Bioethics.net

The AJOB family of journals contains The American Journal of Bioethics, or AJOB, as it is known to many, AJOB Primary Research, and AJOB Neuroscience. Each of these journals has a unique mission in terms of publishing manuscripts in bioethics. When you decide you want to publish in AJOB, you must choose to which of these three journals your submission will be directed. In some cases, if the Editors feel that your manuscript is better suited to another AJOB journal, we will solicit your permission to transfer that manuscript to the other journal. Below is a brief summary of what kinds of manuscripts should be submitted to each AJOB journal.

AJOB: Manuscripts submitted for consideration as Target Articles should be novel and important to the field of bioethics and those fields connected to bioethics which include public health, social work, chaplaincy, scientific research, clinical medicine and more. Manuscripts will also lend themselves to Open Peer Commentaries, a set of articles that respond to the Target Article submitted.

AJOB Neuroscience: Manuscripts submitted for consideration to AJOB Neuroscience as Target Articles should be wide-ranging contributions exploring the ethical, social and legal dimensions of brain sciences. Manuscripts will also lend themselves to Open Peer Commentaries, a set of articles that respond to the Target Article submitted.

AJOB Primary Research: Manuscripts submitted to AJOB Primary Research will consist of original empirical research in bioethics and conceptual analyses of the relationship between descriptive and normative inquiry. The Journal broadly construes empirical bioethics to include social scientific research applied to bioethical questions, health policy and health services research as it relates to bioethics, and other forms of original research including evidence-based literature reviews and commentary on new developments in empirical bioethics.

The purpose of the Open Peer Commentary service is to provide a concentrated constructive interaction between author and commentators on a topic judged to be of broad significance to the bioethical science community. Commentators should provide substantive criticism, interpretation, and elaboration as well as any pertinent complementary or supplementary material, such as illustrations; all original data will be refereed in order to assure the archival validity of AJOB commentaries.

Peer Commentaries are not especially burdensome writing and offer an author the unusual opportunity to expand, amplify and summarize his or her views on an area in which their expertise is widely recognized, as well as to direct attention to the failings and successes of an important new Target Article and–uniquely–of the accompanying Peer Commentaries. Each quarterly issue features one to two Target Articles and as many as twenty Peer Commentary articles. Peer commentaries can be as long as 1500 words containing no more than 10 citations or as short as 750 words. Think of them in semi-informal terms, as though you have been asked to write an editorial response for a medical journal concerning material covered in a major article in that issue. This should not take more than a few hours and may take even less.

Access to target articles is available via the Editorial website of AJOB. If you decide to write a Peer Commentary Article, you should upload a short proposal using the online editorial system. If your proposal is selected, you will receive a short email informing you of the deadline for submission of Peer Commentaries. This email should not, however, be considered a guarantee of acceptance and publication of your commentary.

A critical part of the Editorial Site is your ability to access and to react, not only Target Articles but also to Peer Commentaries. Thus the earlier we receive your short Peer Commentary article, the more likely that your colleagues will be able to cite it in their own Peer Commentary, and the more effective the format. You should check back frequently as you write to see if additional Peer Commentaries have been posted to which you would like to react in your own Article

Submission Instructions:

1. Style and format for commentaries: Commentaries should not exceed 1,500 words, including references. Spelling, capitalization, and punctuation should be consistent within each article and commentary and should follow the style recommended in the latest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style (The University of Chicago Press, latest ed. 1993). It may be helpful to examine a recent issue of AJOB.
2. All submissions must include an indexable title, followed by the authors’ names in the form preferred for publication, full institutional addresses, and electronic mail addresses. In addition to your Commentary and contact information, you should include a short bio (3-4 lines in length), which will be published in the “Contributors” section of the journal. The bio should include your affiliation, your research interests, and any major publications.
3. Illustrations: Tables and figures (i.e., photographs, graphs, charts, or other artwork) should be numbered consecutively. Every table should have a title; every figure, a caption. At least one reference in the text must indicate the appropriate locations.
4. References: The author(s) are responsible for the accuracy and thoroughness of citations. References cited must follow the guidelines of the author-date system. The author’s last name and the year of publication (with no punctuation between them) are enclosed in parentheses and directly follow the citation. (Feingold 1994)

