Editorial Aims and Scope
Palliative & Supportive Care publishes papers on the psychiatric, psychosocial, spiritual, existential, ethical, philosophical, and humanities aspects of palliative and supportive care. Papers on psychiatric disorders and their management in the palliative care setting, including but not limited to depression, delirium, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder and bereavement are invited. Evolving constructs of particular relevance to the interface of psychiatry/psychology and palliative medicine, such as demoralization, meaning, dignity, hopelessness, will to live, suffering, and developmental growth at the end of life are also a major focus of this journal. Research focusing on these issues, including epidemiology, diagnostic screening, assessment, management, and intervention drug and psychotherapy trials, are also addressed. In addition, the journal provides a forum for the study of psychosocial and sociocultural matters such as caregiver burden, health care provider burnout, counseling interventions, the impact of psychosocial factors related to pain and physical symptom control, and communication issues.
Types of Papers Accepted
ORIGINAL ARTICLES/ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLES*
These articles represent well designed quantitative, qualitative or mixed methods research studies that present new information that makes a substantial contribution to the body of knowledge on the subject. Original research manuscript must contain a Title page, an Abstract (with the headings: Objectives, Methods, Results, Significance of Results – 300 word limit) and be organized into the following major sections: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Disclosures and Acknowledgments, and References (word limit 4,000 words not including references, Tables and Figures)
REVIEW*
Review articles describe and evaluate previously published material in order to synthesize or describe the state of the science or suggest new approaches or ideas relevant to important topics in psychosocial palliative care. The Journal accepts both systematic and narrative reviews of high quality. Word limit: 5000 words, not including references, tables or figures. An abstract of the same format as an Original Article is required (300 word limit).
CASE REPORTS*
Case reports describing a singe case or case series which describes a novel, relevant or unusual presentation of a clinical problem that is important to make the field aware of are accepted for publication. An abstract with the journal standard headings is suggested (300 word limit) case Reports have a 1500 word limit excluding references, tables and figures.
PERSONAL ESSAYS
Personal essays are creative original essays by clinicians , researchers, patients or relatives that are compelling personal experiences or insights into clinical practice or the experience of caring for patients in the supportive and palliative care setting (1500 word limit excluding references)
EDITORIALS/GUEST EDITORIALS
Scholarly opinions on scientific, clinical or policy aspects of palliative and supportive care . They can be related to papers which have appeared or currently appear in an issue of Palliative and Supportive Care.No Abstract.(1500 word limit excluding references)
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters to the editor are academically oriented letters commenting on papers appearing in Palliative and Supportive Care 500 word limit, excluding tables or figures.
POETRY
Poems related to the themes of psychosocial existential and spiritual aspects of palliative care. (750 word limit, exceptions made)
*These articles types may be covered under one of the transformative agreements that Cambridge University Press has made to support open access. If funding is unavailable for the other article types, waivers are available.
Manuscript Preparation and Style
Manuscripts must be in English and double-spaced. Numbers should be spelled out when they occur at the beginning of a sentence; use Arabic numerals elsewhere. Abbreviations should be used sparingly and nonstandard abbreviations should be defined at their first occurrence. Metric system (SI) units should be used. Manuscripts that do not conform to the style of Palliative & Supportive Care will be returned without review.
MANUSCRIPT ELEMENTS AND ORDER.
Unless there are obvious and compelling reasons for variation (e.g. review articles, short communications), manuscripts should be organized as follows:
Title page. This is page 1. The title should be concise, informative, and free of abbreviations, chemical formulae, technical jargon, and esoteric terms. This page should include (a) the article's full title, (b) names and affiliations of all authors, (c) the name, mailing address, email address, and telephone number of the corresponding author, (d) the address for reprint requests if different from that of the corresponding author, (e) a short title of 50 characters or less, and (f) a list of the number of manuscript pages, number of tables, and number of figures.
Abstract and keywords page. This is page 2 and should include (a) the article's full title, (b) an abstract of no more than 300 words, and (c) up to 5 keywords or phrases that reflect the content and major thrust of the article. The abstract should give a succinct account of the article contents utilizing these specific abstract headings: Objectives; Methods; Results; Significance of Results.
Introduction. This section begins on page 3 and should clearly state the objective of the research in the context of previous work bearing directly on the subject. An extensive review of the literature is not usually appropriate.
Methods. This section should be brief but provide sufficient information to permit others to replicate the study. Pertinent details of species, apparatus and equipment, procedures and experimental design should be described.
Results. The results should be presented clearly and concisely, using figures and tables to summarize or illustrate the important findings. Quantitative observations are often more effectively displayed in graphs than in tables.
Discussion. The discussion should summarize the major findings and explain their significance in terms of the study's objectives and relationship to previous, relevant work. This section should present compact, clearly developed arguments rather than wide-ranging speculation or uncritical collation of earlier reports.
Acknowledgments. Use a separate page to recognize the contributions of individuals and supporting institutions.
References. This journal uses CambridgeA reference style. Our complete style guide includes examples for how to use this style.
