL)
- Current Contents - Clinical Medicine
- Current Contents - Life Sciences
- Embase
- Essential Science Indicators
- MEDLINE
- PubMed
- Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE)
- Scopus
Manuscript preparation must adhere to relevant reporting standards on the EQUATOR network website.
Manuscripts must be solely the work of the author(s) stated, must not have been previously published elsewhere, and must not be under consideration by another journal.
Whether you are an existing author or are thinking of submitting to us for the first time, we are committed to supporting you on whatever stage of your publication journey you find yourself.
As trusted sources of information, The Lancet Group sets extremely high standards for publishing, and we are committed to ensuring that our editorial processes meet our standards of excellence. From acceptance of your paper through to publication and beyond, our Editors, Assistant Editors, Illustrators, Production Editors, Journal Managers and Marketing and Communications experts provide guidance to strengthen the accuracy, accessibility, timeliness, and impact of your research.
Lancet journals are signatories of the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals issued by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE Recommendations) and to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) code of conduct for editors. We follow COPE's guidelines.
We understand the pressure you face to have your voice heard first, and we are committed to publishing important papers fast. Research papers—which will usually be randomised controlled trials—judged eligible for consideration by the journal’s editors will be peer-reviewed within 72 h and, if accepted, published within 4 weeks of receipt.
Papers are subjected to The Lancet's usual rigorous standards of external and statistical peer review, and edited by experienced technical copy editors to the highest standards.
The Lancet is a hybrid journal, which offers authors of original research with funding that requires open access publication either a gold open access or a subscription green open access solution for their submission. Open access publication in our hybrid journals is available for authors whose research is funded by specific funders. Explore your options for publishing open access.
Richard Horton , Editor-in-Chief
I qualified in physiology and medicine with honours from the University of Birmingham in 1986. I joined The Lancet in 1990, moving to New York as North American Editor in 1993. In 2016, I chaired the Expert Group for the High Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth, convened by Presidents Hollande of France and Zuma of South Africa. From 2011 to 2015, I was co-chair of the UN's independent Expert Review Group on Information and Accountability for Women's and Children's Health. In 2011, I was elected a Foreign Associate of the US Institute of Medicine and, in 2015, I received the Friendship Award from the Government of China. In 2019 I was awarded the WHO Director-General’s Health Leaders Award for outstanding leadership in global health and the Roux Prize in recognition of innovation in the application of global health evidence. I now work to develop the idea of planetary health—the health of human civilizations and the ecosystems on which they depend. In 2020, I published The COVID-19 Catastrophe: What’s Gone Wrong and How to Stop It Happening Again. A revised, updated, and expanded second edition was published in 2021.
If you have additional queries, we will be pleased to help. Please email us directly or at [email protected].
Learn more about the teams and people supporting The Lancet.
Our International Advisory Board consists of key opinion leaders and researchers from around the world who lend their expertise to the journal. The Board offer the journal subject, academic, and geographical advice on an ad hoc basis when requested by the editorial team. Board members have no formal involvement in content selection or in any part of the peer review process, nor do they have editorial oversight of any section of the journal. Board members are occasionally invited to peer review individual submissions at the request of the editorial team. Submissions authored by members of the Board are handled solely by The Lancet's editors according to our standard peer review processes; these submissions are never discussed by the Board or members thereof.
We are very grateful for their support and advice on editorial matters.
If you need to question an editorial decision, your first step should be to contact the editorial team. If you are not satisfied with our response, your next point of contact is our Ombudsperson whose task is to record and, when required, investigate allegations of editorial maladministration. Our files will be freely open to their inspection, and confidentiality will be respected in all cases. Our Ombudsperson’s remit does not extend to areas normally covered in our correspondence columns—namely, issues of editorial content and editorial policy.