About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Music and Medicine is an interdisciplinary journal that serves as an integrative forum for clinical practice and research on music and health and the application of clinical music-based strategies in medicine. Each peer-reviewed issue features original research articles, reviews, case studies, and editorial commentaries spanning clinical medicine, music therapy, psychotherapy, neuroscience, behavioral sciences, nursing, and allied health. The journal emphasizes the translation of music, music psychology, music cognition, music neuroscience, and music therapy into scientifically grounded clinical applications. Music and Medicine aims to bring together knowledge that is often dispersed across disciplines and publications, providing a centralized platform for advancing the field.

Articles that emphasize the cultural implications of music in medicine in research/practice, as well as articles that discuss how to build and develop effective programs, will be highlighted. Music and Medicine will also feature personal opinion papers and reviews of controversial topics and practices.

Peer Review Process

All submissions will be peer reviewed by anonymous reviewers, including members of the distinguished, multidisciplinary editorial board. 

Copyright Assignment

Upon acceptance of your article, you assign copyright to IAMM’s Music and Medicine Journal.

As such, as an author, you grant IAMM permission to: effectively manage, publish, and make your work available to members of IAMM and to the academic community, and serve as a host for your work as it appears in the journal.

After assigning copyright, you will still retain the right to:

  • Be credited as the author of the article.
  • Make printed copies of your article available to use for a lecture, conference, or class that you are teaching, non-commercially.
  • Include your original manuscript article, depending on pre-publication in your thesis or dissertation.
  • Present your article at a meeting or conference.

Committee on Publications Ethics

Music and Medicine is a member of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics). This informs all of our ethics and legal activity.

The Editors of Music and Medicine shall:

  • Comply with COPE core practices and guidelines.
  • Actively practice, demonstrate, and attend to the journal’s maintenance of reputable ethical standards and fair practices.
  • Provide assurances to the research and clinical community that there are no biases in the decisions of the editorial board and editors
  • Respect and maintain confidentiality as usual and customary, and most particularly when an author, reviewer and/or those involved with the piece and course of review are involved in ethical query scrutiny.
  • Develop a procedure for all members of the Editorial Board, reviewers, and readership members to bring forth matters of concern related to an article, an issue related to an article, or the peer review procedure.
  • Ensure that critiques of submitted work, and Board reviews maintain integrity and that sensitivity is adhered to in a way that author/s and Ed Board members can perceive the feedback as constructive and suggestive.
  • Protect submissions as precious intellectual property, whereby research integrity is upheld and maintained.
  • Maintain and practice high ethical standards which implement scrutiny of: authorship, originality of content, avoiding re-publication of work published previously, referencing with accuracy, avoiding plagiarism, attributing references to others’ ideas, avoiding falsification, and avoiding fabrication.
  • Ensure authors have disclosed sources of funding and any other resources.
  • Checking that submissions meet appropriate content and ethical standards, and deal with any points of concern appropriately.
  • Inform the Executive Committee of IAMM, on at least an annual basis, of any relevant competing interests that may influence, or may be perceived to influence, their decisions as Editor.
  • Implement Crossref similarity check when a suspect requires checking for plagiarism and work with the IAMM to follow COPE guidelines, to address issues where papers reflect an identical level of similarity to another publication.
  • Seek to maintain Editorials that are informed and considerate of others’ perspectives, ensuring that fairness and sensitivity are maintained and defamatory text is avoided.
  • Familiarize one another and ourselves with the appeals procedure, which authors may take against Editorial decisions and inform the Executive Committee of any appeals as necessary, if additional support may be required

Journal Editorial Management: Peer review and manuscript handling are inclusive of ethical, timely, and effective peer review. This is fundamental to Music and Medicine and, in conjunction with the IAMM, the Editors are responsible for managing and assuring the integrity of the peer review process.

