Lancet Group Research Articles

The Lancet Group's commitments to gender equity and diversity

The Lancet Group's commitments to gender equity and diversity

Join us at The Lancet Clinic

On Oct 5, 2015, we launch the first 45 disease-specific pages of a major new online initiative involving all Lancet journals that will bring together an overview Seminar and relevant Reviews, Clinical Series, Commissions, research, Case Reports, and Clinical Pictures. Over the next 18 months or so when The Lancet Clinic is complete, there will be online pages for 135 diseases, which we have identified by a combination of global burden of disease data and clinical practice needs. We hope that The Lancet Clinic will help practising doctors make better informed decisions that ultimately lead to better lives of people worldwide, and help others who want to educate or update themselves keep abreast of the evolving evidence base. Importantly, these pages will be updated at regular intervals. The authors of newly commissioned Seminars have agreed to provide regular summaries of important new evidence for 4 years. Individual clinical editors will pull together newly published material from across the Lancet journals and post links to these on the page regularly. In addition, we are continuing our regular editorial policies of commissioning more specialised Clinical Reviews and Series across The Lancet Group to provide a more focused and in-depth assessment for key diseases. And beyond providing knowledge and information, we want to encourage academic and practising clinicians to use this knowledge for advocacy and change. In 2014, The Lancet published the first Clinical Commission on liver disease in the UK and in February, 2015, we launched our first Clinical Campaign based on this Commission. A Cancer Campaign as a joint effort between The Lancet and The Lancet Oncology followed in April. Clinical Campaigns aim to effect change based on data, knowledge, and expert interpretation in partnership with others. Further Clinical Commissions on asthma, hypertension, dementia, tuberculosis, traumatic brain injury, psychotherapy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and others are underway across all Lancet journals. With these Clinical Commissions and Campaigns, we hope to extend our goal to publish the best science for better lives to being an active partner in using this science for actual change. Commissions and Campaigns will be part of the disease pages to encourage engagement and actions. The Lancet Clinic invites you to be part of this endeavour.

Join us at The Lancet Clinic

On Oct 5, 2015, we launch the first 45 disease-specific pages of a major new online initiative involving all Lancet journals that will bring together an overview Seminar and relevant Reviews, Clinical Series, Commissions, research, Case Reports, and Clinical Pictures. Over the next 18 months or so when The Lancet Clinic is complete, there will be online pages for 135 diseases, which we have identified by a combination of global burden of disease data and clinical practice needs. We hope that The Lancet Clinic will help practising doctors make better informed decisions that ultimately lead to better lives of people worldwide, and help others who want to educate or update themselves keep abreast of the evolving evidence base. Importantly, these pages will be updated at regular intervals. The authors of newly commissioned Seminars have agreed to provide regular summaries of important new evidence for 4 years. Individual clinical editors will pull together newly published material from across the Lancet journals and post links to these on the page regularly. In addition, we are continuing our regular editorial policies of commissioning more specialised Clinical Reviews and Series across The Lancet Group to provide a more focused and in-depth assessment for key diseases. And beyond providing knowledge and information, we want to encourage academic and practising clinicians to use this knowledge for advocacy and change. In 2014, The Lancet published the first Clinical Commission on liver disease in the UK and in February, 2015, we launched our first Clinical Campaign based on this Commission. A Cancer Campaign as a joint effort between The Lancet and The Lancet Oncology followed in April. Clinical Campaigns aim to effect change based on data, knowledge, and expert interpretation in partnership with others. Further Clinical Commissions on asthma, hypertension, dementia, tuberculosis, traumatic brain injury, psychotherapy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and others are underway across all Lancet journals. With these Clinical Commissions and Campaigns, we hope to extend our goal to publish the best science for better lives to being an active partner in using this science for actual change. Commissions and Campaigns will be part of the disease pages to encourage engagement and actions. The Lancet Clinic invites you to be part of this endeavour.

