NEJM AI

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is NEJM AI the same journal as the New England Journal of Medicine?

No. NEJM AI is a distinct, separately edited journal published by NEJM Group — the same division of the Massachusetts Medical Society that publishes the flagship New England Journal of Medicine — but it is not a section, supplement, or special issue of NEJM. It has its own website and submission portal at ai.nejm.org, separate from nejm.org, with its own editorial leadership and peer-review process.

Does NEJM AI charge authors a submission or publication fee?

No. 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.

What types of articles does NEJM AI publish?

NEJM AI accepts Original Research, Datasets/Benchmarks/Protocols, Case Studies, Reviews, Perspectives, Policy Corner, and Editorials. Most article types go through peer review; Reviews, Perspectives, and Editorials are usually solicited by the editors, though unsolicited submissions in those categories may be considered.

Can authors send NEJM AI a presubmission inquiry before writing a full manuscript?

No. NEJM AI states that it evaluates only complete manuscript submissions and does not offer a presubmission-inquiry process. This is a workflow difference from journals — including some other NEJM Group titles — that triage informal presubmission inquiries before requesting a full manuscript.

Can an AI tool like a chatbot be listed as an author on a NEJM AI submission?

No. NEJM AI requires all listed authors to meet the ICMJE authorship criteria, and the journal is explicit that AI-assisted tools cannot be listed as authors. Authors must disclose at submission whether tools such as large language models, chatbots, or image generators were used in producing the work, and the accountable human authors remain responsible for its accuracy and integrity regardless of what tools assisted in producing it.

Does NEJM AI have a Journal Impact Factor?

NEJM AI launched in January 2024, so it does not have the multi-year citation track record that journals typically need before Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports assigns a Journal Impact Factor. Recently launched journals commonly go without an assigned Impact Factor for their first few years of publication; check NEJM AI’s own site or Clarivate’s Journal Citation Reports directly for the current status.