Purpose - To identify the papers, and publishing journals, describing psychiatry, surgery and paediatrics research funded by the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. To make comparisons with non-NHS research and examine the journal impact factors, and importance to clinicians, of journals publishing the most NHS research. To consider the implications, including those for research assessment.Design methodology approach - Existing databases were examined: the research outputs database (ROD), which contains information on UK biomedical papers; NHS ROD, which contains details of papers on ROD funded by the NHS; lists of journal impact factors. These were combined with selective findings from surveys conducted to identify journals read and viewed as important for clinical practice by psychiatrists, surgeons and paediatricians.Findings - In each specialty many papers publish NHS-funded research and they out-number the non-NHS papers in the ROD. They appear in a wide range of journals but in each specialty one journal is clearly the most used. The impact factors of journals publishing the most NHS research vary considerably. In each specialty the journal containing most NHS publications is widely perceived to be important by clinicians.Research limitations implications - Much NHS-funded research is also funded by other bodies. Clinician survey response rates were between 38 per cent and 47 per cent. The analysis could be extended to other specialties.Practical implications - Papers published in the few journals in each specialty that are viewed as important by clinicians could be given additional credit in assessments.Originality value - This paper describes outputs from NHS research and shows how assessment could be extended.