Academic Medicine

About Academic Medicine

Overview

Academic Medicine is the official, peer-reviewed journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), the nonprofit organization founded in 1876 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., that represents accredited U.S. medical schools, teaching hospitals, and the academic medicine community. The journal serves as an international forum for the exchange of ideas, information, and strategies aimed at addressing the major challenges facing the academic medicine community as it carries out its missions in the public interest.

Published in English, the journal appears in 12 issues per year and is currently published online only. Since 2026 it has been published by Oxford University Press — a department of the University of Oxford and a not-for-profit publisher — on behalf of the AAMC. From January 2004 through the end of 2025, the journal was published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (Wolters Kluwer) for the AAMC, and its content remains available on the LWW platform at journals.lww.com/academicmedicine.

In 2026 the journal celebrated its centennial — one hundred years of continuous publication since 1926. The AAMC has described Academic Medicine as the oldest English-language peer-reviewed journal devoted to issues related to the training of physicians.

History

Academic Medicine was established in 1926 as the Bulletin of the Association of American Medical Colleges, first published in July under founding editor-in-chief Fred C. Zapffe, who led the journal for 24 years. Zapffe described it at the time as "the only publication of its kind in the world — a journal devoted to medical education and pedagogy."

The journal has changed titles four times across its century of publication:

• 1926 — Bulletin of the Association of American Medical Colleges (first published in July)
• 1929 — renamed the Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges
• 1951 — renamed Medical Education at the editorial board's recommendation, then becoming the Journal of Medical Education in May of the same year
• 1989 — renamed Academic Medicine, with its scope deliberately broadened to cover a wider range of topics appealing to the entire academic medicine community

Key milestones in the journal's timeline, drawn from the journal's official history, include:

• 1930 — the journal moved from a quarterly schedule to six issues per year
• 1939–1945 — publication continued uninterrupted throughout World War II
• 1951 — Dean F. Smiley became editor-in-chief, serving through 1957
• 1953 — the journal began publishing monthly
• 1958 — John Z. Bowers became editor-in-chief, serving through 1962
• 1963 — John A. D. Cooper became editor-in-chief, serving through 1971
• 1972 — Merrill McCord became editor-in-chief, serving into 1988
• 1988 — Addeane S. Caelleigh became editor-in-chief, serving through 2001
• 1991 — the "Medicine and the Arts" feature debuted
• 2000 — the journal was published online for the first time, with Stanford University Libraries' HighWire Press
• 2002 — Michael E. Whitcomb became editor-in-chief, serving through 2007; the "Teaching and Learning Moments" feature debuted
• 2004 — Lippincott Williams & Wilkins became the journal's publisher (effective January 2004), succeeding HighWire-era distribution
• 2007 — the journal's Journal Oversight Committee was created
• 2008 — Steven L. Kanter became editor-in-chief, serving through 2012; covers began featuring original artwork submitted by the academic medicine community, and the "AM Last Page" feature debuted
• 2009 — the first edition of the AM Express newsletter was posted
• 2013 — David P. Sklar became editor-in-chief, serving through 2019; Innovation Reports debuted; the journal joined Twitter (now X) and launched its AM Rounds blog
• 2015 — the Academic Medicine Podcast debuted
• 2016 — the journal issued its first call for Trainee Letters to the Editor
• 2019 — the journal joined LinkedIn
• 2020 — Laura Weiss Roberts became editor-in-chief, the tenth editor in the journal's history
• 2021 — cover art began to be selected from an open call for submissions reviewed by a panel of experts
• 2025 — the journal joined BlueSky
• 2026 — Academic Medicine began publishing online only with Oxford University Press, and marked its centennial year

Past editors-in-chief

Across its hundred-year history, the journal has had ten editors-in-chief:

• Fred C. Zapffe, 1926–1950
• Dean F. Smiley, 1951–1957
• John Z. Bowers, 1958–1962
• John A. D. Cooper, 1963–1971
• Merrill McCord, 1972–1988
• Addeane S. Caelleigh, 1989–2001
• Michael E. Whitcomb, 2002–2007
• Steven L. Kanter, 2008–2012
• David P. Sklar, 2013–2019
• Laura Weiss Roberts, 2020–present

Aims and scope

The journal describes itself as an official, peer-reviewed journal of the AAMC serving as an international forum for the exchange of ideas, information, and strategies to address the major challenges facing the academic medicine community as it strives to carry out its missions in the public interest. Its areas of focus include research, education, clinical care, community collaboration, and leadership.