Respiratory medicine and critical care: a call for papers

As health care becomes ever more complex and the approach to treatment more personalised, research is a vital component in our mission to help improve the lives of patients living with respiratory diseases. From understanding the genetic links to disease to cutting-edge treatments, high-quality research helps us to navigate the intricate path to optimum care for patients. The Lancet and The Lancet Respiratory Medicine are therefore planning special issues to coincide with the 2016 American Thoracic Society (ATS) Conference in San Francisco, CA, USA, on May 13–18, and we are seeking high-quality submissions in any specialty of clinical research related to respiratory medicine and critical care with findings that will have an effect on the management of patients. We particularly welcome clinical trials. The Lancet group is dedicated to the advancement of respiratory and critical care medicine, and both journals offer a fast-track publication process in which papers can be published online in as little as 20 days from submission. We can also highlight papers in podcasts on The Lancet website. Both journals share a dedicated team of assistant editors who subedit papers after acceptance and thoroughly check data, figures, and tables. All Lancet journals also benefit from having in-house illustrators and production editors who can redraw figures and help to ensure the data are presented clearly. Please submit your paper through our online system mentioning this call for papers in your covering letter. If you are presenting your research at the ATS meeting, we can time publication to your presentation. The deadline for submissions is Jan 31, 2016. We look forward to reading your research and helping to shape the patient journey of tomorrow. To submit your paper to The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, go to http://ees.elsevier.com/thelancetrmTo submit your paper to The Lancet, go to http://ees.elsevier.com/thelancet To submit your paper to The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, go to http://ees.elsevier.com/thelancetrm To submit your paper to The Lancet, go to http://ees.elsevier.com/thelancet

Breaking new ground to promote change

In this issue of The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, we publish a Commission entitled “Respiratory risks of household air pollution in low and middle income countries”. With around 3 billion people exposed to the threat of such pollution every day and its consequent effects on respiratory symptoms and disease, this was an obvious topic to cover as our first Commission. We were delighted to work with the authors of this project, and would like to especially acknowledge the efforts of the two senior authors, Prof Stephen B Gordon and Prof William J Martin II, who have ensured that the paper came to fruition. The problem of household air pollution is most prevalent in low-income and middle-income countries, hence the focus of the report, but high-income countries do not escape unscathed, as emphasised by a linked comment from Dr Neil Schluger. Lancet group Commissions have at their core the philosophy of promoting change, and we hope that the Commission, and its associated content, will provide the impetus to drive change and tackle what is a preventable, but devastating, burden on the health of the world's population, not least in terms of the morbidity and mortality associated with acute and chronic respiratory diseases.

Critical care medicine: a call for papers

Advances in medical sciences, technology, and the introduction of multidisciplinary patient care have placed critical care at the centre of health-care systems. Critical care is also a core element of The Lancet Respiratory Medicine’s scope. To this end, we will be publishing a special themed issue in critical care medicine at the end of 2014 to coincide with the 44th Critical Care Congress in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. We are therefore calling for submissions of high quality research articles in any area of critical care; we particularly welcome clinical trials. The Lancet group is dedicated to advancing respiratory and critical care medicine. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, similary to The Lancet, thus has a rigorous fast-track process for original research, in which papers can be published online within 8 weeks from the date of submission. This process shows our belief that your research should be disseminated to the community in a timely manner. Additionally, we have no author fees for submission or plate charges thereby removing these potential barriers to publication. The Lancet group is a well known global brand with an innovative website that can highlight papers alongside author podcasts to make sure your papers reach a wide audience. All journals share a dedicated team of assistant editors who subedit papers after acceptance and thoroughly check data, fi gures, and tables. The journals also benefi t from having a team of in-house illustrators and production editors who can redraw fi gures and help to ensure that data are presented clearly. Please submit your paper through our e-submission system with reference to this call for papers in your covering letter. The deadline for submissions to be received is Sept 30, 2014. We look forward to reading your cutting edge research that could advance the fi eld of critical care medicine.

