Submissions

Submission Instructions

Our Author's Guide is now available to the public for increased transparency and to clarify what we look for in a paper.

Please submit through the "make a new submission" button above or email submissions to editor@voicesinbioethics.org. 

Voices in Bioethics operates on a continuous publication model, aiming for one to two weeks from submission to a decision, and one to three weeks from the decision to publication. Voices accepts submissions in two categories, Op-Eds and Features:

• Op-Eds are expected to address current issues and must present novel arguments or analysis. Topics are wide-ranging from clinical ethics to environmental policies.

  Op-Eds should be approximately 750–2000 words.

  Op-Ed editors aim to maintain the author’s personal writing style and perspective on the issues.

  Op-Eds should cite scholarly journals and may cite mainstream media when appropriate.

• Features should be approximately 1500–4500 words on topics ranging from philosophy or history of bioethics to current clinical issues. Any bioethics topic is welcome. Surveys and overviews will not be published.

  Features must predominantly cite scholarly papers and research (academic journals, ethics journals, books, law reviews, and medical journals) but may also include citations to mainstream media.

  Feature editors will focus on the submission’s structure, analysis, depth, argument, and readability.

  Features are academic pieces and must be supported by academic or primary citations. Quality of the work cited is emphasized, not number of citations.

Format of Submissions & Style Guidelines

Avoid long quotations.

We prefer few references. References should be restricted to the most relevant sources.

Text in the endnotes is accepted.

No bibliographies or reference lists. Endnotes only.

Endnote numbers in the text should be sequential, never repeating, and only one endnote number should be placed at any location. When multiple citations are relevant to a particular point in the text, they are grouped together in a single endnote, separated by semicolons. 

Text should avoid references to researchers and authors of cited materials. When possible, keep names in the endnotes, especially names of those who conducted scientific and medical research.

Focus on a topic within bioethics and offer a distinct argument. (No overviews of issues, books, or research but deep analysis of an issue is welcome as the basis of the paper's strong argument. In op-eds, the author's opinion must be stated and supported.)

Include an email with:

• Contact information for each author, including email and phone number;

• Please state that your submission material has not been published previously elsewhere;

• Please confirm that the manuscript has not been posted on any self-publication website like Medium, Academia, or LinkedIn.

• Please indicate whether you have any conflict of interest with respect to the manuscript;

• Please indicate whether you are affiliated with the Columbia University MS in Bioethics program or with Columbia University’s other departments / areas of study and in what capacity.

• Please do not attach a cover letter or a cover page. 

Please submit your document attached as Microsoft Word document (not .pdf):

• Please format all references as Microsoft Word endnotes or footnotes in accordance with the Chicago Manual of Style or MLA. Consistency is more important than which format you choose. More information, including citation examples, is available here: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

• We do not accept bibliographies, reference lists, or parenthetical references. (Lists will be deleted so please be certain all sources relied on are noted in a footnote.)

Images: 

• Please do not submit images unless necessary.

• Please include the source information and appropriate credits for the image, as Voices in Bioethics is not authorized to publish images without appropriate credit/sourcing.

Author integrity — by submitting any material for online publication in Voices in Bioethics, the author(s) warrant that:

• They are the sole author(s) of that information, and that all authors have been included.

• They agree to have their content published online.

• Author attests the manuscript submitted was not previously published elsewhere and author will attribute the work to Voices in future distributions.

• Author understands that Voices in Bioethics is open access, free, and available to the public.

• The content does not infringe upon the rights of others (including but not limited to privacy rights, particularly patient privacy rights under HIPAA, copyrights, trademarks, or other intellectual property rights); that any material used is properly cited and credited; and that the submitted content does not contain unlawful, libelous, or slanderous statements.

• Publication of the submitted content will not result in any harm or injury to any individuals or entities. Further, authors should disclose in the cover email whether there are any financial or other relationships that might result in a conflict of interest.

• Plagiarism, data fabrication, and image manipulation are not tolerated. Reuse of text that is copied from another source must be between quotes (or indented if longer quotation) and the original source must be cited. If a specific work, idea, concept, or topic is inspired by previous works, these works must be explicitly cited.

• If plagiarism is detected during the peer review process, the manuscript may be rejected. If plagiarism is detected after publication, we may publish a correction or retract the paper.

• Voices in Bioethics will never charge a submission fee and will never pay for a manuscript.

Send an email with the manuscript attached as a Microsoft Word document to the following email address: editor@voicesinbioethics.org

Quality control and peer-review:

• Please see our Author's Guide if you would like more information the types of papers we accept and our criteria.
• We employ a peer review process in which two peer reviewers read submitted articles. Our peer reviewers follow an objective process analyzing nine criteria according to our editorial guidelines and our mission to achieve consistency in peer review. Peer reviewers are in-house. They work with editors and attend meetings to maintain fairness and create unbiased critiques of each work. Their close affiliation is crucial to the journal's mission to achieve high quality articles that contribute fresh ideas and arguments to the bioethics discourse.

• An initial revisions editor, two manuscript editors, and usually one proofreader send back comments and edits via Microsoft Word’s track changes feature.

• Special attention is given to the author’s accurate portrayal of data and ideas and the context from which the language was taken.

• Editors address the framing and presentation of arguments, caliber of sources, writing style, and grammar.

• All submissions are subject to revision. The journal reserves the right to edit documents for publication. The journal reserves the right not to publish articles if the author fails to accept recommended edits.

• Authors will have the opportunity to review and revise at each stage of the editing process and to approve the final document prior to publication.