Journal of Palliative Medicine

Manuscript Submission

Statement of Purpose and Policy

Journal of Palliative Medicine will accept original manuscripts that contain material that has not been reported elsewhere, except in the form of an abstract of no more than 400 words. Prior abstract presentations should be described in a footnote to the title. Submissions should be accompanied by a letter requesting evaluation for publication.

Manuscript Submission Fee

Effective September 5, 2013, Journal of Palliative Medicine instituted a non-refundable manuscript submission fee of $49.00 USD per submitted paper. This fee is charged regardless of the outcome of editorial decision of acceptance or rejection. In addition to the benefits of publishing your work in Journal of Palliative Medicine, your submission provides unique opportunities to increase the visibility of your work through the robust AuthorCite™ services platform, including a link to freely share your article for 30 days.  SUBMIT YOUR MANUSCRIPT

Submission fees/codes are NOT required for revisions to papers submitted prior to September 5, 2013. To upload a revision of a paper, the submitting author must log in to their Author Center and click on the “Revised Manuscripts in Draft” link. The paper will appear there, and the submitting author will be able to proceed without paying a submission fee or entering a submission code.

Submitting Manuscripts

Please be sure to follow the Instructions for Authors below on Manuscript Preparation. Authors whose submissions that do not comply with these Instructions will have their papers returned to them without peer review, and the submission fee will not be refunded. In this circumstance, if you wish to resubmit a returned paper, the standard submission fee of $49.00 USD will be charged again. (This does NOT refer to revisions of peer-reviewed papers.) CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR MANUSCRIPT
 

Manuscripts must be submitted online using the following URL:

http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/palliative

Please read all the instructions to authors before submitting.

Follow all prompts on Manuscript Central for inputting all required manuscript details. Please upload all files pertaining to your paper individually; do NOT combine all manuscript files into one PDF for uploading. Manuscript Central prepares a PDF proof after uploading is completed.

Preparation of Original Manuscript

Original manuscripts may NOT exceed 3,000 words, excluding references, tables, figures and appendixes. Original manuscripts are generally reports of completed research studies. There are ample sample sizes, statistical analyses, and firm conclusions from the work can be drawn. Submissions over 3,000 words will be returned to the author. Leave ample margins on both sides, top, and bottom of manuscript text file. A structured abstract of 250 words or less, using the following guidelines, must be included and should be self-explanatory without reference to the text:

• Background (Why was this report needed)

• Objective (What did you set out to do?)

• Design (How did you go about doing it)

• Setting/Subjects (If this was a clinical trial, in what setting was it done and who were the subjects)

• Measurements

• Results (What did you discover)

• Conclusions

Number pages consecutively, including the title page. Do not place author names anywhere in the manuscript.  A separate cover page should be uploaded with information for all authors, including degrees, affiliations and contact information for corresponding author.  

Preparation of Brief Report

In contrast with Original Manuscripts, brief reports may not exceed 1500 words. This category is for research that is less well-developed than reported in an original manuscript. The results of preliminary studies, pilot programs, or small series on which an hypothesis can be formulated and tested in a subsequent study are good candidates for this category. The Journal of Palliative Medicine is particularly interested in fostering the careers of junior investigators, or those new to the field of palliative medicine research. This category fills a need for those reports worthy of dissemination, but not worthy of 3,000 words to tell the story. Please include a structured abstract as for an original manuscript.

Preparation of a Letter

Results of research or the development of ideas that do not fit the criteria for a brief report may be reported in a letter. Not more than 500 words, letters are often the richest source of new insights or serendipitous observations on which the future of the field may turn. This section is meant to transmit information that is much more ‘raw’ or ‘untested’, but holds promise in furthering the field through stimulating further research, discussion, or resolving controversy. A small number of references, usually no more than 5, may accompany a letter.  Only one table or one figure and no more than a total of 5 references are permitted for the Letters.

Preparation of an Editorial or Special Report

From time to time, an unsolicited report from an important group or meeting, or a description of a phenomenon in the field, or a particular point of view deserves publication. These decisions rest solely with the editor-in-chief.