The Editors will:

  • Ensure that the journal’s aims and content are current.
  • Respect and maintain confidentiality through the peer review process.
  • Maintain unbiased considerations of submitted manuscripts, which rate submissions on merit, avoiding aspects related to authors’ age, institutional affiliation. Seniority, race, gender, religion, and nationality.
  • Protect author identity.
  • Comply with and uphold the journal’s peer review policy (e.g., double-anonymous) and ensure that reviewers’ identities are protected as stated in that policy.
  • Ensure that full peer review is conducted on each article, where constructive peer review reports have been obtained from an appropriate number of peer reviewers, as per the peer review policy stated on the journal’s website.
  • Ensure that any Editorial Board members, or other members of the Editorial team (including any Guest Editors) involved in the peer review process, are working in an ethical, timely and effective manner.
  • Maintain and assure the integrity of the peer review process.
  • Remove barriers or perceived blocks that restrict submission or publication, that is unrelated to the quality of the submission.
  • Ease the use of a submission system that ensures easy peer review, setting up and tracking Editorial Board members’ training offered, to ensure all submissions can be tracked and managed.
  • Ensure peer review and editorial decision processes are easily accessible by ensuring that peer review reports are uploaded via the peer review system.
  • Provide guidance for peer reviewers that is aligned with the journal’s peer review policy.
  • Comply with data protection policies (including General Data Protection Regulation) , ensuring that all data is kept secure and is maintained as required in accordance with the Editor Agreement.
  • Verify the contact details of reviewers.
  • Develop and maintain a review system that is consistent and that upholds the values of fair policy in returning, rejecting, and withdrawing papers.
  • Work closely with the Production team to keep the journal’s release on time and adherent to page limitations.
  • Inform the IAMM, maintaining communication, to resolve any issues or inquiries related to submissions or published articles, using COPE guidance practices.
  • Keep a constructive attitude and offer an assuring experience for all prospective authors, regardless of peer review decisions.

Managing the Editorial Board: A cooperative, collaborative, active, and diverse Editorial Board with a communal vision of distinct content values and timeliness of production is essential for journal success and provides invaluable support to the Editors.

The Editors will:

  • Work in conjunction with the IAMM to appoint and manage a diverse and effective Editorial Board.
  • Meet with the entire Editorial Board at the IAMM conferences.
  • Routinely communicate on all decisions related to the journal and meet virtually at least 3x per year.
  • Actively involve Editorial Board members in the peer review process.
  • Mentor and support other Editors and Editorial Board members when required, including management with oversight of Guest Editors.
  • Engage with all Editorial Board members so they are confident in advocating for the journal’s aims and scope.
  • Update the IAMM on the efforts of the Editorial Board members on the strategic direction of the journal, and relay suggestions to the executive committee of the IAMM on how its activities might support and improve the journal’s strategic direction.
  • Offer strategies that ensure that all Editorial Board members understand their role and can maintain involvement as active contributors to the journal.
  • Define and disseminate strategic objectives that define decision-making principles and maintain mechanisms whereby the Editors of the journal can receive feedback internally and externally.
  • Review the Editorial Board regularly, and refresh the board as required to ensure and maintain an active, diverse, engaged group of reviewers.

Competing interests and Relationship to the IAMM:

The Editors will:

  • Ensure that all necessary affiliations have been disclosed and made apparent  (by authors, reviewers, and any decision-making bodies such as the Editors, including the Editors-in-Chief). This includes the consent of research subjects, research teams, and authors.
  • Declare and then abstain from the peer review process and editorial decisions for any papers authored by the Editors, and/or where the authors and Editorial team may have a competing interest. Pursuant to this, the Editors must delegate responsibility for the peer review and editorial decision process of any of their own work submitted to the journal to another suitable Editor on the journal, such as the Managing Editor, or a member of the Editorial Board. They can also nominate a step-in Guest Editor who will maintain the procedures of evaluation, assessment, peer review, and who will make the actual final editorial decision transparent to the team.
  • The Editors work in partnership with the IAMM to ensure the journal’s aim represents inclusivity, seeking to provide diversity, which will aim toward achieving a successful, creative, and integrative global environment of professionalism.