Patient and public partnership
BMJ believes that partnering with patients and the public is an ethical imperative and essential to improving the quality, relevance, value, and sustainability of health systems and research. Taking the lead from The BMJ’s innovative patient partnership strategy, several journals from BMJ’s portfolio are now encouraging their authors to participate.
Elements of the BMJ’s patient partnership strategy which are spreading within the BMJ’s Portfolio of journals includes the following.
- Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry: Patient Editorial Board for JNNP >>
- BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health: Patient and public involvement in sexual and reproductive health >>
Better together: patient partnership in medical journals
There are several areas of a journal that patients and the public are involved in.
Patients and the public as authors and contributors
We welcome patient and public authors across many of our journals and article types including in the following patient written series
- British Journal of Sports Medicine: Introducing participatory sports and exercise medicine via ‘Patient Voices’
- The BMJ: What your patient is thinking
- The BMJ: Opinion
We support all authors to cocreate articles with patients as coauthors. You can find out whether the journal you wish to publish in welcomes patient authors on their Instructions for Authors page or by reaching out to the journal editor. A patient author must fulfil the following criteria:
- A person who lives with or is affected by a disease or condition (i.e., a broad definition of patient that includes those with lived conditions or receiving health or social care, caregivers and family members
- A person who provides unique and valuable input from their personal patient perspective to the publication
- Patients must meet the same ICMJE criteria as a standard author.
For anyone writing as a patient or public author we encourage them to use the ‘Patient author’ or ‘Public representative’ affiliation. This allows readers to know a patient is an author on an article.Patient authors should make sure this is included both in the manuscript and in the submission system.
Patient authors and public representatives can use their full name, a pseudonym or can be anonymised within the publication of the article. Patient authors may be required to provide consent for publication if the article they are contributing to includes any information relating to their own health or conditions.
For research papers where all of the listed authors are patient authors with no access to institutional funding we welcome patient authors to apply for a waiver for article processing charges (APCs).
Encouraging co-design in research (patient and public involvement statements)
All authors submitting research papers are required to include a “Patient and Public Involvement Statement” within the methods section of their paper at submission describing how they involved patients and the public in their research. This step has been taken to support and encourage an international movement towards active involvement of patients and the public as co producers of research.
We are currently revising the way we ask authors about how they have involved patients and the public in research to standardise responses.
In governance
In addition to advocacy for co-production of research, The BMJ’s strategy includes other core elements aimed at ensuring patient and public perspectives are integrated through all of the work BMJ produces. This includes having patients involved with BMJ as patient editors, patient advisors, on editorial boards and with international patient advisory panels. Patients and the public are also involved in advising on our BMJ policies including patient consent.
As reviewers
The BMJ also conducts patient and public review where people with lived experience of the article topic are asked to review the content alongside traditional reviewers. Patient and public reviewers are offered remuneration for their contributions.
In conferences
We also actively promote patient and public involvement in conferences and we believe BMJ’s experience can be a springboard for other journals.
What we have achieved in 2025
In January we revised our remuneration to offer patient and public reviewers a payment for completing a review for The BMJ. Patient and public reviewers are now offered either a £50 payment or subscription to a selection of specialist journals as well as their subscription to The BMJ.
In May we welcomed nearly 50 patients, carers and people with lived experience at the International Forum in Utrecht. People with lived experience were integrated throughout the forum program including in the opening keynote. The group also hosted a lived experience booth where delegates could meet patient advocates and share experiences of co-production.
In June our patient and public strategy editor Emma Doble was awarded the judges special recognition award at the Patient Engagement Open Forum: Made with Patients awards for her work in leading BMJs patient partnership strategy.
