Submission Guidelines

Length: Manuscripts should be 10-25 pages, double spaced, including references.

Endnotes: The Journal uses endnotes, not footnotes. See Endnote format below for elaboration.

What to submit: Please email a Microsoft Word document of your manuscript to <publications@aslme.org>. Please do not send a PDF of your manuscript.

On the cover page, you must state:
1. your address;
2. your telephone number and email address and your preference for communication;
3. a two-to-three (complete) sentence bio of each author, including any academic degrees and the author’s present title and institutional/corporate affiliation (please include full name, city, and state); and
4. a précis of the article (this should be 50-200 words to initiate peer review, with the understanding that it will be rewritten by the author to be 50-75 words for publication).

Any acknowledgments must be stated on the cover page only. If you send the file as an attachment, be sure your email includes contact information in the event we can’t open the attachment.

Peer review: Decisions to accept or reject papers are based on the recommendations received during blind peer review. The evaluation process generally takes eight to ten weeks. Out of respect for peer reviewers, the editors do not consider articles already under consideration by other journals. The peer review process will not begin until authors complete the “Statement from Author Submitting Manuscript for Consideration to the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics.” This form is sent to authors when we acknowledge receipt of the submission.

Editing: Authors will be consulted during the editing stage about any editorial changes to their texts. Minor standardizations ? headings, alignments, references, minor punctuation revisions, applications of our stylebook, and so forth ? will not be discussed. Authors will also receive final-stage proofs for review, at which time only significant corrections will be permitted. Because of the constraints of publishing, authors will be given only a brief window of time (typically, two business days) to respond to editing changes and then, later on in the process, the final-stage proof.

Once a manuscript has been accepted, authors are expected to be aware of specific impediments to their ability to be reached at least by email and to respond to editing changes or the final-stage proof (e.g., vacation, conference traveling) within the timeframe mentioned above. They must alert the managing editor of these impediments when the final manuscript is submitted (if they are aware of the impediments at that time) or at least two weeks prior to the time when they will be unreachable or unable to give the article’s review their immediate attention. Otherwise, an author’s failure to respond to the editing changes and/or the final-stage proof during the time provided will be deemed an acknowledgment by the author that the changes and/or final proof is/are acceptable for publication.

Usages: To maintain uniformity, authors must use standard American English spellings. Authors also must abide by editing done in compliance with the Journal’s in-house stylebook, which governs our use of acronyms, hyphenation, italicizing, capitalization, subheading, citation, and the like.

Figures and diagrams: All figures, diagrams, and tables must be camera-ready. The editors will not create figures, diagrams, or tables. They must be created as separate electronic files. If you have questions about suitability, contact the editorial office. Figures, diagrams, and tables should be given individual title and numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals. Indicate in the text or margin of your manuscript the most appropriate location for each figure.

Endnote format: The Journal uses endnotes, not footnotes. For reasons related to layout, we also do not want any link between the endnote number in the body of the paper and the corresponding endnote reference at the end of the body. Consequently, do not use the built-in endnote/footnote mechanism within Microsoft Word. Instead, within the body of the paper, superscript each endnote number. Then, at the end of the body, type the endnote references in normal type. The text of the endnotes must be formatted as outlined below. Each new citation requires its own note: If you want to refer to a note listed previously in the text, then at the endnote entry use id. or supra, as is warranted. Do not place more than one note at one place in the text.

Because of its interdisciplinary appeal, the Journal has a unique style of citation. Book and article references generally follow the Chicago Manual of Style; statute, case, regulation, and like citations generally follow the Uniform System of Citation (the Bluebook). Endnotes are numbered consecutively; references to earlier notes should receive their own numbers, for example,

1. See Jones, supra note 18.

Notes should not be strung together. For example, replace 21,22,23 with 21. The text of any multiple citation within a single note is linked together with semicolons.

Below, find the acceptable endnote forms, listed by categories. You must use initials with first names. For institutional authors, go smallest unit to largest (e.g., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). Please note that, unlike Bluebook form, general references to articles require complete page citations, that is, the first and last pages. If you are quoting from a published work or citing to a particular part of it, you must also cite the page(s) in question that you are quoting from or citing.

Articles in journals
Include the issue number for all articles. For example::

1. D.E. Hoffmann and A.J. Tarzian, “The Girl Who Cried Pain: A Bias Against Women in the Treatment of Pain,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 29, no. 3 (1992): 13-27, at 19.

2. J.P. Jones, “Hospitals,” Hastings Center Report 55, no. 3 (1986): 2-11.

Articles or chapters in edited collections
1. J.P. Jones, “Hospitals,” in W.W. Jones and W.P. Jones, eds., Hospitals and Mergers (Garden City: Publishers Press, 1978): 3-8.

Newspapers and magazines
Spell out the date. Page numbers are not essential since they sometimes vary by edition.

1. J.P. Jones, “Hospitals,” New York Times, October 1, 1986, at 6.

Books
These always require a pincite.

