The Lancet

About The Lancet

The Lancet: Journal Overview

The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal published by Elsevier (as part of The Lancet Group), with editorial offices in London, New York City, and Beijing. It is one of the world's oldest, best known, and most respected general medical journals, and it describes itself as "the world-leading general medical journal, ranked no 1 globally for both Journal Impact Factor and CiteScore" (source: thelancet.com/lancet/about, accessed October 2026). Founded in 1823, The Lancet has published for more than two centuries, passing 10,000 published issues as part of its 200th anniversary in 2023.

The journal's citation metrics are extraordinary. According to The Lancet's official journal impact metrics page, its Journal Impact Factor for 2024 was 109.0 (2024 Journal Citation Reports, Clarivate, published 2025), with a 5-year Impact Factor of 115.4 — figures that make it one of the most-cited general medical journals in existence (source: thelancet.com/journal-impact-metrics, accessed October 2026).

The Lancet's scope is international in focus and extends to all aspects of human health. The journal publishes original research articles — including randomised controlled trials and meta-analyses — alongside review articles, editorials, commentaries, book reviews, correspondence, news features, and case reports. Drawing on an international network of advisers and contributors, it aims to meet the needs of physicians by adding to their clinical knowledge and alerting them to current issues affecting the practice of medicine worldwide (source: thelancet.com/lancet/about).

History of The Lancet

The first issue of The Lancet was published on Sunday, October 5, 1823, founded by Thomas Wakley, an English surgeon who was only 28 years old at the time. Wakley was the youngest of eight sons of a Devonshire farmer and had qualified as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1817. The centenary account of the journal records that the first number appeared on October 5, 1823, and that the events of its first twenty years all centre around the actions of its founder (sources: thelancet.com/lancet-200/timeline-infographic; ScienceDirect, "The Centenary of The Lancet", 1923).

Wakley named the journal after the surgical instrument called a lancet (scalpel) — a pointed instrument used to make incisions. The name also evoked the term "lancet arch", a window with a sharp pointed arch, suggesting the "light of wisdom" or the idea of letting in light. The name was deliberately combative: the lancet would cut through the corruption, nepotism, and incompetence that Wakley believed infected the medical establishment of his day (source: Wikipedia, "The Lancet", CC BY-SA; en.wikisource.org, 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica entry on Thomas Wakley).

On its founding, the journal took a radical slant. Wakley's stated aim was to inform and teach people about medicine, and he began reprinting medical lectures from the United Hospitals in the journal — lectures that students normally paid £15 to attend. Republished without permission, they provoked controversy, and The Lancet was sued repeatedly for copyright infringement and defamation. Every lawsuit was won by the journal, which only increased its reputation among readers. Within two years of its foundation, more than 4,000 people subscribed at a cost of sixpence per issue; seven years after founding, subscriptions had grown to 8,000+, and by 1840 the journal had come to dominate medical news in Britain (sources: Wikipedia, "The Lancet"; 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Wakley, Thomas").

Wakley's campaign extended well beyond publishing. He attacked the constitution of the Royal College of Surgeons, exposed jobbery and malpractice, and used the journal as an engine of social and medical reform. In 1827 a parliamentary petition driven by his campaigning secured an inquiry into the public money granted to the College. Wakley later entered Parliament himself, sitting as the radical MP for Finsbury from 1835 to 1852, and served as coroner for West Middlesex from 1839 until his death on May 16, 1862 (source: 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Wakley, Thomas").

The journal remained under Wakley family ownership for decades. In the modern era, The Lancet has been owned by Elsevier since 1991, and it operates as the flagship of The Lancet Group of journals (sources: Wikipedia, "The Lancet"; thelancet.com). In 2023 the journal marked its 200th anniversary, tracing its path from the very first 1823 issue to the bicentennial through a public timeline of landmark papers and discoveries (source: thelancet.com/lancet-200/timeline-infographic).

Leadership and Editorial Team

The Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet is Dr. Richard Horton, who has held the position since 1995. Horton, born December 29, 1961, is a British physician and journalist who studied medicine at the University of Birmingham, earning his BSc in physiology in 1983 and qualifying in medicine in 1986. After completing general medical training in Birmingham and working in the liver unit at London's Royal Free Hospital, he joined The Lancet as an assistant editor in 1990, moved to New York as North American Editor in 1993, and returned to the UK in 1995 to become Editor-in-Chief (sources: Wikipedia, "Richard Horton (editor)"; allamericanspeakers.com speaker biography).

