About the Journal

JOURNAL AIMS and SCOPE

  • Editorial Mission
  • Editorial Focus
  • Submission Categories
  • Authorship
  • Open Access Policy and DOI use
  • Audience
  • Governing Body
  • Fees (APC) and Publishing Model 
  • What APC covers
  • Waiver policy
  • Archiving and Scholarly Practices
  • Indexing
  • Author Self-Archiving
  • Memberships and Affiliations
  • Revenue Sources
  • Copyright and License Notice
  • Diversity Commitment
  • Collection of Data on Editors, Authors, and Peer Reviewers
  • SDG Goals
  • Time Stamped Ledger of Record for Researchers 
  • Publisher
  • Management and Ownership

 

Editorial Mission

Blockchain in Healthcare Today (BHTY) is the leading international open access journal that amplifies and disseminates distributed ledger technology research and innovations in the healthcare information systems, clinical computing, network technologies and biomedical sciences. Fields of interest include leveraging data science tools and techniques, health information systems interoperability, consent mechanisms, privacy preservation, security of health data, clinical support and clinical trials management, supply chain management, revenue cycle automation, immersive technologies, DAOs, tokenomics, and failed experiments in this specialty field of research.

The preeminent international journal is published on a continuous basis to accelerate sharing rigorously vetted theoretical and experiential knowledge required for a global multi-disciplinary ecosystem. A world-class peer review board endeavors to offer rapid peer review and includes constructive commentary to strengthen work.

Editorial Focus:

  • USE CASES:  contact tracing,  supply chains and management, distributed data storage, security and privacy, cybersecurity, enterprise grade, discovery frameworks, roadmaps, key learnings from successful and unsuccessful experiences
  • SPECIAL REPORTS: public health impact, pandemic core challenges and opportunities with DLT, consensus statements, guidelines and recommendations from a task force or work group, technology adoption and market trends, regulatory healthcare compliance and the impact of relaxed policies. These manuscripts are neither reviews nor original reports of primary research. 
  • MODELS for TRUST: Zero knowledge proofs and data privacy, Secure multiparty computation and privacy preserving technology, consensus algorithms and data provenance, transactional data sharing and integrity.  
  • NEW BUSINESS MODELS: value based health economics, incentive models, cashless economy, internet of value, ecosystem structure and dynamics, scalability, sustainability, and disintermediation
  • HIT: Electronic Health Records, interoperability, medical devices, clinical trials, provenance,  Internet of Things (IoT), wearables, sensors, smart  homes and health environments
  • LEGAL, REGULATORY, GOVERNANCE and ETHICS: health policy, regulation, governance, consumer protection, ethical considerations for new technology, health insurance, fraud, liability, indemnification
  • EDUCATION: technology fundamentals, innovation management, managing digital transformation, workforce transformation

In addition, BHTY publishes a BLOG, where authors can share experiences and reflections including commentary, discussion and debate on any aspect of healthcare, policy, and technology around the globe. The submission should be approximately 1000 words.

Upload manuscripts on the portal at:

https://blockchainhealthcaretoday.com/index.php/journal/about/submissions

Submission Categories

Authors around the globe are invited to submit manuscripts in the following categories:

  • Original Research
  • Proof of Concept//Pilots/Methodologies
  • Use Case
  • Production/Deployment
  • Narrative/Systematic Reviews/Meta-Analysis
  • Clinical Case Studies
  • Technical Briefs & Reports
  • Editorial or Discussion

For further details and descriptions, please visit Information for Authors & Editorial Policies at https://blockchainhealthcaretoday.com/index.php/journal/authors

Upload manuscripts on the portal at:

https://blockchainhealthcaretoday.com/index.php/journal/about/submissions

Authorship

BHTY follows guidelines for authorship recommended by the ICMJE. Please click this link to review and determine authorship criteria for your submission. Authors must meet all four criteria to be listed as authors. We ask you thoroughly familiarize yourself with the recommended guidelines. Thank you.

BHTY urges researchers to consider contributions and authorship criteria in multi-region collaborations in effort to promote equity and transparency in research collaborations.  Researchers should follow the recommendations set out in the Global Code of Conduct for Research in Resource-Poor Settings.

Publishing Schedule

BHTY is published on a continuous basis to reflect a dynamic marketplace. Continuous publishing means articles are published as they are accepted, or, on a rolling basis, to ensure accurate reflection of developments, trends, and the most current knowledge available, while providing a forum for developing shared work and consensus.

  • Rejection Rate 56%
  • Days to First Editorial Decision  23
  • Days to Accept  63 
  • Acceptance Rate  25%
  • Average days to publication   73

Note: BHTY maintains high editorial review standards reflected by acceptance in leading indexes. Author revisions add days to turnaround, acceptance, and publication timeframes. Journal staff is happy to streamline papers for authors requiring fast turnaround. There is no extra charge.