Historically, the journal's stated areas of focus have been: education and training issues; health and science policy; institutional policy, management, and values; research practice; and clinical practice in academic settings.

Current author guidelines define five editorial priority areas. To be considered, submissions must focus on key aspects of a consequential issue facing academic medicine today and should provide evidence, observations, and scholarly insights that promote greater understanding of the issue and inform constructive approaches to addressing it. The priority areas are:

1. Research and scientific training
2. Medical and health professions education
3. Health care and systems
4. Community engagement and collaboration
5. Leadership and professionalism in the field of academic medicine

Scholarly works that bring new knowledge forward to change current thinking and strengthen practices and policies — so that academic medicine may better perform its missions and fulfill the public's trust — are especially welcome.

Article types

All articles are peer reviewed unless otherwise indicated. The journal publishes several distinct article types, each with its own requirements:

Most article types require an abstract of up to 300 words, 3–5 keywords (MeSH terms strongly preferred), teaser text of up to 60 words, and a set of structured disclosures covering funding, conflicts of interest, ethical approval, disclaimers, previous presentations, and data availability. Figures and tables are generally limited to five total for Articles and Research Reports, and three total for Innovation Reports, with supplementary material permitted beyond that.

Editorial leadership

The current editor-in-chief is Laura Weiss Roberts, MD, MA, of Stanford University's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, who took up the editorship in 2020 and is the tenth editor in the journal's hundred-year history. Editorial correspondence can be sent to editorialoffice@academicmedicine.org.

The masthead includes:

• Director of Journals — Mary Beth DeVilbiss
• Managing Editor — Jennifer Campi
• Deputy Editors — Bridget C. O'Brien, PhD (University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine) and Colin P. West, MD, PhD (Mayo Clinic)
• Associate Editors — Irene Alexandraki (University of Oklahoma), Jonathan M. Amiel (NewYork-Presbyterian), Wendy C. Coates (UCLA), John Coverdale (Baylor College of Medicine), Krisztina Fischer (Harvard Medical School), Mary Ellen J. Goldhamer (Harvard Medical School / Massachusetts General Hospital), Michael Gottlieb (Rush University Medical Center), Monica L. Lypson (Columbia University), Christopher R. Pierson (Nationwide Children's Hospital / Ohio State University), and Michael S. Ryan (University of Virginia)
• Consulting Editors — Teresa M. Chan (Toronto Metropolitan University) and Yoon Soo Park (University of Illinois)
• Assistant Editors — Michael Daly, John L. Havlik, Arno K. Kumagai, Gustavo A. Patino, and Paula Y. Thompson

The journal also has a broad Editorial Board of scholars across North America and internationally, and a Journal Oversight Committee (created in 2007), currently chaired by Consuelo H. Wilkins, MD, MSCI (Vanderbilt University Medical Center / Meharry Medical College). The committee provides governance oversight on behalf of the AAMC.

Peer review process

The journal operates single-anonymized peer review: the identities of the authors are known to the editors and reviewers, but reviewers' identities are known only to the editors and are hidden from the authors. The journal states that it uses the ANSI/NISO Standard Terminology for Peer Review.

