Antimicrobial Resistance and the Burden of the Past: Historical Responsibility and Intergenerational Justice
Journal: Monash Bioethics Review
Guest editor: Romina Rekers
Opening date: 01.07.2025
Closing date: 30.11.2025
The development of antimicrobials has historically contributed significantly to human progress. However, their overuse and misuse have led to one of the most pressing global health threats: antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
As with climate change, the Global North has benefited more from the past use of antimicrobials, while the Global South bears a disproportionate share of the harms and risks associated with AMR. The distribution of AMR burdens is also shaped by interconnected historical injustices, such as colonization, as well as present-day structural inequalities inherited from that past.
At the same time, how the current generation responds to AMR will profoundly impact the health and well-being of future generations. That is why many efforts are now focused on building a sustainable future in the context of AMR. Achieving this future requires a transition that addresses questions of justice and morality—such as the significance of past benefits in the distribution of present burdens, the ethical implications of continuing unsustainable antimicrobial use, and the moral weight of current and future generations' basic needs in shaping those burdens.
This special issue invites papers that engage with the intergenerational dimensions of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) from ethical, social, historical, and political perspectives. It also welcomes case studies that address the normative challenges posed by intergenerational aspects of AMR.
This special issue is an outcome of the workshop A Sustainable Future with Antimicrobial Resistance, organized in the context of the FWF project A Political Conception of Transitional Justice.
The entire issue will be published Open Access, meaning all articles will be freely and immediately available online, thereby increasing public engagement and accessibility. In cases where the authors’ institutions do not have an Open Access agreement (https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-science/oa-agreements) or project funds to cover the fees, the costs will be covered by funding from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
You can add the relevant dates to your calendar by clicking here:
Submissions open on 01 July 2025 Google Calendar
Submission deadline 30 November 2025 Google Calendar
You can find the guidelines for authors here
A quick breakdown of the article requirements:
✅ Article Structure Requirements
- Title
- Authors
- Abstract (150–200 words)
- Keywords (4–6 keywords)
- Length (2000–5000 words excluding references).
✅ Citation Style
- In-text citations use author name + year:
- (Thompson 1990)
- Becker and Seligman (1996)
- (Abbott 1991; Barakat et al. 1995)
✅ Reference List Format
- Journal Article
Alber, John, Daniel C. O’Connell, and Sabine Kowal. 2002. Personal perspective in TV interviews. Pragmatics 12: 257–271.
- Article with DOI
Suleiman, Camelia, Daniel C. O’Connell, and Sabine Kowal. 2002. ‘If you and I, if we, in this later day, lose that sacred fire...’: Perspective in political interviews. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015592129296
- Book
Cameron, Deborah. 1985. Feminism and linguistic theory. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
- Book Chapter
Cameron, Deborah. 1997. Theoretical debates in feminist linguistics: Questions of sex and gender. In Gender and discourse, ed. Ruth Wodak, 99–119. London: Sage Publications.
- Online Document
Frisch, Mathias. 2007. Does a low-entropy constraint prevent us from influencing the past? PhilSci archive. http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00003390. Accessed 26 June 2007.
► To help you picture what is expected, I have included an example of a paper.
► We especially welcome submissions based on case studies
Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions, would like to share your ideas or abstract for feedback in advance, or need any support — including help with planning the English proofreading of your article. You can contact me here: