Submissions

Author Guidelines

Medicina e Morale. Rivista internazionale di Bioetica is a scientific quarterly journal that addresses topics pertaining to Bioethics either theoretically or through its application to the different areas of knowledge and to concrete cases, in compliance with the principles of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.

The journal publishes:

• Original articles on bioethics, moral philosophy, medical ethics, deontology, philosophy of law, and related disciplines (max 50.000 characters spaces included);
• Case studies in which ethical dilemmas are relevant. They should include a brief introduction, the description of the case as well as an extensive comment (max 50.000 characters spaces included).

Authors who wish to publish their works are invited to send the manuscripts (saved in .doc or .docx format) by e-mail to the address: redazione.medicinaemorale@unicatt.it.
It is possible to send manuscripts in English, French, Spanish and Italian language.
Please, send both an anonymized version of the contribution entitled "Manuscript" and a "Cover Page" that include: 1. full name, academic title, faculty/department/centre and university for each author; 2. contact details of the corresponding author; 3. title in the language of composition and in English and short title of the contribution; 3-6 key-words in the language of composition and in English (if manuscript is written in English, 3-6 key-words in English and in Italian), if possible in accordance with the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH); 4. abstract (max 250 words) in the language of composition and in English (if manuscript is written in English, abstract in English and in Italian).

Any property which can identify the author must be deleted in order to ensure anonymity during the review process. All papers are subjected to double blind peer review. The referees are chosen among the Scientific Committee's members or among external experts. The opinion of the referees on manuscripts can be expressed in 5 options:

• accepted as it is;
• accepted with minor revisions;
• accepted with major revisions;
• rejected, but a fully revised version can be evaluated;
• rejected.

If modifications to the manuscript are requested, the corrected version must be sent to the Editorial staff with the modified parts underlined and highlighted by the date requested. The revised version must be accompanied by a letter with point-by-point responses to the reviewers' comments.
Correction of proofs should be limited to typographical errors. Corrected proofs must be sent back within 5 working days to the Editorial staff. In case of delay, the Editorial staff will correct the proofs.

All manuscripts must follow the instructions illustrated below.

Text of the manuscript:
Sections. The text of the contribution must be divide into numbered sections (1, 2, 3) and subsections (1.1, 1.2). Sections and subsections must have a title.

Abbreviations. The abbreviations must be initially defined and used in a coherent manner. Terms must be first written entirely and after followed by the abbreviations in parenthesis "€“ preferably in capital letters without full stops. This also in the case of logic marks.

Notes to text. Notes must appear as footnotes. They must be numbered progressively with exponential Arabic numbers (without parentheses).

Bibliographic references. All bibliographic references must be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and placed in the end of the paper under the title "References" in the same order that they appear in the text.

Citations of references in text must be identified using progressive numbers in square brackets.
Example: as reported by the Minister of Health [3]
In the case of more works within the same parentheses, order the citations progressively, in the same order that they appear in the References. Separate each citation by a semicolon or by a dash. Example 1: as reported by the Minister of Health and by the National Committee [2; 3]
Example 2: as reported by several authors [2-7]

In the case you refer to a specific text or to specific pages, citations must be followed by a comma and the reference to the pages.
Example: as reported by the doctrine"» [2, pp. 77-78]
All bibliographic references must follow this order: surname and initials of each author, followed by in case of journals: full title of the journal, year, issue number, page numbers;
in case of books: city, publisher, year of publication;
in case of extracts from books: surname and initial of each editor, title of the book, city, publisher, year of publication, page numbers;
for extracts from web: city, year of publication, date of access and URL.
Examples:
Kafy S, Tulandi GG. New advances in ovulation induction. Medicina e Moarale 2007; 19 (3): 248-252
Sgreccia E. Manuale di Bioetica. I. Fondamenti ed etica biomedici. Milano: Vita e Pensiero; 2007
Di Pietro ML, Moltisanti D. Persona, Sessualità umana e Procreazione Aspetti antropologici ed etici nell'ambito della medicina ginecologica. In: Caruso A (a cura di). Manuale di Ginecologia e Ostetricia. Roma: Edizioni Internazionali; 2011: 79-92
Ministero della Salute. Carta di Trento sulla valutazione delle tecnologie sanitarie in Italia. 2006 (retrieved on 12.3.2014, at: http://www.apss.tn.it/public/Allegati/File/Carta_ di_trento_su_HTA_ in_Italia.pdf)

Editorial Conventions
How to use quotation marks:
- words with unusual meanings should be written in italic
- to show the beginning and the end of a quotation use: "«nnnnnn»".
- in case of quotation within another quotation use: «mmm: "nnnnnn"».
Italic should be used moderately in case of foreign words and to emphasize important words.

Tables, images and graphs. Tables, images and graphs must be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals and cited in the text. They must be placed as close as possible to the first citation. All illustrations must be original. Illustrations taken from other publications must be accompanied by the publisher's permission.

Sections. Beyond original articles and case studies, the Journal publishes scientific examinations on current issues, letters to editor, book reviews (max 20.000 characters spaces included) and bibliographic notes (max 5.000 characters spaces included) within different Sections of the Journal.

Offprints. Each corresponding author will be entitled to the free PDF file of the final version of the article. No offprint will be provided to authors. Offprints of the single articles can be ordered from the Editorial Office as soon as paper is accepted for publication. Please send an email to: amministrazione.medicinaemorale@unicatt.it specifying number of offprints and contact details. The author will be provided with estimate of expenditure and instructions for payment. 50 offprints (minimum order) cost 150 "‚¬. Shipping fees are set up by suppliers.