Lancet question

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sunineyes

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Hello... P4 student here

I have a preceptor who is trying to tell me the Lancet is not a reputable journal. I know they have had some controversial artciles in the past, and they are the ones who published and then retracted the whole vaccine/autism thing...

Regardless, I was always under the impression that it was one of the "better" medical journals. My preceptor basically laughed in my face when I referenced a review article from them.

Thoughts?
 
Right, that was my thought.

I realize even the best journals can have crappy articles, but to laugh in my face by mentioning Lancet seemed a little out of line... and I had reviewed the article and explained what I thought were its strengths and weaknesses and she still told me to "avoid Lancet in the future if you can."

Just seemed a little off to me.
 
Lancet is well known for posting primarily review articles, NOT original research. They're high-impact, but they're not going to be printing stuff - deliberately - that gets few citations but might be important to a specialty.
 
Right, that was my thought.

I realize even the best journals can have crappy articles, but to laugh in my face by mentioning Lancet seemed a little out of line... and I had reviewed the article and explained what I thought were its strengths and weaknesses and she still told me to "avoid Lancet in the future if you can."

Just seemed a little off to me.

It's her opinion. Don't argue with her about it. I think it's safe to cite Lancet on future rotations though.
 
Hello... P4 student here

I have a preceptor who is trying to tell me the Lancet is not a reputable journal. I know they have had some controversial artciles in the past, and they are the ones who published and then retracted the whole vaccine/autism thing...

Regardless, I was always under the impression that it was one of the "better" medical journals. My preceptor basically laughed in my face when I referenced a review article from them.

Thoughts?

Lancet is an amazing journal with an impact factor of ~38 which is 2nd in general medicine. It is highly reputable journal. Vaccine/Autism issue is complicated and had some data that was iffy and the guy who did the study lost his license to practice secondary to shady data analysis. Your preceptor doesn't know what he is talking about.
1A) NEJM
!B) Lancet
3) Jama
4) everyone else
 
Hello... P4 student here

I have a preceptor who is trying to tell me the Lancet is not a reputable journal. I know they have had some controversial artciles in the past, and they are the ones who published and then retracted the whole vaccine/autism thing...

Regardless, I was always under the impression that it was one of the "better" medical journals. My preceptor basically laughed in my face when I referenced a review article from them.

Thoughts?

I suggest you politely ask your preceptor which journals they have published in, or look it up in pubmed. Then YOU can have a good laugh.
 
Hello... P4 student here

I have a preceptor who is trying to tell me the Lancet is not a reputable journal. I know they have had some controversial artciles in the past, and they are the ones who published and then retracted the whole vaccine/autism thing...

Regardless, I was always under the impression that it was one of the "better" medical journals. My preceptor basically laughed in my face when I referenced a review article from them.

Thoughts?

Good god.

A preceptor of what exactly?
 
They published Wakefield's stuff so...

In their defense, it was a relatively significant article... until it was discovered to be bull $h!+.

(Edit: though not nearly as significant as the anti-vaxxers think)
 
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