Horton is an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University College London, and the University of Oslo. He was the first President of the World Association of Medical Editors and is a Past-President of the US Council of Science Editors. His honours include the Edinburgh Medal (2007), the Friendship Award of China (2015), the Andrija Štampar medal (2016), the Edwin Chadwick Medal (2017), the Roux Prize (2019), and the Physicians for Human Rights award (2021). He has authored books on medicine and global health, including Second Opinion: Doctors, Diseases and Decisions in Modern Medicine (2003), and has served in advisory roles with the World Health Organization and the United Nations (sources: Wikipedia, "Richard Horton (editor)"; allamericanspeakers.com).

Under his leadership, The Lancet has expanded from a single weekly journal into a global family of specialty titles, and has become a prominent voice in global health policy — commissioning major reports on climate and health, pollution, the Global Burden of Disease, and pandemic response. The journal's editorial staff work across its London, New York, and Beijing offices, and the journal draws on an international network of advisers and contributors (sources: thelancet.com/lancet/about; Wikipedia, "The Lancet").

Aims & Scope

According to its official journal description, The Lancet is "an international general medical journal that will consider any original contribution that advances or illuminates medical science or practice, or that educates or entertains the journal's readers." The editors emphasise that the target is the general reader — across all medical specialties and all countries — and encourage authors to test their drafts on colleagues in other specialties: if those colleagues cannot understand the work, neither, very probably, will the journal's staff or readers (source: thelancet.com/pb-assets/Lancet/authors/tl-info-for-authors.pdf, Information for Authors, August 2026 edition).

In practice, the journal invites submissions that advance medical science or practice. Its published content spans Articles (including randomised controlled trials and meta-analyses), Review, Seminar, Health Policy, Therapeutics, Comment, Correspondence, and World Report, alongside Series and Commissions that aim to shape and drive positive change in clinical practice and in public and global health policy (source: thelancet.com/lancet/about).

The Lancet also positions itself as an agent of change rather than a passive repository of research. Since Wakley's founding, the journal has striven to make science widely available so that medicine can serve and transform society and positively impact people's lives — a mission its editors cite as central to the journal's identity more than 200 years on (source: thelancet.com/lancet/about).

Editorial Process and Peer Review

The Lancet applies rigorous standards of external and statistical peer review, with manuscripts edited by experienced technical copy editors to a high standard. The journal is a signatory 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), and of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) code of conduct for editors (source: thelancet.com/pb-assets/Lancet/authors/tl-info-for-authors.pdf, August 2026).

How manuscripts are handled:

1. Submission. Manuscript submission to all Lancet journals is free. Manuscripts (including correspondence) are submitted online via Editorial Manager at www.editorialmanager.com/thelancet. A first submission to The Lancet should include a covering letter, the manuscript with tables and panels, figures, an author statement form, and declaration of interests and funding statements. Authors of randomised controlled trials must include protocols and CONSORT details, and all primary research Articles require a Research in context panel (source: tl-info-for-authors.pdf, August 2026).
2. In-house assessment and triage. Editors judge which research papers are eligible for consideration. The journal discourages pre-submission enquiries: in almost all cases, authors who have a finished manuscript should simply submit it rather than contacting the journal to ask whether it is likely to be accepted (source: tl-info-for-authors.pdf, August 2026).
3. External and statistical peer review. Research papers judged eligible for consideration are peer-reviewed — the journal's own about page states that eligible research papers are peer-reviewed within 72 hours and, if accepted, published within 4 weeks of receipt. For randomised controlled trials or research papers judged to warrant fast dissemination, The Lancet aims to publish the peer-reviewed manuscript within 4 weeks of receipt through its fast-track route, coordinated via fasttrackeditor@lancet.com (sources: thelancet.com/lancet/about; tl-info-for-authors.pdf, August 2026).
4. Revision and decision. Submissions still under consideration after in-house assessment and peer review may be returned to authors for revision — an invitation to present the best possible paper for further scrutiny, not an acceptance. Authors are asked to return two copies of the revised manuscript (a clean version and one with changes tracked) plus detailed, point-by-point responses to reviewers' comments (source: tl-info-for-authors.pdf excerpts, thelancet.com).

