As they put it themselves: “light-hearted fare and satire are welcome, but spoofs, hoaxes, or fabricated studies are not”. It’s a proper candy store for science nerds. A variety of questions big but mostly small are being answered in accordance with the scientific method, including peer review. In 2016 the BMJ published a trip down Christmas memory lane, a nice starting point for those unfamiliar with the concept. 

My personal favorites include a study on the association of parking habits and chosen specialty of doctors. It turns out surgeons were twice as fast as those in general medicine. Of course, the one on orthopaedic surgeons being both stronger and smarter than anaesthetists is a classic. My brother-in-law being the latter is added bonus. And the article on the alcohol consumption of James Bond, concluding that the famous catchphrase “shaken, not stirred” could be because of alcohol induced tremor.

Obviously, being a huge fan, it’s a personal ambition to publish an article in the Christmas edition. Thus, we submitted a manuscript on the Oxford comma some years ago. Unfortunately, our article was rejected. Though the peer review comments were encouraging and entertaining (!) to read, the committee decided otherwise. All the more reasons for another attempt in the near future.