Aims and Scope

International Journal of Medical Sociology and Anthropology 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.