• Every submission first passes an initial assessment by a handling editor; if it clears that stage, the handling editor oversees peer review and recommends a final decision, while the editor-in-chief makes the final decision.
• During the peer review phase, a manuscript is typically sent to two reviewers.
• Reviewers communicate directly with the editors, not with the authors or with other reviewers.
• Editors and reviewers must not handle manuscripts if they have a conflict of interest with an author or the content; every effort is made to avoid conflicts in assigning editors and reviewers.
• Authors may suggest potential reviewers at submission and may request that specific individuals not be used as reviewers, though neither request is guaranteed.
• Expert statistical review may be requested for submissions containing statistical analysis.
• Manuscripts may be screened with iThenticate to detect plagiarism and redundant publication, and with other integrity services for issues such as inappropriate image alteration and papermill activity.
• Reviewers may have their verified reviews listed on their ORCID profile, a recognition program for peer review work.
• Appeals of editorial decisions are permitted: authors may contact the editorial office with detailed reasons, and every appeal receives a response.
• Non-editorial complaints are carried forward following COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) guidelines.

Artificial intelligence in peer review

Academic Medicine maintains an explicit policy on generative AI in peer review. Reviewers must not upload author materials (manuscripts, abstracts, figures, tables, appendices) — which remain the authors' confidential intellectual property — into an AI system, and using generative AI tools to analyze materials or generate the substance of a review is prohibited. Reviewers may use AI tools only to improve the grammar or readability of their own reviewer comments, uploading only their own original text with no identifiable author information. Reviewers must disclose whether they used AI tools and attest that no author materials were uploaded and that the substance of the review was not AI-generated. Only a human reviewer can be accountable for a submitted review.

Indexing and abstracting

The journal is indexed in the major biomedical and multidisciplinary citation databases, including:

• MEDLINE / Index Medicus / PubMed (NLM title abbreviation: Acad Med) — currently indexed for MEDLINE
• Scopus
• Web of Science — Science Citation Index

The journal's contents are also disseminated through the AAMC's and OUP's digital channels, the AM Rounds blog, the Academic Medicine Podcast, and social media accounts (X, LinkedIn, BlueSky).

Impact metrics

The following metrics are reported with their sources and years, since impact figures change with each edition of the ranking databases:

• 2025 Journal Impact Factor: 4.5; 2025 5-Year Impact Factor: 5.8; 2025 CiteScore: 6.8 — reported on the journal's official "About" page. The same page lists the journal ranked 11 of 89 in the "Education, Scientific Disciplines" category by Impact Factor and 34 of 194 in "Health Care Sciences & Services" (2025).
• 2023 Journal Impact Factor: 5.3 — reported in Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports.
• 2019 Journal Impact Factor: 5.354; the journal received 17,605 citations in 2019 and was described in a 2021 editorial as ranked the preeminent journal in the "Education, Scientific Disciplines" category and third in "Health Care Sciences & Services," and as the most-cited health professions education journal in 2019 — per the journal's own "Editorial Decision Making for Academic Medicine, 2021" (published in the journal).
• The same 2021 editorial reported that in 2020, fewer than 10% of submissions overall were accepted for publication, reflecting a consistently high rejection rate driven by limited publication space.

A 2015 study reported the journal as one of the top five medical education journals receiving attention in social media sources such as Twitter and Facebook.

Open access and subscription policy

Academic Medicine is a hybrid journal:

• Authors choose between a non-open access (standard) license and an open access (Creative Commons) license after acceptance, via the publisher's licensing and payment portal (SciPris). Publishing under the open access license makes the paper freely accessible to all readers immediately upon online publication, but a charge applies to open access publication.
• OUP has a growing number of Read and Publish agreements with institutions and consortia that fund open access publishing; corresponding authors from participating institutions may be able to publish open access with the institution covering the charge. (The corresponding author designated in the submission system must hold the qualifying institution as their primary affiliation.)
• Some funders require open access publication as a condition of funding; authors are advised to confirm funder requirements before selecting a license.

The journal's exact article processing charge (APC) amount is set through the publisher's licensing portal and is not published in the author guidelines; prospective authors should consult the OUP licensing and payment pages for current figures.

Publication workflow: once a paper is accepted and the publishing agreement is signed, the Accepted Manuscript version is published within one week on the Advance articles page; it is later replaced by the Version of Record, which moves into a numbered issue. The journal publishes 12 issues per year online.