   When citing specific pages or sections of a work, that specification follows the year of publication, preceded by a comma. (Kimura and Hampson 1994, 58)

   For works with more than two authors, et al. should be used, and lowercase letters differentiate separate works by the same author written in the same year. (Curlee et. al. 1994) (Anderson 1994a, 1994b)

   A corresponding list of works cited should appear at the end of the article. Please abbreviate first name and spell out the last name for authors. Use headline capitalization for titles of journals and sentence capitalization for titles of books, journal articles, and chapters. Please do not abbreviate the names of Journals. Some examples of common citation formats are provided:

   Single author, journal:
   Feingold, A. 1994. Gender differences in personality: A meta-analysis. aPsychological Bulletin 116(3): 429-456.

   Two authors, journal:
   Kimura, D., and E. Hampson. 1994. Cognitive pattern in men and women is influenced by fluctuations in sex hormones. Current Directions in Psychological Science 3(2): 57-61.

   More than two authors, journal:
   Ubel, P. A., C. L. Bryce, L. A. Siminoff, A. L. Caplan, and R. M. Arnold. 2000. Pennsylvania’s voluntary benefits program: Evaluating an innovative proposal for increasing organ donation. Health Affairs 19(5):206-11.

   Single author, book:
   Macklin, R. 1999. Against relativism. New York: Oxford University Press.

   Chapter in edited collection:
   Charon, R. 1994. Narrative contributions to medical ethics. In A matter of principles: Ferment in U.S. bioethics, ed. R. P. Dubose, R. Hamel, and L. J. O’Connell, 260-283. Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press.

5. Papers published in conference proceedings are treated like chapters in books. If further detail is needed on citation or reference list formatting, please consult chapters 15-17 of the Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition.
6. Notes: Avoid extracts, tables, and paragraphing in notes. Footnotes will be converted to endnotes in the typeset version.
7. Quotations: Quotations of more than two lines should be set off in a separate paragraph with double indentation. Quotations of less than two lines may remain in the main body of the text, placed within double quotation marks. All extract citations must include page numbers.
8. Preparation of the commentary: The commentary should be in Microsoft Word, .rtf, or .pdf format, and should be e-mailed by the determined deadline as an attachment to the following address: manuscript@bioethics.net.

For more information and more specific guidelines, please contact the Editorial Office:

Summer Johnson McGee, Executive Editor
The American Journal of Bioethics
3030 Post Oak Blvd. Suite 805
Houston, TX 77056

Tel: 888-360-2562

manuscript@bioethics.net

General Information:

The American Journal of Bioethics is a refereed journal and articles are accepted on a non-remunerative basis. Submitted manuscripts must wholly comprise original material and are reviewed with the explicit understanding that their essential substance or contents have not been nor will be submitted for publication elsewhere in any form, unless and until such time as AJOB rejects said material.

Authors wishing to discuss manuscript ideas are encouraged to call the Editorial Office at 888-360-AJOB or to write to the AJOB Editorial Office at editor@bioethics.net.

The Taylor & Francis Group and The American Journal of Bioethics accept no responsibility for the statements and opinions expressed by contributors. Because of rapid advances in the medical sciences, and the scope and nature of peer review and peer commentary in AJOB, no clinical use of AJOB should be attempted. Discussions, views, and recommendations as to medical procedures, choice of drugs, and drug use are the responsibility of the authors. The names The American Journal of Bioethics and AJOB are copyrighted (c) 2010 Taylor & Francis Group.

Guidelines for Submissions of Target Articles:

Please submit two copies of the manuscript conforming to the following requirements:

1. Manuscripts may not exceed 7500 words in length (excluding references), should be in Microsoft Word or .rtf format.
2. All manuscripts must be submitted electronically using the online submission system, accessible at http://editorial.bioethics.net. Email and paper submissions are no longer accepted.
3. Title page: The name, address and professional affiliation of all authors should appear on the title page.
4. Abstract: An abstract of no more than 150 words should precede the text of the manuscript. Six keywords should be included for indexing purposes as well.
5. Graphics: Please convert all graphics to TIFF or EPS format. Line art should be a minimum of 600 dpi, and halftones a minimum of 266 dpi in resolution.
6. References: The author(s) are responsible for the accuracy and thoroughness of citations. References cited must follow the guidelines of the author-date system.

