Christmas in July: Exploring Unique Research in The BMJ’s Holiday Issue
Each year, The BMJ, previously known as the British Medical Journal, releases a special Christmas issue that provides unique and often amusing research topics. This tradition began in 1982 and has since evolved into a highly anticipated release. Getting published in this issue is considered prestigious for scientists and non-scientists alike.
The selection process for The BMJ’s Christmas issue is rigorous. Over a hundred submissions are received annually, ranging from research to essays and feature stories. Only a handful make it to the final publication. The deadline for research submissions is July 31, while essays and features must be submitted by August 31.
Editors like Jenny Rasanathan and Timothy Feeney carefully review and decide on these submissions through several meetings and peer reviews. According to Timothy, the goal is to offer physicians an interesting and occasionally humorous read over the holidays.
“At the end of the day, we would like physicians to be able to grab this issue, sit down on a break over the holidays or after a big holiday meal, open it up and be able to be intrigued, interested and sometimes given a laugh.” – Timothy Feeney
The published research covers diverse topics and formats. Examples include a quantitative analysis on the socially acceptable amount of free food one can take and a comparison of work-life balance issues faced by doctors in The Sims 4 versus real-life doctors. In both cases, balance remains a challenge for the characters involved.
The BMJ’s Christmas issue also includes studies such as:
- Defining excessive quantities of free refreshments in a healthcare library
- Experiments on surviving as a doctor in The Sims 4
- The impact of clock towers bonging on sleep
- Does Peppa Pig encourage the inappropriate use of primary care resources?
- The aging trajectories of superheroes in the Marvel cinematic universe
You can explore previously published “Christmas Edition” issues in their archive. For more feature stories and to hear episodes of Short Wave, such as this one produced by Liz Metzger and Margaret Cirino, edited by Rebecca Ramirez, you can listen on platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. If you have a science story you’d like to hear, reach out at [email protected].