Thanks for your interest in contributing to Chinese Medicine Quarterly!

Article submissions

Chinese Medicine Quarterly is an electronic magazine for Chinese Medicine professionals. Readers are primarily practitioners and students of Chinese Medicine. Articles need to be written with this audience in mind. CMQ’s “voice” is is informative and explorative, furthering the understanding of Chinese medicine and encouraging discussion.

CMQ is soliciting articles with topics including: Chinese medical theory and philosophy, Chinese herbology, acupuncture and other treatment methods, Chinese language & culture, running a Chinese medicine based business, thriving as a person and practitioner, and any other topic of that might be of interest to professional acupuncturists. Articles where the writer is personally engaged with the work are best. These may include scholarly pieces that leave themselves open for discussion, personal experiences and stories, journalistic type articles, interviews and recipes. See recent issues of the magazine for examples. CMQ does not accept articles about particular products, product lines or patented/copyrighted methods of practice. No sponsored articles will be accepted.

CMQ has a classical bias, with a preference for articles that reference the Chinese classical texts, particularly those from Han dynasty and earlier. Articles that use the general principles and symbol science laid down in the classics, or otherwise embody a classical energy are equally valued.

Articles should fit in with the goals of Chinese Medicine Quarterly, which are:

• To educate people about the roots, the depths and the unbelievable power of Chinese medicine.
• To provoke people to think about the kind of doctors they want to be, the kind of profession they want to be a part of and the kind of world they hope to help create through their personal and professional activity
• To connect people through encouraging participation and interaction around issues in Chinese medicine.

Articles are submitted with a cover letter to [email protected]

The cover letter must list your full name, including any degree notation, your physical address and your preferred email address. Also include your education and training. Articles need to be submitted in plain text or as a pdf file (not in a Microsoft Word, Apple Pages or other word processing format.)

Articles are 500 to 2500 words long. Shorter articles are not eligible. Longer articles may be considered on a space available basis.

Articles need to have been through rounds of self-editing such that they are considered by the author to be well-written and refined examples of work. The article should have a well-considered topic or thesis that fits within the issue theme and is supported with properly drafted and creative prose. The prose should make full and correct use of the English language and appropriate grammar (see below).

There is no financial compensation for writers of CMQ. However, you will receive both a paper and digital copy of the issue in which your article appears. The paper issue will be mailed to the address you provide on the cover letter with your article submission.

Grammar, punctuation, style, flow and other writing guidelines

Refer to the MLA Handbook for appropriate style and grammar questions.

The use of Chinese language in articles

1) CMQ uses Pinyin romanization (as opposed to Wade-Giles or other systems)

2) Herb Names: consider the full name of the herb to be one word without spaces.  Add processing method words to the herb simply as if they were another part of the name of the herb.

For example: guizhi (not gui zhi) and huangqin (not huang qin) and zhigancao not zhi gancao or (zhi) gancao.

3) Text Names: In general, we continue to use the convention that syllables are separated when they are not part of the same word.

For example: Shanghan Lun, Jingui Yaolue, Shennong Bencao

4) Capitalization: If you wouldn’t capitalize it in English (such as “cinnamon”) then don’t capitalize the Pinyin romanized version. This means only capitalize if the word is (a) at the beginning of a sentence, (b) a proper noun, (c) a name or title or (d) specific compass regions.

This includes the Chinese concepts of “qi,” “yin,” “yang,” etc.

5) Uncommon or School-Specific Terms: Readers come from many different traditions and schools of thought. While such common background words such as “qi,” “yin” and “yang” do not need to be described, specific diagnosis and terms should be spelled out.

For example, gu syndrome may not be commonly taught in all schools and when it is, it may be mentioned in passing. Further, common syndromes such a liver qi stagnation are often so broad and over used by practitioners, that it is helpful to be specific about what aspects of this diagnosis are being discussed. It is also helpful to be mindful of terminology that may not be common in all traditions, including practitioners who may focus on Five Element Practice.

6) If, once you have used and defined a Chinese word, you would like to use the Chinese for the rest of the document, that is acceptable.

For instance, say in the beginning of the document you use the Chinese word “wei” to refer to the protective layer of the surface of the body, and define it as such with a brief description. You can then use the word “wei” in the remainder of the document without defining it again. You may wish to indicate to readers that you will be doing this during your description.

Citing

For those using sources, formatting should be from the MLA Handbook (see above). Sources should always be cited when quoting from a text. It is important for everyone to be able to examine the source material for the article.

With regards to translations, you must cite the translator and translation following MLA style. If you are using your own translation, please note that in the article.

Images

If you are including images, please attach them in a file rather than embedding them directly in the article. Images should be high resolution and saved in a .jpg format.  Please also indicate the source of the image, including artist name, where you acquired it, and the year of release.  If the image is in the public domain, please indicate this is the case.

Issue publication timeline

As every issue has a theme, not every article will fit every issue. If your article does not suit the current issue under production, we will keep it on file for consideration in future issues. Articles will be submitted five to seven weeks before the issue is due to be released.  Deadlines for the next article submission are always included on this page.

Bio and Photo

If your article is chosen as a candidate for inclusion, you will be notified by email and asked to provide a short bio and a photo of yourself. For your article to be included in the issue, you will need to provide the requested information in the time period stated in the email.

First Edit

The editors will make queries and suggestions about the article, with the goal of promoting excellence in the published product. You may be asked to clarify language, provide additional information or remove wording that doesn’t seem to fit well in the article. Depending on writing experience and the content of the piece, some authors may be surprised at the number of edits being asked of them. All revisions are for the purpose of clarifying and bringing more elegance to each piece. At revision time, authors will have one full week to make any changes and resubmit the piece for final editing. If revisions seem overwhelming, CMQ editors will work with the author to help focus and prioritize changes as well as discuss concerns about those changes and the integrity of the article.

Final Copy Edit

After the one-week resubmission time, CMQ editors will complete their changes in a finalized copy edit. Depending on the article, further edits and/or clarification may be requested by the editors in their finalization. Authors must respond to these requests within twenty-four hours. These later requests will merely target individual sentences or paragraphs and do not require rewrites.

Ownership of author’s work

By submitting articles to Chinese Medicine Quarterly, you are agreeing to assign the copyright to the magazine. Articles may be used in the specific issue as well as archives and CMQ pay publish any article collections. Articles written for Chinese Medicine Quarterly should not be published elsewhere without express written consent of Eric Grey.