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''JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association'' is an international peer-reviewed general medical journal, published 48 times per year by the American Medical Association. ''JAMA'' is the most widely circulated medical journal in the world.

Founded in 1883 by the American Medical Association and published continuously since then, ''JAMA'' publishes original research, reviews, commentaries, editorials, essays, medical news, correspondence, and ancillary content (such as abstracts of the ''Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report''). In 2008, ''JAMA''s impact factor was 31.7, placing it among the leading general medical journals. ''JAMA''s acceptance rate is approximately 8% of the nearly 6000 solicited and unsolicited manuscripts it receives annually.

Editorial independence

The contents of articles in ''JAMA'' should be attributed to authors, rather than to the American Medical Association: ''AMA disclaims any liability to any party for the accuracy, completeness or availability of the material or for any damages arising out of the use or non-use of any of the material and any information contained therein.''

In 1999, the AMA's recently-appointed executive director, E. Ratcliffe Anderson, fired George Lundberg, editor of ''JAMA''. Lundberg was fired for publishing a survey of college students' attitudes about sex, by June Reinisch and Stephanie Sanders of the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research. Based on a 1991 survey of 599 students at a major Midwestern state university, the paper reports that 60% (originally recorded as 59% in the results; the article indicates this as an erratum by the copy editor) of the group did not regard oral-genital contact as having ''had sex''. Anderson was later fired himself as a result of other unrelated disputes with the AMA board. Lundberg joined Medscape as editor-in-chief exactly one month after his dismissal from the AMA.

Editorials denouncing Lundberg's dismissal as a violation of editorial independence appeared promptly in many medical journals, including the ''CMAJ'', ''The Lancet'', ''BMJ'', and ''MJA''.

In the wake of the Lundberg dismissal the American Medical Association, working together with the ''JAMA'' Editor Search Committee, a distinguished group of physicians and scientists, established a new process to arrive at the best governance alternatives for the ''Journal of the American Medical Association'' and the Archives Journals. The group developed a governance plan that was designed to insure editorial freedom and independence for ''JAMA'', the Archives Journals, and their editors-in-chief. The primary recommendation arising from the search committee and documented in the governance plan was the recommendation to create a Journal Oversight Committee, made up of seven members, whose function is to evaluate the editor-in-chief and to help ensure editorial independence. To date the committee has met at least once a year since its inception.

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