2011 Theme Issue on Violence and Human Rights—Call for Papers

Terrorist attacks indiscriminately target civilians, create extreme anxiety and feelings of helplessness, and erode commonly held beliefs in justice. These consequences are no doubt intended by the perpetrators of terrorist violence and human rights abuses. Perhaps by design, attacks of terrorism have long-term as well as short-term effects on human health, and these effects may be related to the choice of weapons and the vulnerabilities of the populations targeted for attack. Modes of terrorism range from assaults with firearms^{1 - 3} to explosions^{4 - 5} to rape.⁶ Attacks may take place in affluent societies,^{3 - 5 ,7 - 8} rapidly developing nations,¹ or fragile states destabilized by years of civil conflict.^{6 ,9 - 10} Research is providing new evidence for the clinical management of the physical and mental health effects of terrorism, which may vary in severity according to the resilience of affected individuals and communities.^{4 - 11}

“Terrorism” was designated as a formal term in PubMed in 2001 and is defined as “the use or threatened use of force or violence against persons or property in violation of criminal laws for purposes of intimidation, coercion, or ransom, in support of political or social objectives.”¹² In a recent search of PubMed, 284 articles associated with the term terrorism were published between 1970 and 2000. From 2001 to 2010, 8750 articles associated with the term terrorism have been published. Of these articles, 1741 report original research, including 61 reporting the results of clinical trials. Thus, while a crude measure of research production, the number of articles published on terrorism in the biomedical literature is increasing substantially, no doubt in part as a result of increased research funding following the terrorist events of the last decade. However, the number of practice-changing clinical trials and other high-quality research evidence in this area is nascent.

Next year will be the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. To commemorate this event and many other terrorist events and to promote research into the prevention and treatment of health-related consequences of terrorism throughout the world, we invite manuscripts on the health effects of terrorism for JAMA 's annual theme issue on violence and human rights, to be published on August 3, 2011. We encourage authors to submit manuscripts on the health effects of terrorism as well as any topic related to violence, war, civil conflict, and human rights abuses. Randomized controlled trials of interventions to address prevention and consequences of violence and human rights abuses as well as treatment and management of the health effects^{12 - 13} are of primary interest, but we will also consider reports of observational studies, systematic reviews, and commentaries. Manuscripts received by March 15, 2011, will have the best chance of consideration for publication in this theme issue. Submitted manuscripts will undergo JAMA 's usual rigorous editorial evaluation and peer review. Please follow JAMA 's Instructions for Authors for manuscript preparation and submission.¹⁴

We hope that the 2011 JAMA theme issue will continue to promote and focus much-needed attention on the prevention and treatment of health-related consequences of terrorism, violence, and violations of human rights.