Preparation of a Personal Reflection

One of the most widely read features in the journal, the personal reflections are written in a way that illustrates the personal engagement with the field—either its struggles or its joys or the complex combination of the two. Prose and poetry have all found a place here. Acceptance is at the sole discretion of the Managing Editor and Editor.

Unless otherwise noted, Journal of Palliative Medicine follows the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. See: Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Ann Intern Med. 1997;126:36–47.

Disclosure Statement
Immediately following the Acknowledgments section, include a section entitled “Author Disclosure Statement.” This text must be part of your actual manuscript file.

In this portion of the paper, authors must disclose any commercial associations that might create a conflict of interest in connection with submitted manuscripts. This statement should include appropriate information for EACH author, thereby representing that competing financial interests of all authors have been appropriately disclosed according to the policy of the Journal. It is important that all conflicts of interest, whether they are actual or potential, be disclosed. This information will remain confidential while the paper is being reviewed and will not influence the editorial decision.

Please see the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals at http://www.icmje.org/index.html#conflicts for further guidance.

If no conflicts exist, the authors must state “No competing financial interests exist.”

Tables and Illustrations

Prepare each table and its title in a separate file. Use Arabic numerals to number tables. Each table must stand alone; i.e., contain all necessary information in the caption, and the table itself must be understood independently of the text. Details of experimental conditions should be included in the table footnotes. Information that appears in the text should not be repeated in a table, and tables should not contain data that can be given in the text in one or two sentences.

Figures/images should be presented according to these guidelines:

• Do not include any illustrations as part of your text file.
• Do not prepare any figures in Word as they are not workable.
• Black and white line illustrations (bar charts and line graphs) must be submitted at 900 DPI.
• Halftones and color photos should be submitted at 300 DPI.
• Please submit only TIFF or EPS files.
• Color art must be saved as CYMK not RGB. If RGB files are submitted, the files will be converted
  to CYMK, and some slight color variation may occur.
• Do NOT prepare any files in PowerPoint or Excel. These files cannot be uploaded in
  Manuscript Central.
• When naming your files, please label them with your last name and “Fig1.” (For example,
  Smith.Fig1). Label figures and tables inside the files in addition to naming the file with the
  figure or table number

IMPORTANT:

Please upload individual files of all manuscript material - do NOT upload a single PDF file containing all text, figure, and table files of your article.  Once all individual files are uploaded on to Manuscript Central, the system will automatically create a single PDF proof for you and the peer-review process.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations of journal titles should follow MEDLINE.

References

References should be presented in numerical order and in the following style:

• Journal articles: Christakis NA, Escarce JJ: Survival of medicare patients after enrollment in hospice programs. New Engl J Med 1996;335:172–178.
• Chapter in a book: Lipman AG, Gauthier ME: Pharmacology of opioid analgesics: Basic problems.
  In: Portenoy RK, Bruera E (eds): Topics in Palliative Care, Volume I.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, pp. 137–162.
• Book: Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine, 3e. Doyle D, Hank G, Cherny N (eds). Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 2005.

If it is necessary to cite an abstract, this should be designated. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of the reference, and are reminded that inaccurate references are highly frustrating to the reader, the cited author, and indexing services.

Permissions

The author(s) must obtain permission to reproduce figures, tables and text from previously published material. Written permission  must  be  obtained  from  the  original  copyright  holder (generally the publisher, not the author or editor) of the journal or  book  concerned. An appropriate credit line should be included in the figure or legend or table footnote, as well as in the reference list. Written permission must be obtained from the author of any unpublished material cited from other sources, and should accompany the manuscript.

Reprints
Reprints may be ordered by using the special reprint order form that will accompany page proofs. Reprints ordered after the issue is printed will be charged at a substantially higher rate.

Publisher
The Journal is published twelve times a year by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., 140 Huguenot Street, New Rochelle, NY 10801-5215. Telephone: 914-740-2100; fax: 914-740-2101; email: info@liebertpub.com