About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Jahr – European Journal of Bioethics is a journal that deals with a wide range of bioethical topics. The aim of the Editorial Board is to publish articles related to bioethics in social sciences (sociology, psychology, law, political science, information and communication sciences, pedagogy, education and rehabilitation sciences, speech-language pathology, kinesiology, demography, social activities, security and defence sciences, economics), humanities (philosophy, theology, philology, history, art history, archaeology, ethnology and anthropology, religious sciences), biomedical (medicine, public health, veterinary medicine, dentistry and pharmacology), but also in other sciences. The journal is published twice a year.

Jahr is indexed in HRCAK (Portal of Scientific Journals of Croatia) since September 2010, in ERIH PLUS (The European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences) since November 2015, in DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) since September 2016., and in SCOPUS since September 2017.

Publication policy

Jahr publishes reviewed papers, as well as papers that are not subject to the reviewing procedure, provided they are original and have not been submitted for consideration to any other journal. There are no fees for submitting papers for consideration or for publication. By giving their consent to be published, the authors give the journal the right for the first publication of the paper both in its printed and electronic format. Authors can publish their works in other publications, provided they cite relevant data about their paper's first publication in Jahr.

Reviewed articles

The reviewed papers are accepted to be published after being positively reviewed by two anonymous reviewers (exceptionally three). The final decision on the publication is made by Editorial Board.

Reviewed papers are categorized as following:

- Original Scientific Articles

- Preliminary Communications

- Review Articles

- Professional Articles

The journal publishes uncategorized papers, i.e. overviews of bioethics and other relevant publications published in the past three years in and outside Croatia, as well as reports and announcements of upcoming events relevant to bioethics. These include book reviews, conference reviews, scientific conferences, public lectures etc. Unreviewed articles are published in "Other contributions" section or "Book reviews" section.

Publication Frequency

Journal is published twice a year.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Publication Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement 

The following are the standards of expected ethical behaviour for all parties involved in publishing in the journal Jahr – European Journal of Bioethics: the author, the journal editor and editorial board, the peer reviewer and the publisher. 

These guidelines are based on the existing Elsevier policies and COPE’s Best Practice Guidelines for Journal Editors.

Duties of the Editor and the Editorial Board

Publication Decisions: the editor of the journal Jahr is responsible for deciding which of the articles submitted to the journal should be published. The editor is guided by the policies of the journal’s editorial board and constrained by such legal requirements as shall then be in force regarding libel, copyright infringement and plagiarism. The editor may consult with the members of the editorial board or reviewers in decision making.

Fair Play: the editor should evaluate manuscripts for their intellectual content without regard to race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic origin, citizenship, or political philosophy of the authors.

Confidentiality: the editor and any editorial staff must not disclose any information about a submitted manuscript to anyone other than the corresponding author, reviewers, potential reviewers, other editorial advisers, and the publisher, as appropriate.

Duties of Reviewers

Contribution to Editorial Decisions: peer review assists the editor in making editorial decisions and through the editorial communications with the author may also assist the author in improving the paper.

Promptness: any selected reviewer who feels unqualified to review the research reported in a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.

Confidentiality: any manuscripts received for review must be treated as confidential documents. They must not be shown to or discussed with others.

Standards of Objectivity: reviews should be conducted objectively. Personal criticism of the author is inappropriate. Reviewers should express their views clearly with supporting arguments.

Disclosure and Conflict of Interest: privileged information or ideas obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for personal advantage. Reviewers should not consider manuscripts in which they have conflicts of interest resulting from competitive, collaborative, or other relationships or connections with any of the authors, companies, or institutions connected to the papers.

Duties of Authors

Reporting Standards: authors of reports of original research should present an accurate account of the work performed as well as an objective discussion of its significance. Underlying data should be represented accurately in the paper. A paper should contain sufficient detail and references to permit others to replicate the work. Fraudulent or knowingly inaccurate statements constitute unethical behaviour and are unacceptable.

Originality and Plagiarism: the authors should ensure that they have written entirely original works, and if the authors have used the work and/or words of others that this has been appropriately cited or quoted. Plagiarism takes many forms, from ‘passing off’ another author’s paper as the one’s own paper, to copying or paraphrasing substantial parts of another author’s paper (without attribution), to claiming results from research conducted by others. Plagiarism in all its forms constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable. Applicable copyright laws and conventions should be followed. Copyright material (e.g. tables, figures or extensive quotations) should be reproduced only with appropriate permission and acknowledgement.

Multiple, Redundant or Concurrent Publication: an author should not in general publish manuscripts describing essentially the same research in more than one journal or primary publication. Submitting the same manuscript to more than one journal concurrently constitutes unethical publishing behaviour and is unacceptable.