The author’s last name and the year of publication (with no punctuation between them) is enclosed in parentheses and directly follows the citation.
(Feingold 1994)When citing specific pages or sections of a work, that specification follows the year of publication, preceded by a comma.
(Kimura and Hampson 1994, 58)

For works with more than two authors, et al. should be used, and lowercase letters differentiate separate works by the same author written in the same year.
(Curlee et al. 1994)
(Anderson 1994a, 1994b)

A corresponding list of works cited should appear at the end of the article. Please abbreviate first name and spell out the last name for authors. Use headline capitalization for titles of journals and sentence capitalization for titles of books, journal articles, and chapters. Please do not abbreviate the names of Journals. Some examples of common citation formats are provided:

Single author, journal:
Feingold, A. 1994. Gender differences in personality: A meta-analysis.

Psychological Bulletin116(3): 429-456.Two authors, journal:
Kimura, D., and E. Hampson. 1994. Cognitive pattern in men and women is influenced by fluctuations in sex hormones. Current Directions in Psychological Science 3(2): 57-61.

More than two authors, journal:
Ubel, P. A., C. L. Bryce, L. A. Siminoff, A. L. Caplan, and R. M. Arnold. 2000. Pennsylvania’s voluntary benefits program: Evaluating an innovative proposal for increasing organ donation. Health Affairs 19(5):206-11.

Single author, book:
Macklin, R. 1999. Against relativism. New York: Oxford University Press.

Chapter in edited collection:
Charon, R. 1994. Narrative contributions to medical ethics. In A matter of principles: Ferment in U.S. bioethics, ed. R. P. Dubose, R. Hamel, and L. J. O’Connell, 260-283. Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press.

Papers published in conference proceedings are treated like chapters in books. If further detail is needed on citation or reference list formatting, please consult chapters 15-17 of the Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition.

7. Notes: Avoid extracts, tables, and paragraphing in notes. Footnotes will be converted to endnotes in the typeset version.
8. Quotations: Quotations of more than two lines should be set off in a separate paragraph with double indentation. Quotations of less than two lines may remain in the main body of the text, placed within double quotation marks. All extract citations must include page numbers.
9. Copyright: Authors of accepted articles will be asked to sign a Transfer of Copyright form transferring copyright of the article to the publisher, or retaining said copyright, under certain circumstances.
10. Conflicts of Interest: The conflict of Interest policy for The American Journal of Bioethics can be found online at http://bioethics.net. Authors must disclose any financial or other material, professional, or scholarly relationships that involve the area under discussion in their essay. A statement of such conflicts to include honoraria, payments, stock holdings, and other relationships as identified in the 2002 statement of the Council of Editors of Scientific Journals and of the Center for Science in The Public Interest, should appear on the first page of the manuscript. All disclosed conflicts of interest in articles submitted to AJOB will be reviewed by a conflict of interest committee comprised of members of the editorial board, but not the editors. This committee will make recommendations as to the disclosure to peer reviewers, and the nature of disclosure required should the article be accepted. All appropriate disclosures will be printed alongside each article in the paper and online AJOB. Each member of the editorial office staff will also make available, on request, a yearly report of all income received by each editor (apart from W-2 salary from editors’ and staff’s home institutions).

Procedures, Criteria for Acceptance:
Once the Commentary stage of the process has begun, the author can no longer alter the article, but can respond formally to all commentaries accepted for publication. The target article and commentaries then co-appear in AJOB, and authors’ responses appear in subsequent issues. Continuing Commentary and replies can appear as well in later issues.

Criteria for acceptance: To be eligible for publication, a paper should not only meet the standards of a journal such as Science or The New England Journal of Medicine in terms of conceptual rigor, empirical grounding, and clarity of style, but it should also offer a clear rationale for soliciting Commentary. That rationale should be provided in the author’s cover letter, together with a list of suggested commentators.

A paper for AJOB can be: (i) an unusually significant theoretical article that formally models or systematizes a body of research; or (ii) a novel interpretation, synthesis, or critique of existing experimental or theoretical work. Occasionally, articles dealing with social or philosophical aspects of bioethics will be considered. Submission of an article implies that it has not been published or is not being considered for publication elsewhere. Multiple Book Reviews and previously published articles appear by invitation only. The Editorial Board and professional readership of AJOB are encouraged to nominate current topics and authors for Commentary.