Research integrity requirements. The journal requires that more than one author directly accessed and verified the underlying data reported in the manuscript. For papers arising from academic–commercial partnerships, at least one author who accessed and verified the data must be from the academic team. For research set in low- or middle-income countries, authors are asked to complete an Equitable Partnership Declaration (EPD) describing how their work engaged with researchers, communities, and environments at the study locations. The journal also requires sex- and gender-based analysis integration consistent with the SAGER guidelines, and encourages race/ethnicity-disaggregated reporting where appropriate (source: tl-info-for-authors.pdf, August 2026).

Impact and Metrics

The following metrics are published on The Lancet's official journal impact metrics page (thelancet.com/journal-impact-metrics, accessed October 2026). Years refer to the metric year as displayed by the journal.

Ranking claim: The journal's own about page describes The Lancet as "the world-leading general medical journal, ranked no 1 globally for both Journal Impact Factor and CiteScore" (source: thelancet.com/lancet/about). Readers should treat this as the journal's own promotional statement and verify current rankings in the latest Journal Citation Reports and Scopus data, as rankings shift annually.

Historical context: The Lancet's Impact Factor has varied considerably over time. It stood at around 33.6 in 2010 (ranked second among general medical journals behind the New England Journal of Medicine), and — like many general medical journals — it surged to a record above 200 in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic citation peak before normalising (sources: medicalxpress.com journal profile, citing Wikipedia CC BY-SA; secondary reporting). Metrics change annually; always check the journal's official metrics page for current figures.

Submission Guidelines

The Lancet's official Information for Authors (August 2026 edition) provides detailed instructions. Key points from the official guidance (source: thelancet.com/pb-assets/Lancet/authors/tl-info-for-authors.pdf):

• Submission portal: All manuscripts — including Correspondence letters — are submitted online via Editorial Manager at www.editorialmanager.com/thelancet. Submission is free. Technical support is available at editorial@lancet.com.
• Covering letter: Use it to explain why the paper should be published in The Lancet — a leading international general medical journal — rather than elsewhere, such as a specialty journal. Indicate what could shorten the paper (full version reviewed, shorter version published) and what could go online-only.
• First-submission package: Covering letter; manuscript including tables and panels; figures (original, editable artwork encouraged — digital photographs at least 300 dpi and 107 mm wide); signed author statement form; declaration of interests and funding statements; protocols and CONSORT details for randomised trials; a Research in context panel for primary research Articles; and copies of any in-press related papers with acceptance letters.
• Article types: The journal publishes Articles (including randomised controlled trials and meta-analyses), Review, Seminar, Health Policy, Therapeutics, Comment, Correspondence, and World Report, plus Series and Commissions (source: thelancet.com/lancet/about).
• Presubmission enquiries: Discouraged in most cases — authors with a finished manuscript should submit it rather than asking whether it is likely to be accepted.
• Data transparency: More than one author must have directly accessed and verified the underlying data; for academic–commercial collaborations, at least one such author must be from the academic team.
• Equity declarations: An Equitable Partnership Declaration (EPD) is requested at revision for research set in low- or middle-income countries.
• Preprints: The Information for Authors encourages authors to post peer-reviewed, accepted articles on personal or institutional websites after publication, with citation and a link to the published article on The Lancet website.
• Authorship: Designated authors must meet all four ICMJE authorship criteria; changes to authorship after submission are possible only in exceptional circumstances.

Open Access and APC

The Lancet is a hybrid journal. It offers authors of original research Articles — with funding that requires open access publication — either a gold open access or a subscription green open access solution for their submission. Gold open access publication in The Lancet's hybrid journals is available for authors whose research is funded by specific funders, including the NIH, Wellcome, UK Research and Innovation, the European Research Council, Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation, and others (sources: thelancet.com/lancet/about; thelancet.com/open-access).

Article processing charge: The Lancet's official open access page lists its gold open access APC as USD 9,550, "as of Jan 1, 2026" (source: thelancet.com/open-access, accessed October 2026). APCs change over time — readers must verify the current figure on the journal's official open access page before relying on it. For the gold open access solution, authors are offered a choice of Creative Commons licences (CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND, or CC BY-NC), and should check with their funder whether a specific licence is preferred.

For the green open access solution, authors can deposit the final accepted version of their paper in any repository they choose. The editors also encourage all authors to post their peer-reviewed, accepted article on their personal or institutional websites at any time after publication in print or online, with a citation and link to the published article. Corresponding authors receive, at no cost, a customised Share Link providing 50 days' free access to the final published version on ScienceDirect (gold open access authors do not receive one, since their article is already freely available). The journal states that it believes ability to pay should never be a barrier to publication, and outlines waiver and support options on its open access page (sources: tl-info-for-authors.pdf; thelancet.com/open-access).

