Special Collection: Hereditary Diseases

Call for Papers: Special Collection on Hereditary Diseases, Consanguinity, and Hemoglobinopathies in North Africa and the Middle East

Journal of Medical Sciences · Special Collection · Volumes 21–22 (2026–2027)

The Journal of Medical Sciences invites submissions to a Special Collection on the epidemiology, diagnosis, challenges and management of hereditary diseases, with particular emphasis on the role of consanguinity and the prevalence of hemoglobinopathies in North Africa and the Middle East.

Key dates

Submissions open	30 September 2026
Submission deadline	30 September 2027
Final decisions	by 30 November 2027
Publication	Continuous: each article is published online as soon as it is accepted, in the regular issue current at that time (Vol. 21 No. 2, 2026; Vol. 22 No. 1 or No. 2, 2027), under the Special Collection section heading, and is listed on this page
Publication fees	None: no submission or publication charges
Licence	Open access under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; authors retain copyright

Aim and scope

Consanguineous marriage remains a common cultural practice across North Africa and the Middle East and is a key determinant of the burden of inherited disease in the region. This collection brings together original research and reviews on the genetic, clinical and public health dimensions of these disorders. Topics include, but are not limited to:

Epidemiology and burden of hereditary diseases in North Africa and the Middle East
Hemoglobinopathies, including sickle cell disease and the thalassemias
Hereditary cancers, including BRCA1/2, Lynch syndrome and other cancer predisposition syndromes
Molecular and genetic studies, including next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics approaches
Premarital and carrier screening programs
Genetic counseling, ethical considerations and socio-cultural aspects
Newborn screening and early detection strategies
Advances in the diagnosis, management and treatment of hereditary conditions
Public health policies, prevention and education strategies

Article types

Original research articles, review articles, case reports, short communications and perspectives. Only manuscripts written in English will be considered for this collection.

Editors of the Special Collection

Managing Editors

Prof. Inas Alhudiri
Editor-in-Chief, Libyan Biotechnology Research Center, Tripoli, Libya

Dr. Ahmed Glewan
Managing Editor, Faculty of Dentistry, Sebha University, Libya

Handling Editors

Dr. Imen Moumni
Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Hematology, Pasteur Institute of Tunis, Tunisia

Dr. Salma Shickh
University of British Columbia, Canada

Guest Editor

Dr. Eanas Saleh Elmaihub
Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Sabratha University, Libya
[email protected]

How to submit

Prepare your manuscript according to the Author Guidelines.
Log in or register, and click Make a New Submission.
Select the section Special Collection: Hereditary Diseases, Consanguinity, and Hemoglobinopathies.
State in your cover letter that the manuscript is submitted to this Special Collection.

Peer review and editorial independence

All submissions undergo the journal's standard double-blind peer review by at least two independent reviewers. Manuscripts authored by any editor of this collection are handled by another member of the Editorial Board with no conflict of interest, and the submitting editor has no access to their review. Acceptance depends only on scientific quality; a paper accepted after 30 November 2027 is published in the next regular issue.

Open access, copyright and fees

Authors retain copyright of their articles and grant JOMS the non-exclusive right of first publication. All articles in this collection are published open access under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), which allows anyone to share and adapt them for non-commercial purposes with proper citation, provided adaptations carry the same licence. There are no submission or publication fees. See the journal's Copyright and Licensing Policy.