JOURNAL AIMS and SCOPE

Blockchain in Healthcare Today (BHTY) is the world’s first peer review journal that amplifies and disseminates distributed ledger technology research and innovations in the healthcare sector. The  preeminent open-access journal facilitates sharing, discussion and consensus building for a multi-disciplinary market across a global community of stakeholders engaged in discovering, implementing and modernizing quality affordable health systems and care for health citizens. The journal is published on a continuous basis in order to accelerate sharing rigorously vetted theoretical and experiential knowledge required for a growth sector. A world-class peer-review board endeavors to offer rapid peer review (14 days per review round), 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 and ETHICS: health ploicy, 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 addiion, 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 approximately1000 words.

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. 

Submission Categories

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

• Proof of Concept
• Use Cases, Pilots
• Special Reports to include original consensus statements, guidelines, or recommendations
• Methodologies/API
• Production, Deployment
• Original Research
• Original Market Research
• Narrative/Systematic Reviews/Meta-Analysis
• Opinions, Perspectives, and Commentary on a current trend or issue impacting the sector
• Training and Tool Kits

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.

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.

All BHTY articles and content are FREE.

Audience

BHTY's audience includes researchers, and innovators in healthcare and academia including experts and leadership at hospitals, payer organizations, informatics, biopharma, public health, population health, government, healthcare insurance, CROs, not for profit organizations, consultants, financial advisors across the globe, industry executives, and all those with an interest in the latest knowledge on blockchain technology, implementation, and advances on the horizon in healthcare.

Governing Body

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. 

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

info@partnersindigitalhealth.com

Fees and Publishing Model

BHTY’s Article Processing Charge (APC) is $850.00 USD, for original research articles, and $1050.00 USD for Special Reports, which are typically lengthier. The APC for students currently enrolled at an academic institution is $450.00 USD. 

What does the article-processing charge (APC) cover?
 Costs are involved in every stage of the publication process, including software, hosting, copy editing, production, proofs, archiving on dedicated servers, time stamping article provanance on the distributed ledger, and providing custom dashboards to authors.  We ask authors to pay an APC if their original research article 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 aplies to original research published in BHTY.

Waiver policy

BHTY has a waiver policy for authors who cannot pay. We want to 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, PKP|PS Indexing service, Portico, and CrossRef. We adhere to ICMJE, COPE, and WAME guidelines and practices. 

Indexing: BHTY is indexed in the PKP Index and Google Scholar. As a new journal, we don’t have an Impact Factor. Please be assured, we are working hard toward this goal. We encourage authors to submit papers to the journal to assist meeting the minimum number of papers to submit for a PubMed index.

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

Owned and managed by: Partners in Digital Health (PDH)

Partners in Digital Health (PDH), is a forward reaching communications company publishing the peer review 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 assist in the acceleration of healthcare transformation, and better outcomes for health consumers presenting evidence based fact. PDH continuously pushes the boundaries of technology innovation in scholarly publication and ecosystem practices to bring trust, transparency, and truth to its audience.

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 Publisher, Tory Cenaj, at  t.cenaj@partnersindigitalhealth.com