image: Associate Professor Brian D Earp, Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore.
Credit: NUS Medicine
The Journal of Medical Ethics (JME), published by BMJ, has just been ranked the number 1 bioethics journal in the world according to the 2025 Google Scholar Metrics, reaffirming its status as the leading global platform for cutting-edge work in medical and bioethics. The journal is co-led by Associate Professor Brian D Earp, Director of the EARP Lab (Experimental Bioethics, Artificial Intelligence, and Relational Moral Psychology Lab) within the Centre for Biomedical Ethics (CBmE), based at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine). He recently took up the role of Co-Editor-in-Chief alongside Professor Lucy Frith, University of Manchester, and Associate Professor Arianne Shahvisi, Brighton & Sussex Medical School.
The JME features articles on various ethical aspects of health care relevant to healthcare professionals, members of clinical ethics committees, medical ethics professionals, researchers and bioscientists, policy makers, and patients. It seeks to promote ethical reflection and conduct in scientific research and medical practice.
Google Scholar Metrics provides a widely used, publicly accessible measure of journal impact based on citation data. By ranking journals according to their h5-index, which captures the number of highly cited articles published in the last five years, it offers an indication of a journal’s influence and visibility within its field.
The announcement coincides with the journal’s 50th anniversary and a new chapter in its editorial leadership, with the appointment of the Associate Professor Earp, Professor Frith and Associate Professor Shahvisi as its new editors.
The new editors have published an open access editorial in the journal laying out their editorial philosophy for the journal, saying, "Between us, we have a mix of political opinions, and we have distinct academic and personal backgrounds. What we share is a conviction that reasoned argument, conceptual clarity and scrupulous engagement with evidence should be at the core of scholarship in medical ethics. We look forward to leading the JME over the coming months and years, continuing to raise the bar for tightly-argued, novel contributions in medical ethics and expanding the reach and inclusiveness of the journal."
“I’m honoured to help lead the Journal of Medical Ethics at such an exciting moment in its history,” said A/Prof Earp. “I’m especially looking forward to working closely with my fellow editors-in-chief to build on the journal’s strong legacy of publishing rigorous, influential, and timely work in medical ethics.”
With its international editorial team and interdisciplinary scope, the Journal of Medical Ethics continues to shape policy, practice, and scholarship at the intersection of medicine, ethics, and society.