About this Journal

International Journal of Medical Sociology and Anthropology ISSN 2756-3820 is a peer-reviewed open access journal that provides unrestricted, online access to publications on all aspects of medical sociology and anthropology. The journal welcomes significant research articles that provide a sociological analysis of medical organizations and institutions; the production of knowledge and selection of methods, the actions and interactions of healthcare professionals, the social or cultural as well as clinical or bodily effects of medical practice, the sociology of knowledge, science and technology studies, social epistemology, the qualitative experiences of patients, often working at the boundaries of public health, social work, demography and gerontology to explore phenomena at the intersection of the social and clinical sciences, the totality of human health and disease, health care systems, and biocultural adaptation.

Also, articles that view humans from multidimensional and ecological perspectives or examines the ways in which culture and society are organized around or influenced by issues of health, health care and related issues, are considered. The aims of the journal include the following:

• To provide a global forum for scholarly articles on the social patterns of ill-health and disease transmission, and experiences of and knowledge about health, illness and wellbeing. These include the nature, organization and movement of peoples, technologies and treatments, and how inequalities pattern access to these. Articles published in the journal showcase the theoretical sophistication, methodological soundness and ethnographic richness of contemporary medical sociology and anthropology. Through the publication of empirical articles and editorials, we encourage our authors and readers to engage critically with the key debates of our time.  
• To provide an international and interdisciplinary forum for the dissemination of social science research on health. We publish original research articles (both empirical and theoretical), reviews, position papers and commentaries on health issues, to inform current research, policy and practice in all areas of common interest to social scientists, health practitioners, and policy makers. The journal publishes material relevant to any aspect of health from a wide range of social science disciplines (anthropology, economics, epidemiology, geography, policy, psychology, and sociology), and material relevant to the social sciences from any of the professions concerned with physical and mental health, health care, clinical practice, and health policy and organization. We encourage material which is of general interest to an international readership. 
• To publish empirical and theoretical articles that apply sociological concepts and methods to the understanding of health and illness and the organization of medicine and health care. The journal editorial policy favors manuscripts that are grounded in important theoretical issues in medical sociology or the sociology of mental health and that advance theoretical understanding of the processes by which social factors and human health are inter-related.
• To publish research and theory in all areas of medical anthropology. The objective of the journal is to stimulate development of important theory, methods, and debates in medical anthropology and to explore the links between medical anthropology, the broader field of anthropology, and neighboring fields in the humanities, social sciences, and health-related disciplines, as well as to public health and clinical practice.
• To publish sociological and anthropological articles on all aspects of health, illness, medicine and health care. We welcome empirical and theoretical contributions in this field in the form of original research reports or review articles. Articles dealing with applied anthropology, and its subfield of social and cultural anthropology, are welcome.

Open Access 

• All articles published by this journal are made freely and permanently accessible online immediately upon publication, without subscription charges or registration barriers.  
• All works published by this journal are under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY). 
• Authors of articles published in this journal are the copyright holders of their articles and have granted to any third party, in advance and in perpetuity, the right to use, reproduce or disseminate articles.

Article-processing charges

International Journal of Medical Sociology and Anthropology levies an article-processing charge of $500 (USD) for each article accepted for publication. The journal does not charge a submission fee. Authors are required to pay the manuscript handling fee only after their manuscripts have been reviewed and accepted for publication by an editor. Authors can request a waiver or discount during the submission process as the journal routinely waive charges for authors from low-income countries.

ISJ offsets publication expenses – including the cost of peer review management, journal production, and online hosting and archiving – by charging an Article Processing Charge (APC), to authors, institutions or funders for each article published. This publication fees vary by journal and are payable upon article acceptance. 

Peer-review policy

Peer-review is the system used by ‎ International Journal of Medical Sociology and Anthropology to assess the quality of a manuscript before it is published. Qualified researchers in the relevant research area assess submitted manuscripts for originality, validity and significance to help editors determine whether the manuscript should be published or not. 

International Journal of Medical Sociology and Anthropology operates a double-blind peer-review system, where the reviewers of the paper won't get to know the identity of the author(s), and the author(s) won't get to know the identity of the reviewer. The advantage of double-blind peer review is that it eliminates bias.

Manuscripts submitted to this journal will generally be reviewed by two or more experts who will be required to evaluate whether the manuscript is scientifically sound and coherent, whether it duplicates already published work, and whether or not the manuscript is sufficiently clear for publication. The Editors will reach a decision based on these reports and, where necessary, they will consult with members of the Editorial Board. 