Open Access Policy

Articles are published immediately upon the final correction(s) of the master proof.

All articles are assigned a DOI number (Digital Object Identifier). Authors retain full copyright (see below for copyright policy below).

All BHTY articles are open access and at no charge to readers. There are no paywalls.

Audience

Thousands of readers from over 118+ countries visit BHTY’s website.

Over 356,000+ total reader engagements have been logged since launch in March 2018. 

BHTY's audience includes leadership from research, payer organizations, business, universities, consultants, entrepreneurs/startups, biopharma/device/pharmacy, government, policy, NGO, engineers, health information technologists, cybersecurity, auditors, computational engineers, computer scientists, data scientists, healthcare network users, public health, hospitals and innovation labs across the globe and invites all those with an interest in the latest knowledge on blockchain technology and DLT to its community.

Governing Body - Contact info@partnersindigitalhealth.com 

Editors-in-Chief

Bill Buchanan, OBE, Professor, School of Computing, Edinburgh Napier University; Fellow of the BCS, United Kingdom

John D. Halamka, MD, MS, President, Mayo Clinic Platform, USA

Associate Editor-in-Chief

Brian Ahier, Lead Health Technology Engineer, MITRE Corporation, USA
 
Journal Staff 
John Russo Jr., PharmD, Managing Editor, Blockchain in Healthcare Today, USA
j.russo@partnersindigitalhealth.com
 
BHTY editorial leadership is comprised of world-renowned experts bringing depth, breadth of knowledge, and curiosity to the journal. For a complete list of members and financial disclosures, please click this link.
 

The Managing Editor conducts plagiarism checks, desk rejections due to format or language, ensures editorial and research writing standards, timely ethical peer review, scholarly guidelines and practices are adhered as ascribed by ICMJE, COPE and WAME. Editors-in-Chief and Associate Editors-in-Chief assess manuscript submission quality, technical, health innovation, education and market merits, while all editorial board members and reviewers may assess and provide rigorous double blind peer review and constructive feedback for authors. All members abide by publishing ethics guidelines ascribed by COPE to ensure the highest standards are adhered to.

Fees and Publishing Model 

BHTY’s Article Processing Charge (APC) for the international specialty journal is $1150.00 USD for original research articles, $1450.00 USD for Special Reports (15,000 words and upwards of 100 references), and $650.00 USD for students currently enrolled at an academic institution. Please plan accordingly. Please see below for details regarding the BHTY waiver policy. THERE IS NO FEE FOR EDITORIAL, OPINION OR BLOGS.

If changes are required and requested by the author(s) post publication, a flat $350.00 USD fee will be invoiced for revision(s).

BHTY is pleased to offer authors the option of paying their APC with digital currency. Contact the publisher for more information if you would like to use this payment method at t.cenaj@partnersindigitalhealth.com

What does the article-processing charge (APC) cover?
Costs are involved in every stage of the publication process, including software, platform hosting, copyediting, production, proofs, graphics, archiving on dedicated servers, time stamping article provenance on the distributed ledger and providing custom dashboards to authors, membership to appropriate scholarly publishing organizations such as STM, COPE, Altmetric, ScienceOpen and many others, management of database and lists, social media dissemination and writing, market research and journal amplification, coding for journal plugins and new features, and compensation for work performed and commissioned (this does not include peer review or board members).

BHTY encourages libraries, organizations, and institutions around the globe to execute simple Publish and Read Agreements with the journal. Contact the publisher, Tory Cenaj, at t.cenaj@partnersindigitalhealth.com

We ask authors to pay an APC if their manuscript is accepted for publication. Once published, authors can immediately post their article on non-commercial web sites, institutional repositories, or other free public servers. The APC only applies to original research published in BHTY.  

Waiver policy

BHTY has a waiver policy for authors from lower-middle income countries as per the World Bank (click here for details). We give fair consideration to all submissions, and believe this should not be linked to the ability to pay.

Where limited funding is available to authors, BHTY can provide a complete or partial waiver to authors on request, AFTER, an article is accepted. We review papers based strictly on MERIT. The quality and contribution it makes to the sector supersedes the APC. We believe this is paramount for fair and open exchange. 

Archiving and Scholarly Practices

BHTY uses LOCKSS preservation, Portico, CrossRef, CrossMark and the PKP|PS Indexing service.

Indexing

BHTY is indexed in 13 databases including

  • PubMed (Accepted December 2022)
  • SCOPUS (Accepted January 2022)
  • Engineering Village
  • ScienceOpen
  • Index Copernicus
  • Unpaywall
  • NEBIS
  • Google Scholar
  • Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research (GFMER)
  • ProQuest Health & Medical Complete
  • ProQuest Public Health
  • ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Program
  • Public Knowledge Project metadata harvester

Launched in March 2018, BHTY does not have an impact factor yet. Be assured, BHTY is working hard to meet this industry preference, however, trends indicate the JIF may not be the leading indicator for journal selection and articles will and are being amplified on their own merits. This is why BHTY is highly active across social media and provides authors with engagment measurements other that the JIF. We believe authors seek fair and bibliodiverse environments where their work is disseminated and amplified across relevant scientific, public and not-for-profit ecosystems and audiences around the globe.