1. W.W. Jones and W.P. Jones, eds., Hospitals and Mergers (New York: Publishers Press, 1978): at 10.

Reports
This is a modification of the book citation. Government and international reports can stand alone (hence, they’re italicized), but they traditionally don’t have publishing and publication city information.

1. Author, Report Name, Description (if applicable, in caps if official), Identifying number (month, day, year).

Treatises and other intergovernmental materials
Follow bluebook. Generally, documents (including resolutions) are italicized.

Cases
1. Jackson v. Metropolitan, 348 F. Supp. 954, 956-58 (M.D. Pa. 1972), aff’d, F.2d 754 (3d Cir. 1973).

Statutes and regulations
Note that every new citation requires a year.

1. 7 C.F.R. 319.76 (1990).

Internet: generally
The webpage being cited should be the page where the source begins, not where the source is merely described or available for purchase. Do not provide Internet citations for webpages that require a password or fee to access.

The title of the webpage, if this is the source being cited, should be in quotation marks. If the link is a PDF, please use italics.

Authors are required to independently verify all Internet citations as a final step to submitting their manuscript. Inadvertent errors can only be caught by trying to access the Website addresses as they are written in the endnotes from an Internet browser. Internet addresses should be typed out letter by letter (that is, not in hyperlinked format).

Include “available at” before citing the webpage in carrots (<, >).

See for example:

1. American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics, ACMG Recommendations for Reporting of Incidental Findings in Clinical Exome and Genome Sequencing, available at <http://www.acmg.net/docs/ACMG_Releases_Highly-Anticipated_Recommendations_on_Incidental_Findings_in_Clinical_Exome_and_Genome_Sequencing.pdf> (last visited February 23, 2015).

2. C. Y. Johnson, “Controversial Guidelines Suggest Patients Should Be Informed What Risks Lurk in Their DNA,” Boston Globe, March 21, 2013, available at <http://www.boston.com/news/science/blogs/science-in-mind/2013/03/21/controversial-guidelines-suggest-patients-should-informed-what-risks-lurk-their-dna/Z50TUl6zW8k2KlXA1UG5yN/blog.html> (last visited February 23, 2015).

Interviews or personal communications
For personal communications, if there is more than one author for the article, specify which author in parenthesis.

1. Jagdesh Bhagwati, interview by Geraldine Doogue, Life Matters, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (March 12, 2002).

2. Personal communication from Joe Smith to author (MJM) (February 23, 2003).

Speech
1. J. Saramago, “From Justice to Democracy by Way of the Bells,” closing speech of the World Social Forum, Porte Alegre, Brazil, February 5, 2002, trans. R. Finnegan and C. Johnson.

Paper presented at conference
1. G.J. Annas, Genism, Racism, and the Prospect of Genetic Genocide, paper presented at The New Aspects of Racism in the Age of Globalization and the Gene Revolution, UNESCO 21st Century Talks, World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Durban, South Africa, September 3, 2001, available at <http://www.bumc.bu.edu/www/sph/lw/pvl/genism.htm> (quoting Craig Venter).

Abstract from paper presented at conference published in conference proceedings
1. E.W. Clayton, “Creating a Process to Collect Human Biological Materials and Medical Records for Research from Patients in Teaching Hospitals,” abstract from presentation at A Decade of ELSI Research: A Celebration of the First Ten Years of the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) Programs, printed in Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 29, no. 2, suppl. (2001): 5.

2. Z. Lazzarini et al., “State Efforts to Reduce Perinatal HIV Transmission,” Abstract No. 44105, Proceedings of the XII International Conference on AIDS, Geneva, Switzerland, June 28 July 3, 1998 (1998): 959.

Research Protocols
1. L. Brewster, J. Kleijnen, G. Van Montfrans, “Pharmacotherapy for Hypertension in People of Sub-Saharan Africa or of Sub-Saharan African Descent.” Protocol of the Cochrane Hypertension Group, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 3, 2001 (citing earlier studies).

Copyright forms: Authors are required to sign copyright forms prior to publication. No compensation is paid for articles published.

Online & Indexing: The Journal is available online or through microform on Westlaw, Lexis-Nexis, MEDLINE, EBSCO, Information Access, and University Microfilms Inc. It is indexed in or abstracted on Index to Legal Periodicals, Legal Resource Index, Current Contents/Social and Behavioral Sciences, Social Sciences Citation Index, Research Alert, Social Scisearch, Current Law Index, CINAHL: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Hospital Literature Index, SSRN Health Law & Policy, and Sociological Abstracts.

Copies: Authors receive two complimentary copies of the issue in which their work appears. At publication, authors may purchase additional journal copies at a discounted rate. The price of a single issue is $20. Bulk orders of more than 10 copies are $18 per issue.

Reprints: Reprints of articles can be ordered at press time.

Direct all inquiries to:
Edward Hutchinson
Managing Editor
The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics
American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics
765 Commonwealth Ave., Suite 1704
Boston, Massachusetts 02215
Tel: (617) 262-4990 ext. 13
Fax: (617) 437-7596
Email: publications@aslme.org