Publication ethics

The journal's ethics framework, set out in its author guidelines, includes:

• Authorship: limited to those who made a significant contribution to the design and execution of the work; the journal follows the ICMJE definitions of authors and contributors. Ghost authorship and guest/gift authorship are not permitted, and the journal follows COPE guidance on ghost, guest, or gift authorship. Dual lead and/or dual senior authorship is allowed, but each submission must designate a single corresponding author. Post-submission authorship changes require substantive reasons and the agreement of the editor and all co-authors.
• AI and authorship: AI tools do not qualify as authors. Use of AI (e.g., to generate content or images, write code, process data, or translate) must be disclosed at submission and in the manuscript's Acknowledgments/disclosures; in Research Reports or Reviews the description appears in the Method section. AI-generated images should be avoided; authors remain fully responsible for the entirety of their manuscripts.
• Conflicts of interest: all authors must disclose potential conflicts at submission; a "Conflicts of interest" section appears at the end of every manuscript (stating "none declared" where applicable). Editors, reviewers, and board members with conflicts must recuse themselves from handling the manuscript.
• Research ethics: explicit statements of institutional review board (IRB) approval are required for studies directly involving human subjects or data about them; ethical considerations must accord with the Declaration of Helsinki.
• Transparency: structured disclosures of funding, ethical approval, disclaimers, previous presentations, and data availability are required; the journal uses the CRediT contributor roles taxonomy, and authors are encouraged to supply ORCID iDs.

Submission guidance

Manuscripts are submitted through the journal's online submission system after preparation according to the "Preparing your manuscript" guidance. Key practical points from the official author guidelines:

• Contact: editorialoffice@academicmedicine.org for questions about submission.
• Word limits: all word counts include text only — title page, abstract, references, figures, and tables are excluded. Respect the limits for each article type (Research Report 1,500–4,000; Article 1,500–3,000; Innovation Report strict 2,000).
• Abstracts: unstructured abstracts up to 300 words for most types; structured abstracts (Purpose, Method, Results, Conclusions) for Research Reports, which must include the year of study; Innovation Reports use Problem, Approach, Outcomes, Next Steps headers.
• Keywords: 3–5, with MeSH terms strongly preferred.
• Required disclosures: funding, conflicts of interest, ethical approval, disclaimers, previous presentations, data availability; optional acknowledgments and author contributions (CRediT).
• Survey instruments and interview guides: if the manuscript reports survey results, the full survey instrument must be provided for review; interview or focus-group studies must include the interview guide.
• Originality: the manuscript must not be under consideration elsewhere; prior publication of substantial portions must be appropriately acknowledged.
• Proofs and publication: accepted papers appear first as Accepted Manuscripts within about a week, then as the Version of Record; corrections to the Version of Record require a correction notice.

Significance in medical education

Across its century of publication, Academic Medicine has served as the principal scholarly venue for the academic medicine community in the United States and internationally. Its scope expansion in 1989 — from a journal of medical education mechanics to one covering policy, leadership, health systems, research practice, and clinical practice in academic settings — mirrored the transformation of academic medical centers themselves.

The journal has consistently ranked among the most influential titles in its field: it has been described as the preeminent journal in the "Education, Scientific Disciplines" category and as the most-cited health professions education journal, and a 2015 study placed it among the top five medical education journals attracting social media attention. Its Research Reports, systematic reviews, and landmark articles — such as widely cited work on clinical skills assessment and problem-based learning — are foundational references in health professions education research.

Alongside the journal, the AM Rounds blog, the Academic Medicine Podcast, the AM Express newsletter, and the "Medicine and the Arts" feature extend its role as the AAMC community's shared intellectual forum. The journal's centennial in 2026 was marked by a retrospective editorial reflecting on how its focus expanded from the internal mechanics of medical education to the external forces — policy, health systems, social accountability — shaping medical education, research, and practice, describing the journal's role as the profession's conscience in identifying the core values that must be defended.