Peer Review Process

When we receive an article for publication, it is checked by the journal’s editorial office to ensure that the files are in order. After this is done, the manuscript is assigned to three or more reviewers on the basis of their subject expertise. Based on the reports of the reviewers, our editor makes the decision to accept, reject or subject the article to further revisions.

Once the manuscript is finally accepted, the article would need to undergo final check by the journal editorial office. After this, the author would be notified of the acceptance of their articles. Galley proofs are sent to the corresponding authors who are expected to read and correct any typographical or grammatical errors. Once proofs are returned by authors to the editorial office, an invoice is sent to the corresponding author. After we received payment for the article, the manuscript is usually included in the next issue of the journal. As soon as the article is published on the journal’s website, a publication notification is sent to the corresponding author with links to the issue and article.

Conflict of interest 

Public trust in the peer-review process and the integrity of published works depend in part on how well conflict of interest is handled during writing, peer review, and editorial decision making. Conflict of interest exists when an author (or the author’s institution), reviewer, or editor has financial or personal relationships that influence his or her actions. At ISJ, authors are required to disclose all financial/relevant interest that may have influenced the development of the manuscript.

Reviewers are advised to disclose any conflict of interest and if necessary, decline the review of any manuscript they perceive to have a conflict of interest. Editors should also decline from considering any manuscript that may have conflict of interest. Such manuscripts may be re-assigned to other editors.

A clear declaration of all possible conflicts – whether they actually had an influence or not – allows others to make informed decisions about the work and its review process.

Statement of Human and Animal Rights

Humans

When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. If any doubt exists whether the research was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects of the study.

Animals

When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals was followed. The materials and methods (experimental procedures) section must clearly indicate that appropriate measures were taken to minimize pain or discomfort, and details of animal care should be provided.

Informed Consent

Authors should not include patient information such as names, initials, or hospital numbers, in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is required for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent/ guardian) has given written, informed consent.

When informed consent has been obtained, it should be indicated in the published article and a copy of the 'Patient Informed Consent Form' for each patient should be included during article submission. Authors should provide written verification that all the study participants have been shown the final manuscript to be published.

Plagiarism

The editors of ISJ take a very serious stance against any evidence of plagiarism including self-plagiarism in manuscripts submitted to them. Every reasonable effort will be made to investigate any allegations of plagiarism brought to their attention, as well as instances that come up during the peer review process. 

Publication Ethics

International Scholars Journals (ISJ) is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and abides by its Code of Conduct and aims to adhere to its Best Practice Guidelines.

All journals published by ISJ are committed to publishing only innovative and original material i.e., material that has neither been published elsewhere, nor is it under consideration for publication by another publisher.

ISJ Self-Archiving Policy

Authors of articles published in any of our journals are permitted to self-archive the submitted (preprint) and accepted (peer-reviewed) version of the article at any time. There is no embargo period. At ISJ, we strongly believe that self-archiving makes research to be widely “visible, accessible, harvestable, searchable, and useable,” thus increasing its reach and impact, and possibly the number of citations it receives.

The submitted version may be placed on:

The author's personal website

The author's company/institutional repository or archive

Not for profit subject-based preprint servers or repositories

Benefits of publishing in this journal

At ISJ, we continue to work hard to support our authors who trust us with their works. Here are just some of the benefits we provide:

• Open Access: Our research is freely available to all, from the time of publication. Readers do not need a subscription or to register before they can access our articles.
• ‎High visibility: ISJ allows maximum visibility of articles published in the journal as they are available to the widest possible scientific outreach, including to the general public.
• Rapid publication: The timeframe between acceptance and publication is about 3 weeks. All ISJ journals offer a fast publication schedule.
• Rigorous peer-review: ISJ is operated by a team of experienced professional editors. We work closely with academic editors and reviewers to provide authors with an efficient, fair, and constructive reviews.
• Post-publication comments: ISJ allows readers and authors to exchange ideas that are directly accessible from the full-text article.
• International readership: All articles are being accessed from over 200 countries worldwide.
• Promotion and press coverage: Articles published in this journal are included in article alerts and regular email updates.
• Access and reach: We continue to submit our journals to all known abstracting and indexing services.
• Flexibility: ISJ journals gives you the opportunity to publish at your convenience.
• Copyright: Authors retain the copyright to their works. Authors are allowed unlimited use and/or distribution of their work without any form of restriction. As an author of an article published in any ISJ journal, you retain the copyright of your article and you are free to reproduce and disseminate your work.

Subscription Information

To subscribe for an article published by any of our journals, kindly contact editor@internationalscholarsjournals.com. The subscription rate is $350 and it is the same for all countries. The subscription charges are inclusive of delivery charges. All journals are open access and subscribers shall receive the print edition.