Envíos

Research and Scientific articles

• Research and scientific articles include an abstract, introduction, methods, results and discussion.

Review articles

• Review articles provide a critical survey and examination of the literature of a particular subject of research which generally consist of Abstract, Introduction (including explanations of conflicts in the literature, and analysis of the field), Methods, Results, Conclusions and Outlook (including limitations of current knowledge and future directions to be pursued in research).

Case reports

• The Torture Journal welcomes the submission of case reports with respect to unusual cases for any specific reason (either social, nosological, clinical or therapeutic).

Perspectives

• A personal view or reflection in a clear narrative voice can also be submitted to the journal. It is intended that this section can add a more qualitative perspective to other scientific articles. Perspectives from torture survivors or field workers are particularly encouraged.

Research news

• Please let us know at publications@irct.org if there is something you believe is newsworthy for the Torture Journal. Examples include items which may be of use or interest to the wider  sector, such as key or unusual papers published in another journal that are worthy of wider dissemination, or, literature that your organisation has produced

Statements

• Official declarations made by professional bodies or committees which may be of value or interest to the readers related to the torture field.

Book and media reviews

• Readers are welcome to contribute a book, film, TV, exhibition, or web review.

Debate and Comment

• Debates and comments are commissioned largely to contextualise a review or scientific paper published in the same issue.

Letter to the Editor

• Letters can be written in response to previous content published in the Torture Journal or be of  general interest.

Special section: torture in prisons

This call for papers aims to examine prisons and other detention facilities (immigration detention centres, juvenile detention centres, etc) as torturing environments

Torture Journal encourages authors to submit papers with a psychological, medical or legal orientation, particularly those that are interdisciplinary with other fields of knowledge. We welcome contributions related (but not limited) to:

1. Conditions of detention as environments of torture: overcrowding, food, inhuman treatment, etc.
2. Carceral geographies: emotional cartographies in detention spaces.
3. Impacts of isolation and closed regime units. Alternatives.
4. Use of mechanical restraints, chemical restraints and other methods of control and coercion. Intervention programs to abolish restraints.
5. Challenges of forensic documentation in prisons and other closed institutions.
6. Studies on reprisals against persons deprived of their liberty following monitoring visits to investigate allegations of torture.
7. Violent institutional cultures. Generating and perpetuating factors, and intervention programmes on violent milieus.
8. Violence by other inmates and staff. Methods of detection and prevention.
9. Effectiveness of torture prevention measures: videotaping, civil-society monitoring, medical documentation of injuries and others
10. Sexual torture and abuse in closed institutions.
11. Short or adapted forms of the Istanbul Protocol for documenting torture during monitoring visits or short-time evaluations in closed institutions.
12. Self-harm and suicide. Self-inflicted violence in closed institutions.
13. Severe Mental Illness and Torture in closed institutions.
14. Legal contours of torture in detention centres: legal reviews with a special focus on the intentionality and purpose criteria

SPECIAL SECTION ON ISRAEL & OCCUPIED PALESTINE

The Palestinian people have endured a protracted process of occupation by Israel. This has resulted in a plethora of documented instances of human rights violations. One year after the Hamas attacks on 7^th October 2023 in Israel and Israel's military campaign and associated grave human rights violations in Palestinian territory and other related Arab countries, it is an important duty to analyse emergent issues from a human rights perspective and for the Torture Journal to do so on matters within its scope.

To conduct an analysis in the context of an ongoing war and enormous suffering is undoubtedly complex. But epidemiology and health sciences have insights to contribute which go beyond calls for a cessation of violence and thus there is an ethical duty to try to do so.

From this standpoint, Torture Journal encourages the submission of academic papers that contribute to a more comprehensive and evidence-based understanding of torture, ill-treatment, and associated human rights violations in the current context, including legal, psychosocial and community impacts and peace-building through justice.

In pursuit of this, Torture Journal, as a space for reflection on torture, its impacts and models of prevention and rehabilitation, has constituted a broad set of editors, based on its Editorial Board and invited guests from different fields, to ensure a plurality of perspectives and an evidence-based approach.

Torture Journal encourages authors to submit papers on the Israeli-Palestinian situation, particularly those which are interdisciplinary.

We welcome papers on:

1. The definition of torture, torturing or coercive environments, and epidemiological studies on its prevalence and characteristics in the framework of the conflict and the occupation.
2. Particular victim groups, locations, specific vulnerabilities, concerning risks, impacts and needs, including, for instance, mental health patients, older adults or pregnant women.
3. The situation for children growing up under an ongoing and armed conflict – consequences and possible remedies.
4. Impacts and care of health workers amidst the conflict.
5. Aspects related to the situation in places of detention or deprivation of liberty, official or clandestine, including both detainees, prisoners, hostages or any other form of deprivation of liberty.
6. Sociological, psychosocial or anthropological work in connection with the field of torture and coercive or torturing environments in both Israel and Israeli occupied territories.
7. Legal discussions in relation to applications before International Courts.
8. Psychosocial and community impacts and interventions within the population.
9. Forensic assessment of cases based on the Istanbul Protocol.
10. Effective rehabilitation practices for civil society amidst the conflict.
11. Transitional justice, peace-building and justice interventions involving torture survivors.

Due to the complex nature of the topic the Board will take particular editorial approaches. The Journal will not accept opinion pieces, reflections or letters to the editor which are not partially, and preferably totally, based on data or an academic analysis and review. Papers based on epidemiological studies will have to provide access to instruments and data for purposes of cross-checking, if the reviewers consider it necessary.

Submission guidelines

• For general information on the Journal and submission guidelines, please see the website (https://irct.org/torture-journal).
• For instructions for authors: https://tidsskrift.dk/torture-journal/information/authors
• For submissions: https://tidsskrift.dk/torture-journal/about/submissions

Deadline for submissions: 30^th April 2025

For more information. If potential authors doubt the suitability of their contributions, they can send an outline of the paper to the Editor-in-Chief for additional guidance.

- Pau Pérez-Sales, Editor-in-Chief (pauperez@runbox.com)
- Berta Soley, Editorial Assistant (bso@irct.org)

Submission guidelines and links

• Author guidelines can be found here: https://irct.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Torture-Journal-formatting-checklist-for-author-v0-updated-Jan-2019-OTH.pd

Special Section Editors: Malcolm Evans (UK), Jens Simon Modvig (Denmark), Daniel Weishut (Israel), Tania Herbert (Australia), John Schiemann (US), Mahmud Sehwail (Palestine), Nora Sveaass (Norway)