Landmark Discoveries Published in The Lancet

Across more than 200 years and 10,000+ issues, The Lancet has published research that changed how medicine is understood and practised. As part of its bicentennial, the journal published an official timeline of landmark papers (source: thelancet.com/lancet-200/timeline-infographic). Highlights include:

• 1867 — Antiseptic surgery. Joseph Lister's "On the antiseptic principle in the practice of surgery" brought Pasteur's germ theory into the operating theatre, introducing carbolic acid dressings that made surviving major surgery probable rather than a matter of luck. Modern sterile technique descends directly from this paper (sources: thelancet.com/lancet-200/timeline-infographic; secondary medical-history reporting).
• 1940 — Penicillin as a chemotherapeutic agent. The Lancet's publication of early work on penicillin as a systemic antibacterial treatment helped launch the antibiotic era, transforming the treatment of bacterial infections.
• 1958 — Medical ultrasound. "Investigation of abdominal masses by pulsed ultrasound" marked a foundational moment for diagnostic medical imaging.
• 1974 — The Glasgow Coma Scale. "Assessment of coma and impaired consciousness" introduced the coma scale still used worldwide to assess consciousness after head injury.
• 1983 — Helicobacter pylori. "Unidentified curved bacilli on gastric epithelium in active chronic gastritis" reported the bacterium that proved ulcers are infectious — work that ultimately earned a Nobel Prize and revolutionised gastroenterology.
• 1991 — Folate and neural tube defects. The Medical Research Council Vitamin Study demonstrated that folic acid supplementation prevents neural tube defects, changing prenatal care globally.
• 1994 — The 4S trial. The Scandinavian Simvastatin Survival Study showed that cholesterol-lowering with statins reduces mortality in coronary heart disease — a cornerstone of modern cardiology.
• 1998 — UKPDS 33. The United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study showed that intensive blood-glucose control reduces complications in type 2 diabetes.
• 2003 — The Million Women Study. Demonstrated the link between hormone-replacement therapy and breast cancer risk, reshaping menopausal care.
• 2005 — HPV vaccine trial. The prophylactic quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine efficacy trial supported the rollout of vaccines that are now preventing cervical cancer worldwide.
• 2012 — Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. The systematic analysis of global and regional mortality from 235 causes of death in 20 age groups cemented The Lancet as the home of the world's most comprehensive health metrics research.

The journal also published some of the earliest peer-reviewed clinical descriptions of COVID-19: in January 2020 it reported on the clinical features of patients infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China — among the first papers to define the disease's clinical profile as the pandemic began (source: thelancet.com; widely documented in the medical literature). The Lancet has remained central to pandemic science, publishing major COVID-19 trials, vaccines research, and its influential Commissions on pandemic preparedness.

Through its Lancet Commissions and Lancet Countdown on health and climate change, the journal has also shaped policy debates — for example, the 2018 Lancet Countdown report "from 25 years of inaction to a global transformation for public health" (Lancet 2018;391:581–630), which tracks the health impacts of climate change annually.

The Lancet Group Family

The Lancet is the flagship of The Lancet Group, Elsevier's family of journals bearing the Lancet name. The group includes a large set of specialty titles — among them The Lancet Neurology, The Lancet Oncology, The Lancet Infectious Diseases, The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, The Lancet Psychiatry, The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, The Lancet Digital Health, The Lancet Global Health, The Lancet Haematology, The Lancet HIV, The Lancet Microbe, The Lancet Planetary Health, The Lancet Public Health, The Lancet Regional Health series, and eBioMedicine. The group's official impact metrics page publishes Journal Impact Factor, 5-year IF, CiteScore, Immediacy Index, and Eigenfactor for each title (source: thelancet.com/journal-impact-metrics).

Notably, The Lancet Global Health was launched in 2013 as the group's first fully open access journal (source: secondary reporting, seksediversiteit.nl). Manuscripts declined by the flagship journal may be judged suitable for consideration by editors elsewhere in the Lancet group or at other Elsevier journals, with the journal able to pass papers to other editors — a transfer workflow the Information for Authors describes explicitly (source: tl-info-for-authors.pdf).

Key Facts

Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Lancet journal?

