| name | jama-internal-medicine |
| description | Use when targeting JAMA Internal Medicine or deciding whether an internal-medicine clinical study fits this venue. Encodes the journal's fit, the clinical-evidence and methodological-rigor bar, reporting-guideline and trial-registration requirements, JAMA Network house style, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics. Venue-fit aid only, not clinical advice. |
JAMA Internal Medicine (jama-internal-medicine)
Journal positioning
JAMA Internal Medicine is a JAMA Network specialty journal for clinical research,
evidence synthesis, and health-policy scholarship relevant to the practice of adult
internal medicine. It favors rigorous, clinically important work — randomized trials,
high-quality comparative-effectiveness and observational studies, and analyses that
challenge low-value care or inform practice and policy — with a strong emphasis on
methodological soundness and direct relevance to patient care and clinical decision
making. Underpowered single-center studies, descriptive case series, and analyses
with no clear practice implication are a weak fit. This skill is a fit /
venue-selection / re-framing aid; it is not clinical or regulatory advice and does
not replace the journal's current instructions for authors. Before submitting,
re-check the live JAMA Internal Medicine author instructions.
When to trigger
- The author names JAMA Internal Medicine for an internal-medicine clinical or
health-services study and wants a fit/framing check.
- A clinical study must be re-framed around a clear practice-changing or
policy-relevant question for a general internal-medicine readership.
- The author is choosing between JAMA Internal Medicine, JAMA, and a subspecialty
journal.
- The author needs the journal's reporting-guideline, registration, and desk-reject
expectations.
Scope & topic fit
- Randomized clinical trials in adult internal medicine, including pragmatic and
de-implementation ("less is more") trials.
- Comparative-effectiveness, cohort, and large database studies with rigorous design
and confounding control.
- Diagnostic, screening, and prognostic studies with clinically meaningful endpoints.
- Health-policy, quality, value-of-care, and health-services research relevant to
internal medicine.
- Systematic reviews and meta-analyses that answer a focused clinical question.
Method & evidence bar
- Studies must be adequately powered with prespecified, patient-centered primary
outcomes; surrogate-only endpoints need strong justification.
- The applicable reporting guideline must be followed and its checklist supplied:
CONSORT for trials, STROBE for observational studies, PRISMA for systematic reviews.
- Trials require prospective registration; the trial-registration number and a
protocol/statistical-analysis plan are expected.
- Observational claims must address confounding, bias, and missing data explicitly;
causal language must match the design.
- Effect estimates should be reported with confidence intervals and absolute as well
as relative measures; clinical (not just statistical) significance must be argued.
Structure & house style
- JAMA Network format with a structured abstract and a Key Points box; re-check
current article types (Original Investigation, Research Letter, etc.) and limits on
the live guide.
- The introduction frames a focused clinical question and its importance; the
discussion states the practice or policy implication plainly.
- Tables/figures follow JAMA Network statistical-reporting standards; a CONSORT/STROBE
flow diagram is expected where applicable.
- Supplements carry the protocol, full statistical methods, and additional analyses.
Official-submission checklist
- Before giving submission-ready advice, read
../../resources/source-basis.md and
../../resources/official-source-map.md; start from the ICMJE and JAMA Network
anchors, then cite the current JAMA Internal Medicine page you checked.
- Search the live site for "JAMA Internal Medicine instructions for authors" and follow
the current version.
- Re-check article types and word/reference/table limits, structured-abstract and Key
Points format, and the JAMA Network statistical-reporting requirements.
- Confirm trial registration, the reporting checklist (CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA), data-sharing
statement, and protocol/SAP submission.
- Re-check IRB/ethics and consent statements, ICMJE authorship and conflict-of-interest
disclosure, funding, and AI-use disclosure.
- If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions
win.
Pre-submission self-check
Common desk-reject triggers
- Underpowered or single-center studies with limited generalizability and no clear practice change.
- Observational analyses with inadequate confounding control or overstated causal claims.
- Missing trial registration, protocol, or the required reporting checklist.
- Surrogate-only endpoints presented as clinically definitive.
- Narrow subspecialty interest better served by a specialty journal, or limited general-internal-medicine relevance.
Re-routing decision
- Practice-changing, broadly significant trial → general medicine (
jama / NEJM / The Lancet in the natural-science bundle).
- Oncology focus →
jama-oncology / annals-of-oncology.
- Cardiology / neurology / nephrology subspecialty →
jama-cardiology / jama-neurology / journal-of-the-american-society-of-nephrology.
- Population-health or policy intervention →
the-lancet-public-health.
- Psychiatry / surgery focus →
jama-psychiatry / jama-surgery.
Output format
[Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason)
[Target] JAMA Internal Medicine
[Specialty tags] <2–3 closest internal-medicine topics>
[Study design / reporting guideline] <RCT-CONSORT / cohort-STROBE / review-PRISMA>
[Method/evidence] <does power, design, and registration clear the bar?>
[Top risk] <the single most likely reason for rejection>
[Official items to re-check] <article type / registration / checklist / ethics / disclosures>
[Re-route suggestion] <if not a fit, a better-matched venue>
