A medical journal is a scientific journal devoted to the field of medicine. Most medical journals are peer-reviewed. Medical journals commonly arose as the journal of societies, such as the precursors of the British Medical Association, and would originally be collections of letters sent to the society by distant members, with an account of the proceedings of the society's recent meetings distributed to various members and the library.
With the increase in science, medical research and activity, and publication, nobody can keep up, and in self defence articles picked by individuals are discussed in journal clubs at academic institutions. The prominence of medical journals is often determined by each journal's impact factor.
In the closing years of the 20th century most medical journals had a Web presence, the BMJ notably so, thus increasing their accessibility to and input from a wide variety of people and places, and there continues a general move from print as a primary medium to the electronic ones, with participation in Bio-Med Central.
Some of the better known medical journals with high impact factors are:
The New England Journal of Medicine
The Lancet
Journal of the American Medical Association
Annals of Internal Medicine
Nature Medicine
British Medical Journal
Archives of Internal Medicine
With the surging popularity of Internet, it is evident that medical journals are undergoing some sort of transformation from the traditional subscription based and pay-per-view to open access some or all of their contents.
For example, Canadian Medical Association Journal is made freely available without registration/login, and Journal of Clinical Investigation has its archive completely open access.
