About the Journal

Focus and Scope

Jahr – European Journal of Bioethics is a journal that deals with a wide range of bioethical topics.

The aim of the Editorial Board is to publish articles related to bioethics in social sciences (sociology, psychology, law, political science, information and communication sciences, pedagogy, education and rehabilitation sciences, speech language pathology, kinesiology, demography, social activities, security and defence sciences, economics), bioethics in humanities (philosophy, theology, philology, history, art history, archaeology, ethnology and anthropology, religious sciences), bioethics in biomedical sciences (medicine, public health, veterinary medicine, dentistry and pharmacology), but also articles related to bioethics and artificial intelligence. 

ISSN (Online): 1848-7874

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21860/j

IMPRESSUM

Indexing and journal metrics

Jahr is indexed in HRCAK (Portal of Scientific Journals of Croatia) since September 2010, in ERIH PLUS (The European Reference Index for the Humanities and Social Sciences) since November 2015, in DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) since September 2016., and in SCOPUS since September 2017.

Publication policy

Jahr publishes reviewed papers, as well as papers that are not subject to the reviewing procedure, provided they are original and have not been submitted for consideration to any other journal. There are no fees for submitting papers for consideration or for publication. By giving their consent to be published, the authors give the journal the right for the first publication of the paper both in its printed and electronic format. Authors can publish their works in other publications, provided they cite relevant data about their paper's first publication in Jahr.

Reviewed articles

The reviewed papers are accepted to be published after being positively reviewed by two anonymous reviewers (exceptionally three). The final decision on the publication is made by Editorial Board.

Reviewed papers are categorized as following:

- Original scientific articles

- Preliminary communications

- Review articles

- Professional articles

The journal publishes uncategorized papers, i.e. overviews of bioethics and other relevant publications published in the past three years in and outside Croatia, as well as reports and announcements of upcoming events relevant to bioethics. These include book reviews, conference reviews, scientific conferences, public lectures etc. Unreviewed articles are published in "Other contributions" section or "Book reviews" section.

Publication Frequency

Journal is published twice a year.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. The only constraint is to protect the authors's and publisher's integrity and their right to be properly acknowledged and cited. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.

Jahr provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge, according to Creative Commons Licence.                                                                                                                                                                                              

                                                                               Publishers:

Department of Social Sciences and Medical Humanities (University of Rijeka, Faculty of Medicine, Croatia) / Katedra za društvene i humanističke znanosti u medicini (Sveučilište u Rijeci, Medicinski fakultet, Hrvatska)

"Fritz Jahr" Documentation and Research Centre for European Bioethics (University of Rijeka, Faculty of Health Studies) / Dokumentacijsko-istraživački centar za europsku bioetiku "Fritz Jahr" (Sveučilište u Rijeci, Fakultet zdravstvenih studija, Hrvatska)

                                                                     Sources of Support:

Journal History & Letters from the editors

Editor-in-Chief 2010 - 2014, Amir Muzur

For at least twenty years, bioethics has been expanding as a field of interest and hope. A particular momentum was reached after the 1997 discovery of the work of Fritz Jahr (1895-1953), the German teacher and theologian who had been the first to conceive the notion of bioethics as early as 1926. It has been the intention of the journal „Jahr“, founded in May 2010, to promote this „European bioethics“, as opposed to the mainstream bioethics, narrowed-down to a „new“ medical ethics. Jahr's teaching, sublimed into his „bioethical imperative“ and reminding of respect toward other living beings, refreshed also Van Rensselaer Potter's (1911-2001) ideas on a broader concepts of „bridge“ ethics, environmental ethics, and global ethics.

After four years and nine issues, „Jahr“ is allowed to consider itself „established:“ almost 3,000 pages, about 250 articles and contributions, hudreds of authors from dozens of countries – that is an approximate ballance of this first stage of Jahr's history. (In the meantime, one has to explain the title always less and less, given that the work and importance of Fritz Jahr has been internationally recognised.)

But, one has to be honest and admit that not all the ambitions of the journal's founding fathers have been accomplished: if it wants to survive and to be more widely accepted and read, Jahr has to enter the major indexation bases (Scopus, Embase, Ebsco, Medline, etc.), to establish the possibility of a direct Internet access (not only thorugh the Hrčak portal, as present), to focus its content, and to attract more original research papers in English. In order to do it, Jahr first was suggested to change its subtitle (to tell the truth in a Voltairian paraphrase, the Annual of the Department of Social Sciences and Medical Humanities at Faculty of Medicine, University of Rijeka, has actually never been „annual“ or „of the Department“.) And so Jahr - European Journal of Bioethics is born. I suppose we all agree upon the reasonableness and promisingness of this move: not only it will better reflect the Journal's publication policy, but it also will strengthen our real international orientation. (Editorial Board did consider the possibilty of renaming Jahr into Journal of European Bioethics: unfortunately, no matter how proudly and appealing it sounds, the concept of „European bioethics“ is far too complex and thus potentially misleading, so final decision was to add a more neutral but still enough decisive subtitle.)

So, a new dynamic epoch stands in front of us. I thank all the members of the Advisory and Editorial boards for their help in pioneering the journal, and invite them to continue the collaboration with the new Editor-in-Chief. I am gratefull our colleague Stjepka Popović to have taken over this burden that brings no other reward but satisfaction.