Acknowledgement of Sources: proper acknowledgment of the work of others must always be given. Authors should cite publications that have been influential in determining the nature of the reported work.

Authorship of the Paper: authorship should be limited to those who have made a significant contribution to the conception, design, execution, or interpretation of the reported study. All those who have made significant contributions should be listed as co-authors. Where there are others who have participated in certain substantive aspects of the research project, they should be acknowledged or listed as contributors. The corresponding author should ensure that all appropriate co-authors and no inappropriate co-authors are included on the paper, and that all co-authors have seen and approved the final version of the paper and have agreed to its submission for publication.

Hazards: If the work involves chemicals, procedures or equipment that have any unusual hazards inherent in their use, the author must clearly identify these in the manuscript.

Reporting of Research Involving Humans or Animals: Appropriate approval, licensing or registration should be obtained before the research begins and details should be provided in the report (e.g. Institutional Review Board, Research Ethics Committee approval, national licensing authorities for the use of animals). If requested by editors, authors should supply evidence that reported research received the appropriate approval and was carried out ethically (e.g. copies of approvals, licences, participant consent forms). Researchers should not generally publish or share identifiable individual data collected in the course of research without specific consent from the individual (or their representative).

The appropriate statistical analyses should be determined at the start of the study and a data analysis plan for the prespecified outcomes should be prepared and followed. Secondary or post hoc analyses should be distinguished from primary analyses and those set out in the data analysis plan. Researchers should publish all meaningful research results that might contribute to understanding.

Authors should supply research protocols to journal editors if requested (e.g. for clinical trials) so that reviewers and editors can compare the research report to the protocol to check that it was carried out as planned and that no relevant details have been omitted. Researchers should follow relevant requirements for clinical trial registration and should include the trial registration number in all publications arising from the trial.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest: all authors should disclose in their manuscript any financial or other substantive conflict of interest that might be construed to influence the results or interpretation of their manuscript. All sources of financial support for the project should be disclosed.

Fundamental errors in published works: when an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published work, it is the author’s obligation to promptly notify the journal editor or publisher and cooperate with the editor to retract or correct the paper.

                                                                                  Publisher:

                                                                       University of Rijeka, Faculty of Medicine

                                                          Department of Social Sciences and Medical Humanities                                  

                                                                              Braće Branchetta 20, 51 000 Rijeka             

                                                                  Sources of Support:

Journal History & Letters from the editors

Editor in chief Amir Muzur

For at least twenty years, bioethics has been expanding as a field of interest and hope. A particular momentum was reached after the 1997 discovery of the work of Fritz Jahr (1895-1953), the German teacher and theologian who had been the first to conceive the notion of bioethics as early as 1926. It has been the intention of the journal „Jahr“, founded in May 2010, to promote this „European bioethics“, as opposed to the mainstream bioethics, narrowed-down to a „new“ medical ethics. Jahr's teaching, sublimed into his „bioethical imperative“ and reminding of respect toward other living beings, refreshed also Van Rensselaer Potter's (1911-2001) ideas on a broader concepts of „bridge“ ethics, environmental ethics, and global ethics.

After four years and nine issues, „Jahr“ is allowed to consider itself „established:“ almost 3,000 pages, about 250 articles and contributions, hudreds of authors from dozens of countries – that is an approximate ballance of this first stage of Jahr's history. (In the meantime, one has to explain the title always less and less, given that the work and importance of Fritz Jahr has been internationally recognised.)

But, one has to be honest and admit that not all the ambitions of the journal's founding fathers have been accomplished: if it wants to survive and to be more widely accepted and read, Jahr has to enter the major indexation bases (Scopus, Embase, Ebsco, Medline, etc.), to establish the possibility of a direct Internet access (not only thorugh the Hrčak portal, as present), to focus its content, and to attract more original research papers in English. In order to do it, Jahr first was suggested to change its subtitle (to tell the truth in a Voltairian paraphrase, the Annual of the Department of Social Sciences and Medical Humanities at Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka, has actually never been „annual“ or „of the Department“.) And so Jahr - European Journal of Bioethics is born. I suppose we all agree upon the reasonableness and promisingness of this move: not only it will better reflect the Journal's publication policy, but it also will strengthen our real international orientation. (Editorial Board did consider the possibilty of renaming Jahr into Journal of European Bioethics: unfortunately, no matter how proudly and appealing it sounds, the concept of „European bioethics“ is far too complex and thus potentially misleading, so final decision was to add a more neutral but still enough decisive subtitle.)

So, a new dynamic epoch stands in front of us. I thank all the members of the Advisory and Editorial boards for their help in pioneering the journal, and invite them to continue the collaboration with the new Editor-in-Chief. I am gratefull our colleague Stjepka Popović to have taken over this burden that brings no other reward but satisfaction.

