With the January 2021 issue of Academic Medicine, we launched a bold new cover design—our first redesign in more than 20 years—allowing more space to showcase original artwork with a connection to academic medicine. Check out a few recent covers below.

To celebrate, we are holding our first annual call for Cover Art submissions until July 30, 2021! We are seeking original works of art that should be inspired by, but not necessarily representative of, an academic medicine experience from any perspective: caregiver, researcher, teacher, learner, or patient. See our announcement for full details on the call and how to submit.

As you’re preparing your work, consider these 5 tips for a successful Cover Art submission:

1. Be inspired by your academic medicine experience, but no need to represent it literally through realistic depictions of stethoscopes, anatomy, etc. Patient representations must be anonymized.
2. Use your required 250-word Artist’s Statement to explain your technical choices (medium, color, composition, etc.) and connect your art directly to one or more of the 5 missions of academic medicine: research, education, clinical care in an academic setting, community collaboration, or professionalism. (Submissions without a clear connection to one of these missions may be disqualified.)
3. Consider using any medium—all are welcome—but remember to take a compelling 300 dpi high-resolution image of your sculpture, painting, textile work, or other non-digital media. No filters please.
4. Follow the cover specifications to ensure your artwork appears in full. Images should be 9” x 8” or 1260 x 1084 pixels, or they will be cropped at the editor’s discretion to fit the cover specifications.
5. Submit your original artwork and make sure you retain the copyright. You must upload a completed AAMC Artist Consent Form as part of your submission. We provide a $100 cash award to each artist for publishing the selected artwork.

Follow us on Twitter (@AcadMedJournal) for further information about this call for Cover Art submissions.

If you have questions, contact us at academicmedicine@aamc.org.

The Cover Art feature has been an integral part of Academic Medicine since the feature launched in 2008. We have enjoyed all of your art over the years and cannot wait to see your new submissions!