Publication of Papers

All papers will be peer-reviewed and there will be no barriers to publication and dissemination of contents. We will use the open peer review and the traditional review system. In the open peer review system, all research papers submitted to the journal will be made freely available on the internet for anyone to comment on – wiki or bulletin board technology will be used for this. The presence of papers will be advertised on listservs and to the bioethics community in general. During this period, authors can also contribute to the discussion in any way they want. Both named and anonymous comments will be allowed. After a fixed period (2 months), the editor will review the paper and the comments received. This will be used to judge whether the paper should be accepted or not. The author(s) will have the opportunity to revise the paper and re-submit if they like before a decision is made. The authors will also be given the option of sending their CV for posting on the website for interested reviewers to see. When the paper is accepted, the pre-acceptance work will be taken down from the journal website, the paper will be formatted in journal style and pdf will be created and published as the final published version. The date of publication will be determined by the Editor after final compilation of the paper and formatting in journal style.

In addition to this method, the editors will still have the option of sending papers out to 2 reviewers in the traditional closed anonymous peer review fashion and based acceptance or rejection on the opinion of these reviewers. Authors may opt for one or the other system. If the author does not indicate a choice, the open peer system will be used.

The journal will also include a press release unit which will be distributed press releases to Nigerian and international press highlighting major articles in the journal’s issues.