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 and Citations

All sources and research materials used in the article must be cited in accordance with the journal’s citation guidelines. 

Citations in the text:

• When citing books or articles use in-text citation (surname, year of publishing, page), e.g.: (Tokarczyk, 2012, p. 385)
• When referring to judgements, legal acts or documents other that books and articles cite in footnotes.  
• When referring to websites, first mention the website/publisher, then the title, then the hyperlink and lastly the access date, e.g.: The European Parliament, The mutual recognition of diplomas,  Fact Sheet. Retrieved from https://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/en/sheet/42/the-mutual-recognition-of-diplomas (  February 28, 2023). 
• Cite judgements and legal acts as appropriate to the legal order. Adhere to the uniform quotation style for: 
  1.  Judgements of the Court of Justice of the EU. First name the case date, then the case 
       number, then the case name, lastly the ECLI identifier, e.g.: Judgement of the General Court 
       of 17 September 2007, T-201/04, Microsoft v. Commission, ECLI: EU:T:2007:289. 
  2. Decisions of the European Commission. First name the decision date, then the decision 
      number, lastly the case name, e.g.: Decision of the Commission of 27 June 2017, AT.39740, 
      Google Search (Shopping). 
  3. Rulings of the European Court of Human Rights. First name the judgement date, then the 
      application number, lastly the case name. Judgement of the ECHR of 13 February 2003, 
      41340/98, 41342/98, 41343/98 et al., Refah Partisi and Others v. Turkey.  
• When referring to European regulations and directives use the standardized citation style. 
  Always mention the Official Journal number, e.g.: Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 of the European 
  Parliament and of the Council of 14 September 2022 on contestable and fair markets in the 
  digital sector and amending Directives (EU) 2019/1937 and (EU) 2020/1828 (Digital Markets 
  Act), OJ L 265.

Citations in the list of references: 

• For citing books adhere to the following template, please note the italics: Barnard, C. (2019). 
  The substantive law of the EU, The four freedoms. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
• For citing journal articles adhere to the following template, please note the italics: Hadj 
  Abdou, L. (2020). Push or pull? Framing immigration in times of crisis in the European Union and the 
  United States. Journal of European Integration, 42(5), 643–658.
• Cite all other works as per the instructions for the referencing in the body of the text.