biology

The Lancet

The Lancet is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Lancet rather than just read about it. In short: The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal, founded in England in 1823. It is one of the world's highest-impact academic journals and one of the oldest medical journals still in publication.

Key takeaways

The Lancet belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Lancet to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Lancet from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal, founded in England in 1823. It is one of the world's highest-impact academic journals and one of the oldest medical journals still in publication. The journal publishes original research articles, review articles (divided into seminars and reviews), editorials, book reviews, correspondence, as well as news features and case reports. The Lancet has been owned by Elsevier since 1991, and its editor-in-chief since 1995 has been Richard Horton. The journal has editorial offices in London, New York City, and Beijing.

History The Lancet was founded in 1823 by Thomas Wakley, an English surgeon who named it after the surgical instrument called a lancet (scalpel). Wakley was motivated to create the journal due to alleged corruption of medical services he saw in London. On its founding, the journal had a "radical slant", challenging what its founder saw as the corruption, nepotism, and incompetence of the academic establishment of its day. Throughout its history, the journal has been considered one of the most prestigious in the world and has played an important role in reforming the healthcare system of the United Kingdom. 1823 issue of The Lancet, written by Thomas Wakley, explained the journal's purpose. Wakley said its goal was to inform and teach the people about medicine. Wakley then began reprinting lectures from his professor at United Hospitals for free in the journal. This caused some controversy, as the lectures usually cost £15 to listen and were republished without permission. The Lancet was eventually sued by multiple people for copyright infringement and defamation; every lawsuit was won by the journal, increasing its reputation among readers. Two years after the journal's foundation, over 4,000 people subscribed to The Lancet; its publications cost sixpence. The Lancet's readership grew, and many people started writing for the journal, including pamphleteer William Cobbett. Seven years after The Lancet's foundation, the journal's subscriptions grew to 8,000+. In 1840, the journal experienced growth and "dominated" medical news in the UK. Members of the Wakley family retained editorship of the journal until 1908. In 1921, The Lancet was acquired by Hodder & Stoughton. Elsevier acquired The Lancet from Hodder & Stoughton in 1991. The Lancet is known for its positive views on social justice. The journal expressed its solidarity with the George Floyd protests in 2020 and formed a "Group for Racial Equity"; it also published a special issue in December 2022 that discussed promoting racial and ethnic equity in science and other practices. Richard Horton, its editor-in-chief since 1995, has stated that the journal practices "health equity" by dedicating more articles on problems related to low and middle-income countries, more than other medical journals. Senior editor of the journal, Maneet Virdi, has said that The Lancet stands against racism and all other forms of discrimination.

Articles During its early existence, the journal exposed unhygienic conditions at multiple hospitals, prompting the government to take action. The journal wrote an article about the first ever blood transfusion by physician James Blundell. In 1867, surgeon Joseph Lister, writing for the journal, explained how antiseptic can be used to treat abscesses. In 1915, physician Charles Samuel wrote the first ever article about shell shock in the journal. In 1918, psychiatrist William Rivers wrote another article about shell shock in The Lancet. Some articles published during the journal's early existence covered more than medicine. Until 1825, The Lancet published gossip about celebrities, political news and literary correspondence. In late 2020, German doctors who treated Alexei Navalny after he was poisoned by the FSB published an article in the journal about the incident; the article detailed their use of cholinesterase inhibitor to save him and his path to recovery. The Press Secretary of the President of Russia, Dmitry Peskov, commented on the Lancet article as follows: "We do not read medical publications". Reportedly, The Lancet accepts only 5% of articles submitted, with each article being reviewed by the journal's staff within 72 hours. If an article is accepted, it is published within four weeks and undergoes an extensive peer review process. The publishing guidelines state that the journal considers every article that "advances or illuminates medical science or practice, or that educates or entertains the journal's readers". All potential authors for the journal must follow authorship rules created by International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. While article submission to the journal is free, authors are offered the option to have their accepted articles sponsored for a $5,000 fee. The Lancet has published over 10,000 articles in total and has 1.8 million active users.

Ranking and impact

Journal ranking summary (2024) The Lancet is consistently ranked among the top journals in general medicine based on major citation indexes:

Impact Factor According to Journal Citation Reports, the journal had a 2025 impact factor of 109.0, ranking it first above The New England Journal of Medicine in the category "Medicine, General & Internal". According to BMJ Open in 2017, The Lancet was more frequently cited in general newspapers around the world than The BMJ, NEJM and JAMA.

Other metrics Journal Citation Indicator (Clarivate, Web of Science): 23.29 (2024), 23.89 (2025) CiteScore (Elsevier, Scopus): 636 (2023), 668 (2024), 669 (2025) Top in category, followed by Nature Reviews Methods Primers and New England Journal of Medicine H-index (Google Scholar): 375 (2020-2024) Sixth among tracked publications, where Nature is 1st

Scientific controversies

Andrew Wakefield and the MMR vaccine (1998)

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Lancet

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Lancet claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Lancet before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Lancet ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Lancet

In research: The Lancet appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Lancet in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Lancet is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1823 establishments in England, Academic journal series, Elsevier academic journals, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Lancet outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Lancet in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Lancet means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Lancet out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Lancet in simple terms?

Why does The Lancet matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Lancet?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Lancet.