The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal published by Elsevier, founded in 1823. It publishes original research, reviews, editorials, commentaries, and news across all aspects of human health, and describes itself as the world-leading general medical journal by impact metrics (source: thelancet.com/lancet/about).

When was The Lancet founded, and by whom?

The first issue appeared on October 5, 1823. It was founded by Thomas Wakley, an English surgeon who was 28 years old at the time, as a radical journal campaigning for medical reform (sources: thelancet.com/lancet-200/timeline-infographic; 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica).

Why is it called The Lancet?

The journal is named after the lancet — a pointed surgical instrument (scalpel) — chosen by founder Thomas Wakley to symbolise cutting through corruption in the medical establishment. The name also evokes the "lancet arch", a pointed-arch window, suggesting the "light of wisdom" or letting in light (source: Wikipedia, "The Lancet", CC BY-SA).

What is The Lancet's impact factor?

According to The Lancet's official journal impact metrics page, the 2024 Journal Impact Factor is 109.0 (2024 Journal Citation Reports, Clarivate, published 2025), with a 5-year Impact Factor of 115.4, a CiteScore of 92.4, an Immediacy Index of 23.0, and an Eigenfactor of 0.34538. Figures are updated annually — check thelancet.com/journal-impact-metrics for current values.

Who is the Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet?

Dr. Richard Horton, a British physician, has been Editor-in-Chief since 1995. He joined The Lancet as an assistant editor in 1990 and became editor-in-chief five years later. He is an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UCL, and the University of Oslo (sources: Wikipedia, "Richard Horton (editor)"; allamericanspeakers.com).

Who publishes The Lancet?

The Lancet has been owned and published by Elsevier since 1991, operating as the flagship of The Lancet Group of journals (sources: Wikipedia, "The Lancet"; thelancet.com).

Is The Lancet open access?

The Lancet is a hybrid journal. Authors of original research with funding that requires open access publication can choose gold open access (for an APC) or green open access (depositing the accepted manuscript in a repository). Gold OA offers a choice of CC BY, CC BY-NC-ND, or CC BY-NC licences (sources: thelancet.com/lancet/about; thelancet.com/open-access).

How much is The Lancet's article processing charge?

The Lancet's official open access page lists a gold open access APC of USD 9,550 "as of Jan 1, 2026". APCs change over time, so verify the current charge on thelancet.com/open-access before relying on the figure (source: thelancet.com/open-access, accessed October 2026).

How long does The Lancet's peer review take?

The journal states that research papers judged eligible for consideration are peer-reviewed within 72 hours and, if accepted, published within 4 weeks of receipt. A dedicated fast-track route (fasttrackeditor@lancet.com) handles randomised trials and research warranting rapid dissemination (sources: thelancet.com/lancet/about; tl-info-for-authors.pdf, August 2026).

What types of articles does The Lancet publish?

Articles (including randomised controlled trials and meta-analyses), Review, Seminar, Health Policy, Therapeutics, Comment, Correspondence, and World Report — plus Series and Commissions that aim to drive change in clinical practice and health policy (source: thelancet.com/lancet/about).

Where do I submit a manuscript to The Lancet?

Manuscripts are submitted online, free of charge, via Editorial Manager at www.editorialmanager.com/thelancet, following the requirements in the official Information for Authors (source: thelancet.com/pb-assets/Lancet/authors/tl-info-for-authors.pdf).

What are some of the most famous papers published in The Lancet?

According to the journal's own bicentennial timeline: Lister's 1867 paper on antiseptic surgery, early penicillin work (1940), pulsed ultrasound (1958), the Glasgow Coma Scale (1974), the Helicobacter pylori paper (1983), the MRC Vitamin Study on folate (1991), the 4S statin trial (1994), UKPDS 33 (1998), the Million Women Study (2003), the HPV vaccine trial (2005), and the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 analysis (2012) (source: thelancet.com/lancet-200/timeline-infographic).

What is the difference between The Lancet and The Lancet specialty journals?

The Lancet is the flagship weekly general medical journal; The Lancet Group also publishes many specialty journals (e.g., The Lancet Neurology, The Lancet Oncology, The Lancet Infectious Diseases, The Lancet Global Health). Manuscripts declined by the flagship may be considered for transfer to a sister journal within the group (sources: thelancet.com/journal-impact-metrics; tl-info-for-authors.pdf).

Profile compiled October 2026 from official The Lancet, Elsevier, and biographical sources listed below. Metrics and policies change over time — always verify current figures on the journal's official pages before citing or acting on them.