Medical JournalsMedical journals are publications that report medical information to physiciansand other health professionals. In the past,these journals were available only

in print.With thedevelopment of electronic publishing, many medical journals now have web siteson the Internet,and some journals are published only online.A few medical

journals,like theJournal of the American Medical Association,are considered general medicaljournals because they cover many fields of medicine.

Most medicaljournals are specialty journals that focus on a particular area of medicine.Medical journals publish many types of articles.Research articles report theresults of

research studies ona range of topics varying from the basic mechanisms of diseases to clinicaltrials that compare outcomes of different treatments.

Review articlessummarize and analyze the information available on a specific topic based on acareful search of the medical literature.Because the results of individual

research studies canbe affected by many factors,combining results from different studies on thesame topic can be helpful in reaching conclusions about the scientific

evidence forpreventing,diagnosing or treating a particular disease.

Case conferences andcase reports may be published in medical journals to educate physicians aboutparticular illnesses and how to treat them.Editorials in medical journals

are short essaysthat express the views of the authors,often regarding a research or reviewarticle published in the same issue.Editorials provide a perspective on how the

current article fitswith other information on the same topic.

Letters to theeditor provide a way for readers of the medical journal to expresscomments,questions or criticisms about articles published in that journal.The main readersof medical journals are______.

A.the general public

B.healthprofessionals

C.medical critics

D.news reporters