Editing the editors: Aims and priorities of health professions education journals

Figures & data

Table 1. Summary of included journals.

Journal	Publishing company	Affiliated association	First publication	Impact factor	Number of issues per year
Academic Medicine	Lippincott Williams and Wilkins	Association of American Medical Colleges	1926	6.893	12
Medical Education	John Wiley and Sons Ltd.	Association for the Study of Medical Education	1966	6.251	12
Anatomical Sciences Education	John Wiley and Sons Ltd.	American Association for Anatomy	2008	5.958	6
Advances in Health Sciences Education	Springer	None stated	1996	3.853	6
Medical Teacher	Taylor and Francis	Association for Medical Education in Europe	1979	3.65	12
Nurse Education Today	Elsevier	None stated	1985	3.442	12
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior	Elsevier	Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior	1969	3.045	12
Perspectives on Medical Education	Springer	The Netherlands Association of Medical Education	1982	2.947	6
Journal of Surgical Education	Elsevier	Association of Program Directors in Surgery	2007	2.891	6
Teaching and Learning in Medicine	Taylor and Francis	None stated	1989	2.414	5
BMC Medical Education	Springer	None stated	2001	2.463	X^a
European Journal of Dental Education	John Wiley and Sons Ltd.	Association for Dental Education in Europe	1997	2.355	4
Journal of Cancer Education	Springer	American Association for Cancer Education (AACE) and the European Association for Cancer Education (EACE)	1986	2.037	6
Journal of Continuing Education in Health Professions	Lippincott Williams and Wilkins	Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions, the association for hospital medical education and the society for academic continuing medical education	1988	1.355	4

^a This journal is not published in issues but as a continuous online-only archive.

Table 2. Themes and illustrative, paraphrased quotations.

Theme	Quotations
Methodological and theoretical rigor	‘Editorial priority will be given to articles with a strong conceptual framework and evidence of rigorous data collection’ ‘We aim to publish research that employs rigorous methodology and those that highlight the theoretical underpinnings of education’ ‘We are looking for papers that have a sound theoretical basis and strong methodology’
Impact on practice	‘An important criterion is educational significance’ ‘The journal publishes research papers embodying the results of high-quality educational research of relevance to dentistry’ ‘Priority will be given to works that are likely to change practice’
Global relevance	‘The journal serves as an international forum for the exchange of ideas’ ‘The journal is the senior international scientific journal for medical education’ ‘The journal is international in scope and has a varied editorial board from within the field worldwide’
Advancing knowledge	‘The journal prioritises papers that offer a fundamental advance in understanding of educationally relevant issues’ ‘Submissions must offer a compelling claim to advance the field in a way that is relevant to our readership’ ‘We are particularly interested in research that seeks to generate knowledge about best-practice’