Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A manuscript reporting a new deep-learning model for detecting diabetic retinopathy from fundus images, including external validation and a discussion of deployment bias, fits NEJM AI's "Original Research" article type and its stated focus on AI methodology paired with clinical application.
- Is an instance
A submission proposing a public benchmark dataset for evaluating large language model performance on clinical note summarization, with documented provenance and evaluation protocol, fits the journal's dedicated "Datasets, Benchmarks, and Protocols" article type.
- Is an instance
A solicited or unsolicited "Policy Corner" piece analyzing how FDA regulatory pathways apply to adaptive AI/ML-based medical devices fits the journal's stated interest in the policy and regulatory implications of AI in medicine.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A conventional randomized controlled trial of a new drug that does not involve any AI or machine-learning component belongs in the flagship New England Journal of Medicine (or another NEJM Group title matched to its scope), not NEJM AI — the AI/ML contribution has to be central to the manuscript, not incidental.
- Not an instance
A purely engineering-focused machine-learning paper with no biomedical or clinical application or implication (e.g., a general-purpose image classification benchmark unrelated to health) falls outside NEJM AI's biomedical scope and is better suited to a computer-science or ML venue.
Editorial commentary
NEJM AI is a peer-reviewed journal published by NEJM Group, the publishing division of the Massachusetts Medical Society that also publishes the flagship New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). NEJM Group announced the launch of NEJM AI in December 2023 as a monthly journal dedicated to research and analysis on the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning to medicine, with its first issue appearing in January 2024.
Relationship to the flagship NEJM
NEJM AI is a distinct, separately edited journal within the NEJM Group family — it is not a section, supplement, or special issue of the flagship NEJM. It has its own website and submission portal (ai.nejm.org), separate from nejm.org, and its own editorial leadership and peer-review process. Authors deciding where to submit should not assume that NEJM’s general reputation or a prior relationship with the flagship journal carries over automatically — NEJM AI evaluates manuscripts against its own AI/ML-specific scope and article-type criteria.
Submission scope
NEJM AI’s stated scope covers AI and machine-learning methodology and data science as applied to biomedical informatics, connected health, telemedicine, medical imaging, personalized medicine, and the policy, regulatory, ethical, and medicolegal implications of AI in health care. The journal explicitly aims to pair “pre-clinical” technical AI/ML work with clinical application and context, positioning itself between purely computational ML venues and purely clinical-outcomes journals.
Article types accepted include Original Research, Datasets/Benchmarks/Protocols, Case Studies, Reviews, Perspectives, Policy Corner, and Editorials. Most are peer-reviewed; Reviews, Perspectives, and Editorials are usually solicited by the editors, though unsolicited submissions in those categories may be considered. NEJM AI states that it evaluates only complete manuscript submissions and does not offer a presubmission-inquiry process, which is a workflow difference from journals (including some other NEJM Group titles) that do triage informal presubmission inquiries before requesting a full manuscript.
Authorship and disclosure requirements
NEJM AI requires that all listed authors meet the ICMJE authorship criteria, consistent with the wider biomedical-journal norm. The journal also requires authors to disclose at submission whether AI-assisted tools (large language models, chatbots, image generators, etc.) were used in producing the submitted work, and is explicit that such tools cannot be listed as authors — the accountable human authors remain responsible for the accuracy and integrity of the work regardless of what tools assisted in producing it.
Publication model
NEJM AI does not charge authors a fee to submit or to publish, and the journal states it works with authors to help them meet funder public-access requirements for their published work.
How this differs from a general “is my paper right for NEJM AI” question
Because NEJM AI sits at the intersection of two established but separate literatures — clinical/health-services research and AI/ML methods research — the practical scope test for authors is whether the AI/ML contribution is central to the manuscript’s claim, not incidental to it. A clinical study that merely used off-the-shelf statistical software is a flagship-NEJM-type submission (or a fit for another NEJM Group title matched to its scope), not a NEJM AI one; conversely, a paper whose main contribution is a general machine-learning method with no biomedical application or implication falls outside NEJM AI’s remit even if a computer-science venue would accept it.
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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