Annals of Internal Medicine

Number 47 Recently we identified Citation C[as-sics TM from theleadlng journals ofmedi-tine. The first two essays in this series fo-cused on the New England Journa[ of Medicinel and The Lancet.2 For this essay, we've identified 101 papers from Annals of Internal Medicine using Science Citation Index " (.SCP) data from 1961 to 1982. Annak of Internal Medicine is published by the American College of Physicians , which is headquartered in Phila-delphia. The College had launched several medical joumafs that, in effect, were predecessors of A nnals of Internal Medicine. In 1920, the College published A nnafs of Medicine in association with the American Congress on Internal Medicine. Only four numbers of this journal were issued before it ceased publication due to financial difficulties. Annals of Clinical Medicine, the College's second journal, was started in 1922. Publication priority was given to papers presented at the Annual Sessions of the College. As a result, other authors were reluctant to submit manuscripts to the journal, and issues were delayed and published irregularly. The College's Board of Regents also was unhappy with its publisher's contract and decided to publish a journal under the College's direct control. The first issue of this new journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, which hereafter I will simply call A nnals, appeared in July 1927.3 In its 57-year history, Anna[s has been served by only five editors, each of whom has made significant contribu-November 19, 1984 tions to the journal's development and current prestige. Alfred Scott Warthht, the first editor, defined the journal's goals and purposes: " It is not the intention of the editor to make of the Annals an ultra-scientific journal directed chiefly to the publication of new experimental investigations, but rather to make of it a practical scientific medium giving to practicing physicians in a concise and usable form the information they should possess as to the new advances and discoveries in the field of internal medicine. It should serve the general practitioners as an index of the progress of the internist's science. " j The second editor, Carl V. Weller, helped reduce publication costs by making changes in the style and format of Annals. The third editor, Maurice C. Pincoffs, served the journal during the depression of the 1930s and 1940s before retiring in 1960. Pincoffs established the criteria for selecting articles to publish in Annals. He also decided to publish transcripts of the National Institutes …