Information For Authors

Author Guidelines

Submissions must be original, not published elsewhere, and not currently under consideration elsewhere (unless an agreement with the journal has been made to republish or publish concurrently). Submissions found to violate these requirements will be rejected and other publishers may be notified.

Please see below for instructions on preparing your manuscript for submission.

 

Journal Scope

Philosophy of Medicine publishes original research in philosophy of medicine broadly construed to include research on any aspect of medical research or practice. The journal welcomes submissions in any area that make a substantial contribution to philosophy of medicine, particularly if the submission has the potential to advance medicine.

 

Submission Types

Original Research Articles

Articles providing an original research contribution to philosophy of medicine. Word limit: 10,000 words, excluding references. Original research articles are generally unsolicited.

Analysis articles: original research articles of up to 5,000 words, excluding references.

In order to encourage concise articles that do not require up to 10,000 words to provide a substantial contribution, the journal welcomes Analysis articles of up to 5,000 words. If an original research article of more than 5,000 words would make a similar contribution if it were less than 5,000 words, the journal may request revisions that shorten the article so that it may be published as an Analysis.

 

Commentaries

Articles providing a response to original research articles published in the journal. Word limit: 3,500 words, excluding references. Commentaries are solicited by the journal. If you would like to pitch a Commentary, please contact the Editor in Chief, Alex Broadbent (abbroadbent@uj.ac.za).

 

The Examination Room articles

Articles aimed at the wider public (including health professionals and health scientists), generally authored by philosophers. Word limit: 5,000 words, excluding references. The Examination Room articles are generally solicited by the journal. If you would like to pitch an idea, please contact the Associate Editor for The Examination Room, Jonathan Fuller (JPF53@pitt.edu).

 

Perspectives

Opinion pieces, reflections or topic overviews published by philosophers, practitioners or scientists. Word limit: 5,000 words, excluding references. Perspectives are generally solicited by the journal. If you would like to pitch an idea, please contact the Associate Editor for Reviews, Letters and Perspectives, Maya Goldenberg (mgolden@uoguelph.ca).

 

Book Reviews

Reviews of recently published books in philosophy of medicine. Word limit: 3,500 words, excluding references. Book reviews are generally solicited by the journal. If you would like to suggest a book for review or propose to review a specific book, please contact the Associate Editor for Reviews, Letters and Perspectives, Maya Goldenberg (mgolden@uoguelph.ca).

 

Letters

Letters to the journal on any topic relevant to the journal or contemporary matters in philosophy of medicine. The journal will only publish letters of substantial value to its mission. Word limit: 1,500 words, excluding references. Letters are generally unsolicited.

 

Initial Submission Instructions

The journal will accept submissions in the following file formats: Microsoft Word, RTF, PDF or OpenOffice, but Microsoft Word and RTF are preferred. Submissions should use an easily readable typeface such as 11pt or 12pt Cambria or Times New Roman.

Original Research articles (including Analysis), The Examination Room articles and Perspectives should include an abstract of no more than 100 words. Authors should minimize the use of discursive footnotes. Graphics should be incorporated into the manuscript file, if possible. 

When submitting an Original Research article, authors will be asked to select a subject area (e.g. “Original Research Articles (health, disease, illness)”. This selection is for reviewing purposes only. If a submission does not neatly fall under any of the five subject areas listed, an author may select “Original Research Articles (other)”. When submitting an Analysis, authors should instead select "Analysis" and indicate the subject area under Comments to the Editor.

Initial submissions need not conform to journal style (e.g. citation and reference style, heading style, or other journal conventions). However, using a style that is not reader-friendly may compromise a submission’s chances of acceptance, and editors reserve the right to return manuscripts to the author and request resubmission in a more readable format.

Philosophy of Medicine operates a double-blind review process. To anonymize your manuscript, please make sure your paper does not contain information that communicates your identity to reviewers. In particular, omit a title page and any acknowledgements on initial submission. Refer to self-citations in the third person in your initial submission (i.e. write “Carnap (1935) argued” rather than “I argued (Carnap 1935)”). Check that your name does not appear anywhere in the manuscript (e.g. in headers or footers).

To remove your name from the document metadata:

  • in MS Word, go to File – Options – General – User name: remove your name and initials and replace them with Xs
  • in Word for Mac, go to Tools – Protect document – Privacy: tick the box “Remove personal information from this document on save”
  • in Adobe, go to Preferences – Identity: remove your name and initials and replace them with Xs.

 

Final Submission Instructions

When the article has been accepted for publication, you will be requested to make a final submission. Along with the article text, this should include all relevant components, such as a title page, permissions, acknowledgements, figures, and tables.

Include supporting agencies and keywords in the metadata fields. Please disclose any interests, financial or otherwise, that might bear on the impartiality of your submission.

Choose three to five keywords that highlight the specific ideas of the article, but do not repeat words already in the title. Include synonyms that researchers and non-specialists might use for the same idea.

Authors must adhere to the following style guidelines when submitting their final manuscript. Philosophy of Medicine generally follows The Chicago Manual of Style (CMoS), 17th edition. For any issues not covered below, consult the CMoS.