Yours, in deep respect and sincereness,

Amir Muzur

Editor-in-Chief 2014 - 2015, Stjepka Popović 

10th number of the Jahr has been published with a new subtitle European Journal of Bioethics. Actually, this is the second edition of the Jahr with a new subtitle, but it has brought a whole number of changes. In addition to new Editor-in-Chief and editorial policy, our Editorial Board has become truly international: with the exception of new members from Croatia, members from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Argentina have joined the Editorial Staff. In such a collaborative spirit, we made first arrangements of translating the selected articles to Spanish version for an issue that will be published by University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Our Advisory Board has also been changed and strengthened by prominent and internationally recognized scientists from the USA, Germany, Chile, Slovenia, Italy and Croatia who are dealing with specific bioethical issues. In our ambition to become widely recognized journal of bioethics, we launched the Open Journal System, which will allow all interested readers direct open access to the articles, but also electronic submissions for authors (starting on February 2015). Thus, for the first time the journal has its own website www.jahr-bioethics-journal.com (direct Internet access was possible only through the Hrčak portal so far: https://hrcak.srce.hr/jahr). Also, we have introduced author’s statements to ensure protection of ethical standards in research that are published in the Jahr. In order to keep track with publishing trends, we are happy to announce that we are receiving more papers in English. We have taken the first steps towards the realization of our greatest ambition of entering the major indexation bases at the beginning of 2016. Although there is so much ahead of us, we can already proudly claim that we have laid the foundations for the bright future of our Journal as an internationally recognized European Journal of Bioethics. We hope that we will receive more contributions to our Journal regarding different topics in the following areas: Bioethics & Social Sciences, Bioethics & Humanities, and Bioethics & Biomedical Sciences.

I would like to thank all previous members of the Editorial and Advisory Board, as well as to reviewers because their knowledge and expertise will always be inwrought in the history of our Journal. Special thanks to new editors, members of the Advisory Board and reviewers who have participated in the creation of this 10th issue. It was really a pleasure working with you and I am looking forward to future cooperation. I am very grateful to former Editor-in-Chief Amir Muzur for his trust and all well-intentioned advice and support he offered me when taking over this position.

Sincerely Yours,

Stjepka Popović 

Editor-in-Chief 2016-2025, Igor Eterović

It is a great honour, but at the same time a great responsibility, to become an Editor‑in-Chief of a journal with such prospective future and great possibilities as it is a case with Jahr – European Journal of Bioethics. Wisely subtitled, it brought up the essential precursory idea of our task: to become internationally recognisable journal, especially sensitive to the rich European intellectual heritage, a heritage too often completely ignored or simply forgotten in many contemporary bioethical debates. This programmatic task of „Europeisation of Bioethics“ is a kind of guiding thread, and it includes, by implicit imperative of sensibility towards the Other and a long tradition of intellectual self-criticism, the whole array of bioethical problems, issues, methodologies and views. Such openness to the different views and perspectives is seen as a necessary obligation of bioethics, if it wants to strive and cherish. This is a logical part and continuance of development of the idea of „Integrative Bioethics“, a truly innovative concept born in Croatian academic community and spread very quickly to the whole surrounding area. We hope our Journal can be a place for further development, criticisms and challenge of various (bio)ethical standpoints, views and thesis, with exclusive motivation for enriching the field of Bioethics.

It is a great satisfaction to say that the amount and quality of papers is preserved, but also that some important novelties are introduced. To name few but few: according to our programmatic task of “Europeanisation of Bioethics”, we have prepared some new sections completely focused on that valorisation of the rich European intellectual heritage, all of them strongly related to our primary goals; we extended and improved many parts of the editorial work (e.g. we raised the quality and speed of the processing of the submitted contributions); we have improved our web site; we have introduced the DOI numbers etc. We are proud that those improvements are internationally recognized: we were included in esteemed international journal databases – DOAJ (in September 2016) and SCOPUS (in September 2017).

We have gone a step further in organisational development by inclusion of several new important associates who are now working on positions of Executive Editor and Managing Editor.

I would like to thank to the members of the Editorial Board, peer‑reviewers and all other associates included in the nascence of the issues I guided. I owe special thanks to the previous Editors‑in‑Chief. They gave me an enormous support in taking this position and continue to provide me with the beneficial and helpful advices. In the hope that I have justified the confidence of the Editorial Board given to me, I am certain that we can together assure a bright future of our Journal and make an important contribution to bioethical enterprise ahead of us.

Sincerely Yours,

Igor Eterović

Editor-in-Chief

Editor-in-Chief 2025-present, Toni Buterin

Dear colleagues, collaborators and readers,

It is both a great honour and responsibility to assume the role of Editor-in-Chief of Jahr – European Journal of Bioethics. Founded fifteen years ago, the journal has grown into a respected platform within the European and international bioethics community.

Fifteen years may seem brief in academic terms, but for a journal, it represents a rich and rewarding journey. Over time, Jahr has found its place in the academic landscape thanks to the efforts of many. Each member of the Editorial and Advisory Board, every issue published, every article submitted and every thoughtful peer review has helped shape the journal into what it is today: a bridge connecting cultures, perspectives and disciplines.

I warmly thank my predecessors – Amir Muzur, Stjepka Popović and Igor Eterović – whose leadership and dedication laid strong foundations for this work to continue.

Having had the privilege of serving as Managing Editor (2018–2021) and Executive Editor (2021–2025), I now embrace this next chapter as Editor-in-Chief, supported by a committed team and inspired by the same guiding principles: openness to diverse bioethical approaches, interdisciplinary dialogue and deep respect for European intellectual traditions – especially the legacy of Fritz Jahr.

To the former, current and future members of the Editorial and Advisory Board, to our reviewers for their thoughtful insights, and to all the authors who have entrusted us with their work – thank you. Your contributions continue to shape the journal’s identity and growth. I look forward to our ongoing collaboration as we meet new challenges and strive to further enhance the journal’s quality and global reach.

Jahr will remain a welcoming space for the exchange of ideas, critical reflection and meaningful dialogue on the pressing bioethical challenges of our time.

Thank you for your trust. I look forward to all that we will build together.

Yours respectfully,

Toni Buterin

Editor-in-Chief