Author Self-Archiving

Authors are permitted and encouraged to post any version of their manuscript to personal or institutional websites, in repositories and similar, prior to and after publication (while providing the bibliographic details of that publication).

Memberships and Affiliations

Revenue Sources

BHTY revenue consists of the journal APC, advertising support for the journal, reprints, article publication fees, special editions, supplements, summits, advisory, roundtable proceedings, and custom projects.  The journal hosts the annual Converge2Xcelerate (#ConV2X) conference. Under no circumstance does commercial support impact the editorial decisions for journal manuscript review or acceptance.

BHTY encourages libraries, organizations, and institutions around the globe to execute simple Publish and Read Agreements with the journal. Contact the publisher, Tory Cenaj, at t.cenaj@partnersindigitalhealth.com

Copyright and License Notice

Authors contributing to BHTY agree to publish their articles under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License that allows reuse, subject only to the use being non-commercial, and to the article being fully attributed. Authors hold and retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to Blockchain in Healthcare Today (BHTY). BHTY makes all open access articles freely available from the date of publication.

Diversity Commitment

Partners in Digital Health (PDH) is committed to supporting diversity, inclusion and egalitarianism across scientific and academic communication and in publishing practices.

This belief is reflected in our internal journal practices, editorial and peer review boards, in published content, journal and community outreach and ambassador chapters to demonstrate the portfolio’s integrity, trust and values to communities far and wide in tearing down any barriers and borders relating to knowledge, economics, age, race, gender, sexual orientation, geography and political views. The founder and publisher has stated repeatedly since the journal’s inception, “all are welcome to the table.” The journal maintains an objective, unbiased and fair balanced posture at all times. 

Priorities and actions include:

  • Manuscript submission and Authorship 
  • Peer reviewers
  • Editorial and Advisory Board Members
  • ConV2X Conference and Pitch Competition
  • Fees and business model
  • Ambassador chapters

We encourage all global citizens from all countries to learn, share and participate as equals. 

Collection of Data on Editors, Authors, and Peer Reviewers

The journal does NOT collect information on race and ethnicity and does NOT permit editorial decisions to be influenced by the demographic characteristics of authors, peer reviewers, editorial board members, or editors.

We continuously address equity and inclusion in our portfolio in these areas and others as needed, to ensure our ongoing commitment to global equality, diversity and inclusion.

SGD Goals

Partners in Digital Health (PDH) is committed to supporting United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and is a signatory of the UN SDG Publisher’s Compact. Part of this commitment entails that all journal articles are to be published online-only, with no print versions for distribution. 

Time Stamped Ledger of Record for Researchers 

BHTY is pleased to offer the first life science research portal for authors and global communities. The portal registers each original research article’s provenance on the blockchain for every author to create a permanent and immutable public record of their work on the blockchain for the scientific community.
 
The BHTY+ARTiFACTS portal provides custom dashboards so authors and research teams can:

  1. Transact smart contracts on the blockchain to secure the provenance of their research files and receive citations in real time
  2. Control access to their research materials
  3. Synchronize with their ORCID ID’s and works and many other capabilities and features

In addition, authors can include relevant software code and data in the peer review workflow by uploading it to BHTY’s Code Ocean computational reproducibility workflow. 

Publisher

The journal is published by Partners in Digital Health (PDH), a forward reaching communications company publishing the peer reviewed journals Blockchain in Healthcare Today and Telehealth and Medicine Today, producer of the companion ConVerge2Xcelerate (#ConV2X) conference series, and Innovation Ignition Pitch Competition. The portfolio converges leading academics, pragmatic innovators, and practitioners around the globe to accelerate healthcare transformation and consensus building for growing research fields. PDH continuously pushes the boundaries of technology innovation in scholarly publication and ecosystem practices to bring trust, transparency, and truth to its audience.

Management and Ownership

Partners in Digital Health (PDH), was founded in 2015 and is privately owned and independently operated by Tory Cenaj. Please see correspondence details below to contact the owner for inquiries.

Partners in Digital Health
241 Hamilton Avenue, Suite 21
Stamford, CT 06902, USA
Attention: Tory Cenaj, Owner and Publisher

Those with an interest in submitting a manuscript or obtaining further information are encouraged to do so. Send inquiries to the Managing Editor, John Russo, PharmD, at j.russo@partnersindigitalhealth.com or the Owner and Publisher, Tory Cenaj, at t.cenaj@partnersindigitalhealth.com