Yours, in deep respect and sincereness,

Amir Muzur

Editor-in-Chief 2010 - 2014

Editor in chief 2014 - 2015, Stjepka Popović 

10th number of the *Jahr *has been published with a new subtitle *European Journal of Bioethics*. Actually, this is the second edition of the *Jahr *with a new subtitle, but it has brought a whole number of changes. In addition to new Editor-in-Chief and editorial policy, our Editorial Board has become truly international: with the exception of new members from Croatia, members from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Argentina have joined the Editorial Staff. In such a collaborative spirit, we made first arrangements of translating the selected articles to Spanish version for an issue that will be published by University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Our Advisory Board has also been changed and strengthened by prominent and internationally recognized scientists from the USA, Germany, Chile, Slovenia, Italy and Croatia who are dealing with specific bioethical issues. In our ambition to become widely recognized journal of bioethics, we launched the Open Journal System, which will allow all interested readers direct open access to the articles, but also electronic submissions for authors (starting on February 2015). Thus, for the first time the journal has its own website www.jahr-bioethics-journal.com (direct Internet access was possible only through the Hrčak portal so far: https://hrcak.srce.hr/jahr). Also, we have introduced author’s statements to ensure protection of ethical standards in research that are published in the *Jahr*. In order to keep track with publishing trends, we are happy to announce that we are receiving more papers in English. We have taken the first steps towards the realization of our greatest ambition of entering the major indexation bases at the beginning of 2016. Although there is so much ahead of us, we can already proudly claim that we have laid the foundations for the bright future of our Journal as an internationally recognized European Journal of Bioethics. We hope that we will receive more contributions to our Journal regarding different topics in the following areas: Bioethics & Social Sciences, Bioethics & Humanities, and Bioethics & Biomedical Sciences.

I would like to thank all previous members of the Editorial and Advisory Board, as well as to reviewers because their knowledge and expertise will always be inwrought in the history of our Journal. Special thanks to new editors, members of the Advisory Board and reviewers who have participated in the creation of this 10th issue. It was really a pleasure working with you and I am looking forward to future cooperation. I am very grateful to former Editor-in-Chief Amir Muzur for his trust and all well-intentioned advice and support he offered me when taking over this position.

Sincerely Yours,

Stjepka Popović

Editor-in-Chief 2014-2015 

Editor in chief 2016-, Igor Eterović

It is a great honour, but at the same time a great responsibility, to become an Editor‑in-Chief of a journal with such prospective future and great possibilities as it is a case with Jahr – European Journal of Bioethics. Wisely subtitled, it brought up the essential precursory idea of our task: to become internationally recognisable journal, especially sensitive to the rich European intellectual heritage, a heritage too often completely ignored or simply forgotten in many contemporary bioethical debates. This programmatic task of „Europeisation of Bioethics“ is a kind of guiding thread, and it includes, by implicit imperative of sensibility towards the Other and a long tradition of intellectual self-criticism, the whole array of bioethical problems, issues, methodologies and views. Such openness to the different views and perspectives is seen as a necessary obligation of bioethics, if it wants to strive and cherish. This is a logical part and continuance of development of the idea of „Integrative Bioethics“, a truly innovative concept born in Croatian academic community and spread very quickly to the whole surrounding area. We hope our Journal can be a place for further development, criticisms and challenge of various (bio)ethical standpoints, views and thesis, with exclusive motivation for enriching the field of Bioethics.

It is a great satisfaction to say that the amount and quality of papers is preserved, but also that some important novelties are introduced. To name few but few: according to our programmatic task of “Europeanisation of Bioethics”, we have prepared some new sections completely focused on that valorisation of the rich European intellectual heritage, all of them strongly related to our primary goals; we extended and improved many parts of the editorial work (e.g. we raised the quality and speed of the processing of the submitted contributions); we have improved our web site; we have introduced the DOI numbers etc. We are proud that those improvements are internationally recognized: we were included in esteemed international journal databases – DOAJ (in September 2016) and SCOPUS (in September 2017).

We have gone a step further in organisational development by inclusion of several new important associates who are now working on positions of Executive Editor and Managing Editor.

I would like to thank to the members of the Editorial Board, peer‑reviewers and all other associates included in the nascence of the issues I guided. I owe special thanks to the previous Editors‑in‑Chief. They gave me an enormous support in taking this position and continue to provide me with the beneficial and helpful advices. In the hope that I have justified the confidence of the Editorial Board given to me, I am certain that we can together assure a bright future of our Journal and make an important contribution to bioethical enterprise ahead of us.

Sincerely Yours,

Igor Eterović

Editor-in-Chief

2016–