 

In-house style guidelines

  • Format the document in 12 pt Times New Roman, aligned left, with 1.5 line spacing. Indent the first line of paragraphs; no line space between paragraphs.
  • US English spelling conventions (e.g. labor, not labour). Where in doubt, consult the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
  • Use -ize spelling for verb endings (e.g. realize, specialize).
  • Use italics—not bold—for emphasis, and sparingly.
  • Dashes should be unspaced em-rules, as in the preceding bullet.
  • Use double quotation marks for quoted words, phrases, and sentences. Single quotation marks enclose quotations within quotations. Quotations of more than 50 words should be indented as a block quotation, with a one-line break above and below.
  • Numbers are separated with commas: 1,000; 50,000,000. Use a decimal point, not a decimal comma. In nontechnical texts, use “per cent”; in scientific and statistical copy, use the % symbol. The preferred form for dates is dd mm yyyy (e.g. 8 August 2014).

 

Structure of article

  • Provide the name, title, institution and email address of the author(s) on the title page.
  • An abstract should be placed on its own page following the title page.
  • The article title and subtitle should be in title case, separated by a colon. Section titles should also use title case.
  • Sections should be numbered. Try to keep to two levels of headings (e.g. sections and subsections), but no more than three.
  • Footnotes may be used for brief discursive notes.
  • Place the list of references at the end of the document.

 

Tables and figures

  • Authors are responsible for obtaining permissions for the use of any figures or illustrations previously published elsewhere, and must include all permissions during final manuscript submission. All figures and illustrations appearing in the manuscript must be of professional quality.
  • Tables should be editable (not images).
  • Provide the source of the data and/or visual image.
  • Tables and figures should be numbered and placed appropriately within the article. They should be referred to by number rather than as “above” or “below”.
  • Captions should be placed above tables and below figures. Label all units (x and y axes, legends, column box heads, parts of diagrams, etc.).

 

References and citations

Authors are responsible for the completeness and accuracy of their references and citations, which should follow the Chicago author-date system. The following examples are adapted from the CMoS Citation Quick Guide. For more details and examples, see chapter 15 of The Chicago Manual of Style.

 

Book

Reference list entry:

Grazer, Brian, and Charles Fishman. 2015. A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. New York: Simon & Schuster.

In-text citation:

(Grazer and Fishman 2015, 12)

 

Translated book

Reference list entry:

Lahiri, Jhumpa. 2016. In Other Words. Translated by Ann Goldstein. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

In-text citation:

(Lahiri 2016, 146)

 

Chapter of an edited book

Reference list entry:

Thoreau, Henry David. 2016. “Walking.” In The Making of the American Essay, edited by John D’Agata, 167–95. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press.

In-text citation:

(Thoreau 2016, 177–78)

 

Journal article

For articles consulted online, include a URL or the name of the database. Many journal articles list a DOI (Digital Object Identifier). A DOI forms a permanent URL that begins with https://doi.org. This URL is preferable to the URL that appears in your browser’s address bar.

Reference list entry:

Keng, Shao-Hsun, Chun-Hung Lin, and Peter F. Orazem. 2017. “Expanding College Access in Taiwan, 1978–2014: Effects on Graduate Quality and Income Inequality.” Journal of Human Capital 11, no. 1 (Spring): 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1086/690235.

In-text citation:

(Keng, Lin, and Orazem 2017, 9–10)

 

Conference papers, lectures, etc.

If the information is available online, include a URL.

Reference list entry:

Rohde, Hannah, Roger Levy, and Andrew Kehler. “Implicit Causality Biases Influence Relative Clause Attachment.” Poster presented at the 21st CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Chapel Hill, NC, March 2008. http://idiom.ucsd.edu/~rlevy/papers/cuny2008/rohde-levy-kehler-2008-cuny.pdf.

In-text citation:

(Rohde, Levy, and Kehler 2013)

 

Thesis or dissertation

Reference list entry:

Rutz, Cynthia Lillian. 2013. “King Lear and Its Folktale Analogues.” PhD diss., University of Chicago.

In-text citation:

(Rutz 2013, 99–100)

 

Multiple authors

If there are four or more authors, list up to ten in the reference list; in the in-text citation, list only the first, followed by et al. (“and others”). For more than ten authors (not shown here), list the first seven in the reference list, followed by et al.

Reference list entry:

Bay, Rachael A., Noah Rose, Rowan Barrett, Louis Bernatchez, Cameron K. Ghalambor, Jesse R. Lasky, Rachel B. Brem, Stephen R. Palumbi, and Peter Ralph. 2017. “Predicting Responses to Contemporary Environmental Change Using Evolutionary Response Architectures.” American Naturalist 189, no. 5 (May): 463–73. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/10.1086/691233.

In-text citation:

(Bay et al. 2017, 465)

 

Reference list

No indent, one line space between entries.

For successive entries by the exact same author(s), a 3-em dash replaces the name(s) after the first appearance, and the entries are arranged chronologically by year of publication in ascending order.

Schuman, Howard, and Jacqueline Scott. 1987. “Problems in the Use of Survey Questions to Measure Public Opinion.” Science 236 (4804): 957–59. https://doi-org/10.1126/science.236.4804.957.

———. 1989. “Generations and Collective Memories.” American Sociological Review 54, no. 3 (June): 359–81. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095611.