Is The Lancet Peer Reviewed? Policy and Process

Short Answer

Yes, The Lancet is a peer-reviewed general medical journal, but not every item in it is. The journal states that every Article, Hypothesis, Seminar, Therapeutics paper and Review it publishes has been peer reviewed, while Editorials are written in-house and Correspondence letters are not usually peer reviewed.

How The Lancet’s Peer Review Works

The following description comes from The Lancet‘s own Information for Authors (August 2026 edition), checked on 7 November 2026. The journal operates a single-anonymised review process. It is a signatory journal to the ICMJE Recommendations and to the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) code of conduct for editors.

1. In-house reading: A submission is first read by one or more of the journal’s staff physicians and scientists. The journal gives its overall acceptance rate as about 5% and says many papers are turned away on in-house assessment alone.
2. External peer review: Research papers and most other paper types that receive positive in-house reviews go on to peer review by at least two reviewers and a statistician.
3. Revision: Submissions that survive in-house and peer review might be referred back to authors for revision, which the journal describes as an invitation to present the best possible paper for further scrutiny, not an acceptance.

For randomised controlled trials, the journal also requires registration before recruitment of the first participant (see ClinicalTrials.gov and clinical trial registration and reporting compliance) and conformity to CONSORT 2025 reporting guidelines. Background on trial conduct standards is in the Good Clinical Practice guide.

What Is Peer Reviewed and What Is Not

The journal’s own author guidance separates its research sections from its editorial and news sections:

Section / article type	Peer reviewed?	What the journal says
Articles (research papers)	Yes	Every Article published has been peer reviewed.
Seminars, Reviews, Therapeutics, Hypothesis	Yes	The journal states that every paper of these types has been peer reviewed.
Adverse drug reaction reports (in Correspondence)	Yes	Reports of adverse drug reactions are peer reviewed, and those accepted are published in the Correspondence section.
Essays	Occasionally not	The journal says occasional contributions, for example Essays, are accepted without peer review.
Editorials	No	Written in-house by the editorial-writing team and signed “The Lancet”.
Correspondence (letters)	Not usually	The journal states letters are not usually peer reviewed; accepted letters are edited.

Comments, World Report items, Perspectives and Obituaries are described in the guidance as commissioned or staff-written commentary, news and features rather than research papers, and the guidance does not list them among the peer-reviewed types. When citing The Lancet as evidence, for example in clinical trial protocol design work, check which section the item appeared in.

How Fast Is The Lancet’s Fast-Track Review?

For randomised controlled trials and research papers judged to warrant fast dissemination, the journal offers fast-track peer review and publication. Its published commitments are a decision on whether a submission can be prioritised within 48 hours, an initial decision on publication typically within 2 weeks, and, if accepted, online publication normally within 28 days of submission. Fast-track papers are still peer reviewed.

Indexing and Recognised Lists

Indexing status is best read from each list’s own site on the day you need it. The National Library of Medicine keeps a catalog record for the journal under NLM ID 2985213R (print ISSN 0140-6736); the record shows the journal’s current indexing status and history. Other lists, such as Scopus, Web of Science and DOAJ, publish their own journal-lookup tools. Note that DOAJ lists only fully open-access journals, so a subscription or hybrid title is not expected to appear there.

How to Check a Specific Article Yourself

1. Find the section label. On the article page or PDF, note the section it appears under (for example Articles, Seminar, Review, Comment, Correspondence).
2. Compare it with the journal’s guidance. Use the table above and the journal’s Information for Authors to see whether that section is described as peer reviewed.
3. Look at the article history. Research papers typically carry received and accepted dates; short commentary pieces often do not.
4. Search PubMed. Look the title up in PubMed and read the publication type shown for the record.

Retractions in The Lancet

Peer review lowers the risk of error but does not remove it, and the journal has retracted papers. Two retraction notices are public:

• 1998 MMR paper (Wakefield et al.): The editors retracted the 1998 paper in February 2010. The notice says that several elements of the paper were incorrect, including its claims that the children were consecutively referred and that the investigations were approved by the local ethics committee (Lancet 2010; 375(9713): 445).
• 2020 hydroxychloroquine registry analysis (Mehra et al.): Three of the authors requested retraction after the data source company would not transfer the dataset for an independent audit, and the paper was retracted in June 2020 (Lancet 2020; 395(10240): 1820).

Frequently Asked Questions

Is The Lancet peer reviewed?

Yes. The journal states that every Article, Hypothesis, Seminar, Therapeutics paper and Review it publishes has been peer reviewed. Editorials and most Correspondence letters are not.

Are letters to the editor in The Lancet peer reviewed?

Not usually. The journal says Correspondence letters are not usually peer reviewed, although accepted letters are edited and proofs are sent to authors.

How many reviewers does The Lancet use?

For research papers that pass in-house screening, the journal states that peer review is by at least two reviewers and a statistician.

How selective is The Lancet?

The journal gives its overall acceptance rate as about 5% and says many papers are turned away on in-house assessment alone.

Does The Lancet follow publication-ethics standards?

The journal states that it is a signatory to the ICMJE Recommendations and to the COPE code of conduct for editors, and that it follows COPE’s guidelines.

Sources

All sources checked 7 November 2026.

• The Lancet. “Information for Authors” (August 2026). https://www.thelancet.com/pb-assets/Lancet/authors/tl-info-for-authors.pdf
• National Library of Medicine. NLM Catalog record for The Lancet, NLM ID 2985213R. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nlmcatalog/2985213R
• International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. https://www.icmje.org
• Committee on Publication Ethics. Core Practices. https://publicationethics.org/core-practices
• The Editors of The Lancet. Retraction: Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children. Lancet 2010; 375(9713): 445. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60175-4
• Mehra MR, Ruschitzka F, Patel AN. Retraction: Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with or without a macrolide for treatment of COVID-19: a multinational registry analysis. Lancet 2020; 395(10240): 1820. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31324-6