Call for Papers

Call for Papers

Partners in Digital Health, publisher of Blockchain in Healthcare Today (BHTY), is pleased to announce a new, annual, Call for Manuscripts, specifically aimed for identifying and learning from:

Negative, Unconventional, Null, Neutral, and Failed Research

Progress in science is not only made based on positive data, but also on negative results. Scientists have become too accustomed to celebrating only success, and have forgotten that most technological advances stem from failure. When negative results aren’t published in high-impact journals, other scientists can’t learn from them and end up repeating failed experiments, leading to a waste of public funds and a delay in genuine progress.

Negative results are results that do not support a research hypothesis and nullify the aim of the research. Negative, or null results, are also important because they contribute to our knowledge of the topic as much as positive results do. This is critically important in new research fields and markets that are evolving in real world applications and scaled implementations.

Understandably, researchers are particularly challenged to disclose negative results that are not consistent with previously published positive data. In addition, positive findings are more likely to generate citations and funding for additional research, but NEGATIVE DATA saves institutions funding wasteful projects and puts the ecosystem on the right track for faster solutions and outcomes that benefit the entire ecosystem.

Partners in Digital Health would like to facilitate these critical efforts to accelerate research success, augment true innovation, and create a trusted repository where research, public, and private communities can find unconventional answers to streamline meaningful solutions.

The publisher will WAIVE THE APC for these manuscripts.

We know such papers are not typically cited, and discouraged in academia, however, negative results are essential to advancing knowledge in the field, and may even contribute to changing reward systems in academia in the future.

Topic areas will include but are not limited to the following:

What and why the research did not work, eg., rigor in study design, lack of funding, issue with patient recruitment, support from superiors or colleagues, bias, etc
Analysis of impact
Consequences of negative research
Lessons on mitigating negative results and why
Benefits of sharing research
Good research practices, best practices
Key personal learnings
Addressing issues of reproducibility
Ethical violations

This list is not comprehensive. We welcome the opportunity to consider papers on related and complementary topics.

Submission Requirements

Papers should be original submissions not previously published or under active consideration by other journal
Papers will be 3,000 maximum word count
Submissions must include a section for an analysis and recommendations for future researchers, and journal readers

The APC for these papers will be waived

To submit a paper, please click the journal link below and follow instructions.

All papers will be peer reviewed and follow the journal’s peer review process and workflow.

There is no deadline for these manuscripts.

If you have questions about the suitability of a particular paper prior to submitting, please contact the managing editor, John Russo, PharmD, at

j.russo@partnersindigitalhealth.com or info@partnersindigitalhealth.com

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

Posted September 5, 2022

Special Theme Issue: Blockchain Tracking and Tracing for the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Device Industry

Blockchain in Healthcare Today (BHTY) is delighted to announce the theme issue entitled “Blockchain Tracking and Tracing for the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Device Industry."

Blockchain technology offers reliable end-to-end tracking, monitoring and verification of drugs, including vaccines, across the supply chain. It enables faster manufacturing and resiliency including essential detection and correction for processes that improve productivity, efficiency, compliance and patient safety for the development, testing, packaging, and distribution of drug products in the pharmaceutical and healthcare device industry.

In the USA, the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) will require full traceability of drugs by 2023. In developing countries, The Health Research Funding organization reports 10–30% of available drugs are fake, while the WHO has reported approximately 30% of medicines sold in Africa, Asia, and Latin America is counterfeit. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports counterfeit drugs pose a serious risk to public health and safety, while the OECD has reported the counterfeit pharmaceutical industry is worth $200 billion annually.

Technological solutions that provide track and trace capabilities to manufacturers, distributors, and others in the healthcare supply chain can keep global health citizens safer and more confident about the integrity of their prescription drugs and online pharmacy purchases. Distributed ledger technology can be used ensure the integrity and efficacy of pharmaceuticals by monitoring suppliers, verifying quality and authenticity of the supply chain while enhancing quality control, auditing and standards in tandem with NFC, RFID, QR Codes, GPS, metal tags — technologies that are based on the contactless transmission of data.

Blockchain technology can be a solution that also increases trust toward a brand ensuring product authenticity throughout the supply chain. BHTY is pleased to issue this critical Call for Papers to examine blockchain technology applications and use in the pharmaceutical and device supply chain in healthcare. Topics of interest may include but are not limited to:

Blockchain compatibility with QR codes, NFC, RFID or GPS
Contactless transfer of data
Counterfeit drugs and fraud
Expiration date
Global trade and Import/Export
Health policy and global implications (meeting SDGs)
Inventory and order management
Pandemic (PPP) Demand planning
Product and/or vaccine authenticity
Smart supply chain with IoT and Cloud
Smart tags
Supplier management
Supply chain analytics
Supply chain models and management
Supply chain optimization

Key Dates for Submissions

Submission Deadline: April 30, 2022

Initial Decisions: June 15, 2022

Revisions Submitted and Decisions Made: August 15, 2022

Publication: October 30, 2022

Submission Guidelines

Papers should present new, original results and reviews that are unpublished. Please prepare your manuscript as per BHTY guidelines here .

To submit a manuscript to this BHTY theme issue, please visit https://blockchainhealthcaretoday.com/index.php/journal/about/submissions . Be sure you have first registered. Include your ORCID ID if you have one. Click the selection “Special Issue” for your submission.

Your manuscript will undergo full peer-review, consistent with BHTY criterion here . All papers will appear together in an e-collection (theme issue) guest edited by the academics listed below.

The theme issue article processing charge (APC) is discounted 30% and will be $1,015. (the APC for the open access specialty journal is regularly $1,450, a discount of US $435.00). Waivers are available as per the BHTY Waiver Policy.

Indexed In

SCOPUS, Engineering Village, Index Copernicus, Unpaywall, NEBIS, Geneva Foundation for Medical Education and Research (GFMER), ScienceOpen, Google Scholar, and the PKP metadata harvester.

Journal 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