Medical Anthropology Quarterly is an international journal published by the Society for Medical Anthropology, a section of the American Anthropological Association. The journal publishes research and theory in all areas of medical anthropology. Its goal 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.
The Journal is committed to scholarship that seeks to undo the structures of white supremacy, (settler) colonialism, and the knowledge practices upon which these have been built. We aim to provide space for antiracist and anticolonial praxis, and are committed to amplifying the voices and perspectives of underrepresented scholars from around the globe, including in our practices of publication, citation, and circulation. Our publishing prioritizes holistic and cross-cultural perspectives that are distinctive of anthropology in general.
In recognition that “canon building is empire building” (Toni Morrison, 1988) MAQ understands citation as a political, as well as a scholarly, practice. In light of this, and as part of a commitment to anti-racist and anti-colonial scholarship, we expect authors to be mindful of whose work they choose to cite, and therefore recirculate, whose work they choose not to, and what forms of racialized and gendered inequity they may reproduce or challenge through those choices. Authors should review their cited interlocutors with this in mind before submission.
For more information, please review the aims and scope.
Types of Manuscripts
MAQ publishes original conceptual and empirical research articles, review articles, and book reviews. Articles should explicitly refer to theory and methods used in the field of medical anthropology, often accomplished by specifically referencing prior publications of others in the journal. The instructions on this page below apply to articles. See additional information about book reviews.
Special Issues: MAQ Editors consider submissions for Special Issues one time per year. Please submit the complete description, abstracts and timeline for submission to the MAQ Editor before July 15.
Submitting Your Manuscript
Manuscripts should be submitted through our web-based manuscript processing system at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/americananthro-maq. If you have any difficulty using this system, please contact Yui, the MAQ Editorial Assistant, at medicalanthropologyquarterly@gmail.com.
Peer Review Process
Manuscripts submitted to MAQ are initially evaluated for formatting and fit with the journal’s aims and scope. The Editor does not offer opinions about potential papers for MAQ, but we generally inform authors within one week if a submitted manuscript is inappropriate for review.
MAQ uses double-blind peer review. We do not disclose authors’ identities to reviewers or reviewers’ identities to authors. Manuscripts sent for review are evaluated by two to five external reviewers with relevant expertise.
Authors may list preferred and non-preferred reviewers when submitting a manuscript. Preferred reviewers should have relevant expertise but no knowledge of the current submission. The cover letter should provide a rationale for identifying any potential reviewer as non-preferred. The Editor is not bound by authors’ recommended reviewers but will take them as illustrative of potential audiences for the manuscript.
External peer review generally takes two to four months. In some cases, the process can take longer.
Preparing Your Manuscript
Length
Manuscripts should be no more than 8,500 words, including abstract, text, notes, tables, figures, and a list of references. We encourage shorter initial submissions, in anticipation of reviewers’ requests for revisions. Supplemental material to be published online does not count against the word limit.
Title Page
The title page should be uploaded separately from the main document and should include the following items in the order listed:
- Manuscript title
- Names of all authors spelled out in full
- Affiliations of authors (department, institution, city, state or province, country)
- Name and contact information for corresponding author
- A short running title, not to exceed 50 characters (including spaces)
- Acknowledgements, including funding information
When crafting a title for your manuscript, please consider that descriptive rather than literary titles make it easier for potential readers to find your work. Search engines assume that the title includes the most important words for defining an article’s content. You can increase the chance that your article will reach its intended audience by using a clear, descriptive title with words that readers might search for.
Abstract and Keywords
All manuscripts should include an abstract of no more than 150 words and three to five keywords. Because abstracts will be used to attract potential reviewers and readers, they should be carefully thought out and precise. Reiterate important words from your title in the abstract and keywords to help readers find your work using search engines and bibliographic databases.
The abstract and keywords should be the first page of the main document you submit through our manuscript processing system (see below). You will also be prompted to enter the abstract and keywords separately as part of the submission process.
Manuscript Text
Submit one document in a standard word-processing format (such as MS Word) that includes the following items in the order listed, each beginning on a separate page:
- abstract
- main text of the manuscript
- notes (if any)
- references
- tables (but not graphs, maps, or diagrams)
- a list of figures (if any)
- a list of supplemental material (if any)
The abstract, main text, notes, and references should be double-spaced and prepared in a standard font (e.g., Times New Roman, 12-point) with one-inch margins. Please do not include in the main document file a title page or any other pages that identify the authors of the manuscript.
Style
Medical Anthropology Quarterly follows the Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed.) for most matters of style, including hyphenation, capitalization, punctuation, abbreviations, and grammar. We follow Webster’s Eleventh New Collegiate Dictionary (2005) for spelling. For the AAA guide to Chicago style, please see the AAA guide to Chicago style for further information.
Further tips:
Keep notes down to a minimum, if they are absolutely necessary. Try to incorporate material into the text if possible.
Use quotation marks for direct quotes and for unique words usages only.
Make sure references are complete. As appropriate, include place of publication, page numbers for parts used from a book, date accessed for URLs, and so on.
Don’t forget to provide 4-5 keywords as part of the abstract.
Tables
Tables should be appended to the main document file, following References. Include each table on a separate page. Number tables consecutively in the order in which they appear in text. Each table should have a caption. Tables do not need to be double-spaced, but they should be legible and preferably fit within the document margins in portrait layout.
Figures
We recommend that you upload figures (e.g., graphs, images, maps) as separate files, rather than embedding them in the main manuscript document. You should, however, provide a list of figure captions on a separate page in the main document file, following tables (if any).
The preferred formats for image files are TIFF, EPS, or PDF (without thumbnail previews). Other acceptable formats for review include JPG, PNG, and BMP, but these formats are not of sufficient quality for publication. Line art (e.g., graphs, charts) should have a minimum resolution of 600 dpi. Gray scale images (e.g., photographs without line art) should have a resolution of at least 300 dpi.
Supplemental Material
MAQ welcomes supplemental material to be published on the journal’s web site. Supplemental material could include, but is not limited to, multimedia content (photos, video, audio), questionnaires or interview guides, supporting analyses, or detail about novel methods. Supplemental material should be directly related to the submitted manuscript, and the manuscript must be able to stand on its own.
Upload supplemental material and designate it as such at the time of submission.
References
References appearing in the bibliography must be cited in text, and vice versa. In-text citations appear in parentheses, with last name(s), year of publication, and page numbers (if appropriate). The reference list should be in the style of American Anthropologist: ordered alphabetically by author’s last name (primary author last name first); date of publication; followed by title and then publisher’s city and name. No underlining or boldface should be used in the reference list. For more information and examples please refer to the AAA Style Guide.
Accepted Publications
Authors who are notified that their article will be published should prepare one photo image (which can be conceptual) that will be posted along with abstract and supplementary materials on the MAQ website.