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Previous Volume 348:66 January 2, 2003 Number 1 Next

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With this issue, we introduce a new look for the Journal. The new design reflects our continuing effort to improve many aspects of the Journal. This redesign was not undertaken lightly and required months of work by many people. Although aesthetics played a part, we strove in all changes to live by the maxim "form follows function."

In the newly designed Journal, the pages are less crowded, and more distinctive headings have been added in order to facilitate navigation and improve readability. The page layout gives us greater flexibility in the presentation of complex tables and figures. The new typeface, a Dutch newspaper font called Quadraat, should increase reading speed; its design is based on the fruits of decades of research into legibility and readability. We have added shading to our tables so that reading data across multiple columns will be easier; we have also modified our figures and illustrations so that they will be clearer and more distinctive.

Some changes reflect shifts in emphasis. Since methods are critical to research, we have restored the Methods section to full-size type. We also wanted to demarcate more clearly where letters to the editor begin and end, so a new heading scheme was devised. To make the abstracts of articles more readable, each one is presented as the sole item on the opening page of the article. The introductory section "This Week in the Journal" has been redesigned to provide a succinct digest of the contents of each issue.

The cover of the Journal continues to display our most important asset — our editorial content. The primary change on the cover is a slightly altered layout for the table of contents. With this layout, a given feature, such as Perspective, Editorials, Images in Clinical Medicine, and Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital, will always appear in the same place on the cover. As a result, it will be easier to find a particular section or feature each week.

The new design is one of a series of ongoing improvements in the Journal that has included This Week in the Journal, the biweekly Clinical Practice articles, Perspective essays, the Weekly Continuing Medical Education Program, and a Web site with various new services for subscribers. At several stages during the design process, we asked some of our readers for guidance and opinions, which proved invaluable on many crucial points.

We remain committed to publishing the highest-quality research and reliable, authoritative review articles. The Journal's traditions of editorial independence, content uninterrupted by commercial advertising, and academic rigor will continue to be strictly upheld. We welcome your thoughts about the new design and other changes in the Journal. If, after a few issues with this new look, you have ideas or opinions about how to enhance the design, usefulness, or readability of the Journal, please let us know.

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