There are numerous categories of medical books, generalist, specialist or for the general public. They may be on paper or accessible through the Internet (or both). They may contain summaries on a given topic or original research articles. The most serious books have a peer: the articles are submitted to a panel of experts before being accepted, with or without modifications.
Items are listed in Medline, a database accessible by U.S. Internet. The classification of medical books in terms of professionalism and prestige can only be subjective. A widely accepted tool is the impact factor index based on the number of citations referring to articles of the said book (ie, the hearing of the latter).
Medical journals
In 2005, the general the most prestigious medical publications were (in descending order of impact factor) The New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet and JAMA (Journal of American Medical Association. In German, the most prestigious journal (still in terms of impact factor) is the Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift.
The New England Journal of Medicine (abbreviated as N. Engl. J. Med. Or NEJM) is a U.S. medical journal. It is published weekly since 1812 and published in English. This is, to date, the most prestigious medical journal, and the Journal Citation Reports that the impact factor of this journal was 47.050 in 2009. Articles older than six months and published after 1993 are freely available.
The Lancet is a British medical journal, published on a weekly basis by the Lancet Publishing Group. It owes its name to the surgical instrument called lancet (in English: Lancet), a kind of scalpel. The current editor is Richard Horton. The first issue dated October 5, 1823 and was launched by Thomas Wakley who published the journal until his death.
The Journal of the American Medical Association or JAMA is an international medical journal has existed since 1883 and published twice monthly by the American Medical Association. JAMA is the most circulated medical journal in the world and one of the most influential with an impact factor of 23.2 in 2005, fourth after the New England Journal of Medicine (44.0), Nature Medicine (28.9) and The Lancet ( 23.4).