In all the categories described, the decisive consideration for eligibility will be the desirability of Commentary for the submitted material. Controversy is not a sufficient criterion for soliciting commentary: a paper may be controversial simply because it is wrong or weak. Nor is the mere presence of interdisciplinary aspects sufficient. Some appropriate rationales for seeking Open Peer Commentary would be that:

• the material bears in a significant way on some current controversial issues in The American Journal of Bioethics;
• its findings substantively contradict some well-established aspects of current research and theory;
• it criticizes the findings, practices, or principles of an accepted or influential line of work;
• it unifies a substantial amount of disparate research;
• it has important cross-disciplinary ramifications;
• it introduces an innovative methodology or formalism for consideration by proponents of the established forms;
• it meaningfully integrates a body of relevant bioethical data;
• it places a hitherto dissociated area of research into a bioethical perspective.

In order to assure communication with potential commentators (and readers) from other AJOB specialty areas, all technical terminology must be clearly defined or simplified, and specialized concepts must be fully described.

For more information and more specific guidelines, please contact the editorial office:

Summer Johnson McGee, Co-Editor in Chief
The American Journal of Bioethics
3030 Post Oak Blvd. Suite 805
Houston, TX, 77056
Tel: 888-360-2562
editor@bioethics.net

Along with a brief bio, please submit one electronic copy of your book review. All submitted reviews must conform to the following requirements in order to be considered for publication:

1. Manuscripts may not exceed 1200 words in length, should be in Microsoft Word or .rtf format, and should be emailed as an attachment.
2. Title page: The name, address and professional affiliation of all authors should appear on the title page.
3. Abstract: No abstract is required.
4. Graphics: Please convert all graphics to TIFF or EPS format. Line art should be a minimum of 600 dpi, and halftones a minimum of 266 dpi in resolution. Please be sure to include a high quality paper copy of each image.
5. References: The author(s) are responsible for the accuracy and thoroughness of citations. References cited should follow the guidelines of the author-date system. The author’s last name and the year of publication (with no punctuation between them) are enclosed in parentheses and directly follow the citation.(Feingold 1944)When citing specific pages or sections of a work, that specification follows the year of publication, preceded by a comma.

   (Kimura and Hampson 1994, 58)

   For works with more than two authors, et al. should be used, and lowercase letters differentiate separate works by the same author written in the same year.

   (Curlee et. al. 1994)
   (Anderson 1994a, 1994b)

   A corresponding list of works should appear at the end of the article. Please abbreviate first name and spell out the last name for authors. Use headline capitalization for titles of journals and sentence capitalization for titles of books, journal articles, and chapters. Please do not abbreviate the names of Journals. Some examples of common citation formats are provided:

   Single author, journal:
   Feingold, A. 1994. Gender differences in personality: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin116(3): 429-456.

   Two authors, journal:
   Kimura, D., and E. Hampson. 1994. Cognitive pattern in men and women is influenced by fluctuations in sex hormones. Current Directions in Psychological Science3(2): 57-61.

   Single author, book:
   Macklin, R. 1999. Against relativism. New York: Oxford University Press.

   Chapter in edited collection:
   Charon, R. 1994. Narrative contributions to medical ethics. In A matter of principles: Ferment in U.S. bioethics, ed. R. P. Dubose, R. Hamel, and L. J. O’Connell, 260-283. Valley forge, PA: Trinity Press.

   Papers published in conference proceedings are treated like chapters in books. If further detail is needed on citation or reference list formatting, please consult chapters 15-17 of the Chicago Manual of Style, 14^th edition.

6. Notes: Avoid extracts, tables, and paragraphing in notes. Footnotes will be converted to endnotes in the typeset version.
7. Quotations: Quotations of more than two lines should be set off in a separate paragraph with double indentation. Quotations of less than two lines may remain in the main body of the text, placed within double quotation marks. All extract citations must include page numbers.
8. Please send a 2-3 sentence brief bio to be included with the review.

Questions regarding book reviews should be directed to AJOB Book Review Editors.