Aims and scope

Aims and Scope

Neuroethics is an international, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to academic articles on the ethical, legal, political, social and philosophical questions provoked by research in the contemporary sciences of the mind and brain; especially, but not only, neuroscience, psychiatry and psychology. The journal publishes articles on questions raised by the sciences of the brain and mind, and on the ways in which the sciences of the brain and mind illuminate longstanding debates in ethics and philosophy. 

Neuroethics welcomes submissions on topics such as:

• Ways in which the sciences of the brain and mind illuminate traditional moral and philosophical problems, such as the nature of free will and moral responsibility, self-deception, weakness of the will, personal identity, and the nature of personhood. 
• Conceptual and ethical questions posed by psychiatric, neurological, and developmental disorders, their research and treatment, and implications for social and policy responses.  
• Ethical issues raised by social and environmental influences on individuals’ psychology, such as nudges and other behavioural interventions. 
• Ethical issues raised by technologies that monitor or manipulate the brain (such as psycho-pharmaceuticals, neural recoding, and stimulation devices), and their particular societal applications. Examples include:  
  • the use of brain scans or recording of neural activity for criminal justice, education or employment purposes; 
  • brain monitoring or intervention in military contexts; 
  • the use of drugs and devices in any competitive domain, including sport and professional environments.
• Analysis of, and proposals for, the regulation of technologies and behavioural interventions that modify brains and behaviour.
• Socio-ethical implications of new neuroscientific information regarding, for example, risk factors for neurodegenerative or neurodevelopmental conditions. 
• Implications of neuroscientific research for our understanding of animal minds, the moral status of animals, and our moral obligations to them.
• The status of, and our possible moral obligations to, new model systems, including neural organoids, and computer systems running artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms. 

The scope of the journal is broad and this list is not exhaustive. We welcome submissions from a range of philosophical traditions and geo-cultural contexts. Whilst we do accept submissions with an empirical component, any such content must be included principally to raise or address ethical or philosophical questions. 

If you are unsure whether your paper falls within the scope of Neuroethics, we encourage you to contact the Editor.