All research articles submitted to the Lancet journals are first reviewed by our in-house team of expert editors. A high proportion of research papers are rejected on the basis of in-house assessment alone. If editors wish to proceed with a paper, they will select appropriate peer reviewers.

During peer review, editors select reviewers to reflect relevant expertise, diversity, and geographical backgrounds. All original research articles published in the Lancet journals have undergone independent, external peer review, including statistical review. A research article is usually peer reviewed by three clinical or subject-based experts and a statistical reviewer.

Peer reviewers have access to the submitted manuscript and any appendices included by the authors. If the paper is a randomised controlled trial, peer reviewers will also have access to the trial protocol. Reviewer comments are sent to the authors anonymously, unless peer reviewers wish to have their names shared.

Peer review assists editors in their decision on whether to publish an article and helps authors revise and improve their manuscripts. Peer reviewers make suggestions for improvements, critique the analysis, and provide recommendations to the authors and the editors. If extensive revisions are required, the revised article may be shared with peer reviewers for further comments. At The Lancet Group, our editors treat communication with authors as confidential, and details of peer review including dates and peer review comments are not shared publicly.

After peer review, the research article is discussed at a multi-disciplinary editorial meeting. Editors from across all Lancet journals attend the meeting, and provide their expert views on the research, including its relevance for the individual journal, importance, and quality. Editors will also discuss which Lancet journal a research paper will be best suited to.

Peer reviewers may be invited to write a linked Comment to be published alongside the research article. If papers are rejected from the Lancet journals after peer review, peer review comments are shared with the authors to help improve their manuscript for submission to another journal.

Other types of content are sometimes peer reviewed – especially if there are original data included. Find out more about what we publish.

Our fast-track process means that The Lancet aims to peer review and publish papers within four weeks of submission, if no extensive revisions are required (ten weeks for Lancet specialty journals). This option is available for randomised controlled trials, and papers of major health importance, and the timeframe allows for full peer review as well as comprehensive editing, to the same standard as all other peer reviewed papers published in our journals.