Submissions

Author Guidelines

The Editors of Medicine, Law & Society welcome initial approaches from prospective authors. Acceptance of articles is subject to an anonymous refereeing process. Articles submitted to Medicine, Law & Society should be original contributions and should not be under consideration for any other publications at the same time. If another version of the article is under consideration by another publication, or has been, or will be published elsewhere, authors should clearly indicate this at the time of submission. Articles should be written on A4/Letter paper, double-spaced and with sample margins. All pages (including those containing only diagrams and tables) should be numbered consecutively. There is no standard length for the articles but 6,000 - 8,000 words (including notes and references) is a useful target. The articles should begin with indented and italicised summary of around 100 words, which should describe the main arguments and conclusions of the article. The author should provide brief bibliographical details including affiliation and full correspondence address, research interest and recent publications.

Review Process

All articles submitted to Medicine, Law & Society undergo a rigorous peer review process. Upon receipt, the Editor will initially assess each submission. Articles that are deemed to fall outside the scope of the journal, lack the necessary academic quality, or fail to meet the journal’s standards may be desk-rejected by the Editor without proceeding to peer review.

For articles that pass this initial assessment, the Editor will assign them to a double-blind peer review. In this process, the reviewers, whose identities are kept confidential, will evaluate the article's quality, originality, and relevance. Based on their assessment, the reviewers may recommend one of the following actions:

1. Acceptance: The article is deemed suitable for publication as submitted.
2. Minor Revisions: The article requires small changes, which will be reviewed by the Editor once resubmitted.
3. Major Revisions: The article requires substantial changes, in which case it will be returned to the reviewers for further evaluation after the revisions are made.
4. Rejection: The article is not suitable for publication in the journal.

This peer review process, including the possibility of desk rejection, ensures that only high-quality and relevant articles contribute to the journal's mission of advancing knowledge at the intersection of medicine, law, and society.

Style

Authors are responsible for ensuring that their manuscripts conform to the journal style. 
Sub-headings should be in capitals (or Roman numerals); sub-sub headings in lower case italic. Quotations should be in single quotation marks, doubled with single. Long quotations of five or more lines should be indented without quotes. Capitals should be used sparingly, principally for proper titles and where they may be necessary to avoid ambiguity.

References

Simple references to be inserted in round brackets at the appropriate place in the text, stating author's surname, publication date of work referred to and, where appropriate, relevant pages. For example: (Adams, 2006: 34).
Comments to appear as notes, indicated consecutively throughout the article by raised numerals corresponding to the list of notes placed at the end of the manuscript.
Reference list to appear after the list of notes, containing all the works referred to, listed alphabetically by author's surname (or name of sponsoring body), stating author's surname, forename and/or initials, date of publication, title of publication, edition, place of publication and publisher, and pages if relevant. For example:
- Tan, Q. (2011) County Gorernment Reform in Urbanizing China, Lex localis - Journal of Local Self-Government, 9(4), pp. 353-371, doi: 10.4335/9.4.353-371(2011).
- Musgrave, M. R. (1959) The Theory of Public Finance (New York: McGraw-Hill).