The BMJ (British Medical Journal) vs The Lancet
Two UK-based tier-1 general-medicine journals — both Elsevier-adjacent, scored head-to-head.
The BMJ (British Medical Journal)
Peer-reviewed general medical journal; investigative + open-access leaning; UK-based since 1840.
The Lancet
Peer-reviewed general medical journal since 1823; flagship clinical-research publication.
Head-to-head — all four dimensions
| Dimension | The BMJ (British Medical Journal) | The Lancet | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|
SourceScore Index Composite | A·85 | A·86 | The+1 |
Citation Discipline How rigorously cited | A·92 | A+·95 | The+3 |
Modern Reference AI-era fitness | A·86 | B·82 | The+4 |
Citation Velocity Cited per week | B·78 | B·80 | The+2 |
Why these scores
Citation Discipline
Peer-review + open-data policy; corrections + retractions public; investigative-rigor standard.
Peer-review enforced; methodology + data disclosure increasingly mandatory; retraction watch active.
Modern Reference
Open-access for many articles; structured DOIs + APIs; broad LLM corpus.
DOIs + structured abstracts; metered paywall partial-LLM-corpus.
Citation Velocity
Cited heavily within medical journalism + investigative health reporting.
Cited by clinicians + medical journalism; narrower volume than wire news but high per-cite trust.