Respiratory medicine and critical care: a call for papers

At the 2013 European Respiratory Society (ERS) Annual Congress, the European Lung White Book was launched which showed that in the WHO-defined European region one in ten deaths are caused by either chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, tuberculosis, or a lower respiratory tract infection such as pneumonia. The landscape was much the same in the first version of the white book published 10 years ago, and, even more alarmingly, WHO reports that one in six deaths worldwide result from these four lung diseases. Many of you are involved in exciting research projects to tackle these diseases and advance respiratory health, and we want to hear about them. The Lancet and The Lancet Respiratory Medicine are planning special issues to coincide with the 2014 ERS Annual Congress in Munich, Germany, on Sept 6–10, and we are seeking high-quality submissions in any specialty of clinical research related to respiratory medicine and critical care, particularly clinical trials.The Lancet group is dedicated to advancing respiratory and critical care medicine, as proven by recent practice-changing publications and the launch of The Lancet Respiratory Medicine in 2013. This specialty journal, like The Lancet, has a fast-track process for original research, in which papers can be published online 4–8 weeks from submission. The Lancet group is well known as a global brand with an innovative website that can highlight papers alongside author podcasts and make sure your papers reach a wide audience. All journals share a dedicated team of assistant editors who subedit papers after acceptance and thoroughly check data, figures, and tables. The journals also benefit from having a team of inhouse illustrators and production editors who can redraw figures and help to ensure that the data are presented clearly.Please submit your paper through our e-submission system mentioning this call for papers in your covering letter. The deadline for submissions is June 6, 2014. If you are presenting your research at the ERS Annual Congress, we can time online publication to coincide with your presentation. We look forward to reading the research that will shape respiratory medicine in the coming decade, and alter the story told by the next white book. At the 2013 European Respiratory Society (ERS) Annual Congress, the European Lung White Book was launched which showed that in the WHO-defined European region one in ten deaths are caused by either chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, tuberculosis, or a lower respiratory tract infection such as pneumonia. The landscape was much the same in the first version of the white book published 10 years ago, and, even more alarmingly, WHO reports that one in six deaths worldwide result from these four lung diseases. Many of you are involved in exciting research projects to tackle these diseases and advance respiratory health, and we want to hear about them. The Lancet and The Lancet Respiratory Medicine are planning special issues to coincide with the 2014 ERS Annual Congress in Munich, Germany, on Sept 6–10, and we are seeking high-quality submissions in any specialty of clinical research related to respiratory medicine and critical care, particularly clinical trials. The Lancet group is dedicated to advancing respiratory and critical care medicine, as proven by recent practice-changing publications and the launch of The Lancet Respiratory Medicine in 2013. This specialty journal, like The Lancet, has a fast-track process for original research, in which papers can be published online 4–8 weeks from submission. The Lancet group is well known as a global brand with an innovative website that can highlight papers alongside author podcasts and make sure your papers reach a wide audience. All journals share a dedicated team of assistant editors who subedit papers after acceptance and thoroughly check data, figures, and tables. The journals also benefit from having a team of inhouse illustrators and production editors who can redraw figures and help to ensure that the data are presented clearly. Please submit your paper through our e-submission system mentioning this call for papers in your covering letter. The deadline for submissions is June 6, 2014. If you are presenting your research at the ERS Annual Congress, we can time online publication to coincide with your presentation. We look forward to reading the research that will shape respiratory medicine in the coming decade, and alter the story told by the next white book.

High reprint orders in medical journals and pharmaceutical industry funding: case-control study

The paper “High reprint orders in medical journals and pharmaceutical industry funding: case-control study” by Adam E Handel and colleagues ( BMJ 2012;344:e4212). Abstract Objectives —To assess the extent to which funding and study design are associated with high reprint orders. Design —Case-control study. Setting —Top articles by size of reprint orders in seven journals, 2002-9. Participants — Lancet , Lancet Neurology , Lancet Oncology (Lancet Group), BMJ , Gut , Heart , and Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry (BMJ Group) matched to contemporaneous articles not in the list of high reprint orders. Main outcome measures —Funding and design of randomised controlled trials or other study designs. Results —Median reprint orders for the seven journals ranged from 3000 to 126 350. Papers with high reprint orders were more likely to be funded by the drug industry than were control papers (industry funding versus other or none: odds ratio 8.64, 95% confidence interval 5.09 to 14.68, and mixed funding versus other or none: 3.72, 2.43 to 5.70). Conclusions —Funding by the drug industry is associated with high numbers of reprint orders. The authors of this study set out to discover whether articles published in medical journals that had many reprints of the article purchased were more likely to be funded by the drug industry. (“Reprints” refers to purchased permission to reproduce journal articles in bulk, allowing the article to be distributed to a new audience. The money from reprint purchases is an important source of income for some journals). A second question in this study was whether those articles with high reprint orders were more likely to have a particular design. Articles published in medical journals, particularly the best known ones, can have considerable impact. A study showing a drug to be highly effective might, for instance, lead to a surge in …

High reprint orders in medical journals and pharmaceutical industry funding: case-control study

Objectives To assess the extent to which funding and study design are associated with high reprint orders.Design Case-control study.Setting Top articles by size of reprint orders in seven journals, 2002-09.Participants...