Policy on prior publication
When authors submit manuscripts to this journal, these manuscripts should not be under consideration, accepted for publication or in press within a different journal, book or similar entity, unless explicit permission or agreement has been sought from all entities involved. However, deposition of a preprint on the author’s personal website, in an institutional repository, or in a preprint archive shall not be viewed as prior or duplicate publication. Authors should follow the Cambridge University Press Preprint Policy regarding preprint archives and maintaining the version of record.
English language editing services
Authors, particularly those whose first language is not English, may wish to have their English-language manuscripts checked by a native speaker before submission. This step is optional, but may help to ensure that the academic content of the paper is fully understood by the Editor and any reviewers.
In order to help prospective authors to prepare for submission and to reach their publication goals, Cambridge University Press offers a range of high-quality manuscript preparation services – including language editing – delivered in partnership with American Journal Experts. You can find out more on our Language Services page.
Please note that the use of any of these services is voluntary, and at the author's own expense. Use of these services does not guarantee that the manuscript will be accepted for publication, nor does it restrict the author to submitting to a Cambridge-published journal.
Competing Interests
All authors must include a competing interest declaration in their main manuscript file. This declaration will be subject to editorial review and may be published in the article.
Competing interests are situations that could be perceived to exert an undue influence on the content or publication of an author’s work. They may include, but are not limited to, financial, professional, contractual or personal relationships or situations.
If the manuscript has multiple authors, the author submitting must include competing interest declarations relevant to all contributing authors.
Example wording for a declaration is as follows: “Competing interests: Author 1 is employed at organisation A, Author 2 is on the Board of company B and is a member of organisation C. Author 3 has received grants from company D.” If no competing interests exist, the declaration should state “Competing interests: The author(s) declare none”.
Authorship and contributorship
All authors listed on any papers submitted to this journal must be in agreement that the authors listed would all be considered authors according to disciplinary norms, and that no authors who would reasonably be considered an author have been excluded. For further details on this journal’s authorship policy, please see this journal's publishing ethics policies.
Author affiliations
Author affiliations should represent the institution(s) at which the research presented was conducted and/or supported and/or approved. For non-research content, any affiliations should represent the institution(s) with which each author is currently affiliated.
For more information, please see our author affiliation policy and author affiliation FAQs.
ORCID
We require all corresponding authors to identify themselves using ORCID when submitting a manuscript to this journal. ORCID provides a unique identifier for researchers and, through integration with key research workflows such as manuscript submission and grant applications, provides the following benefits:
- Discoverability: ORCID increases the discoverability of your publications, by enabling smarter publisher systems and by helping readers to reliably find work that you have authored.
- Convenience: As more organisations use ORCID, providing your iD or using it to register for services will automatically link activities to your ORCID record, and will enable you to share this information with other systems and platforms you use, saving you re-keying information multiple times.
- Keeping track: Your ORCID record is a neat place to store and (if you choose) share validated information about your research activities and affiliations.
See our ORCID FAQs for more information.
If you don’t already have an iD, you will need to create one if you decide to submit a manuscript to this journal. You can register for one directly from your user account on ScholarOne, or alternatively via https://ORCID.org/register.
If you already have an iD, please use this when submitting your manuscript, either by linking it to your ScholarOne account, or by supplying it during submission using the "Associate your existing ORCID iD" button.
ORCIDs can also be used if authors wish to communicate to readers up-to-date information about how they wish to be addressed or referred to (for example, they wish to include pronouns, additional titles, honorifics, name variations, etc.) alongside their published articles. We encourage authors to make use of the ORCID profile’s “Published Name” field for this purpose. This is entirely optional for authors who wish to communicate such information in connection with their article. Please note that this method is not currently recommended for author name changes: see Cambridge’s author name change policy if you want to change your name on an already published article. See our ORCID FAQs for more information.
Tables
Tables may be submitted as Word or Excel files. Tables should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals. A short explanatory title and column headings should make the table intelligible without reference to the text.
Figures and Legends
Figures may be submitted as TIFF or EPS files at 300pi or higher. The number of figures should be the minimum necessary to make the essential points of the paper. Diagrams and illustrations must have a professional appearance.
Funding Statement
Authors must include a Funding Statement in their manuscript. Within this statement please provide details of the sources of financial support for all authors, including grant numbers, for example: “Funding Statement: This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (grant number XXXXXXX)”. Grants held by different authors should be identified as belonging to individual authors by the authors’ initials, for example: “Funding Statement: This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (AB, grant numbers XXXX, YYYY), (CD, grant number ZZZZ); the Natural Environment Research Council (EF, grant number FFFF); and the National Institutes of Health (AB, grant number GGGG), (EF, grant number HHHH).”
Where no specific funding has been provided for research, you should include the following statement:
“Funding Statement: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.”
Seeking permission for copyrighted material
If your article contains any material in which you do not own copyright, including figures, charts, tables, photographs or excerpts of text, you must obtain permission from the copyright holder to reuse that material. As the author it is your responsibility to obtain this permission and pay any related fees, and you will need to send us a copy of each permission statement at acceptance.
When do I need to request permission?
You need to request permission to reuse any material for which you are not the copyright holder. This can include anything created, published, owned, held or produced by a third party, but also other published material that you authored, as the original publisher may hold the copyright.
If you make minor changes to the original material, you still need to seek permission to use it. Cosmetic changes such as tinting, relabelling, or redrawing as is are not enough; material needs to be substantially modified to avoid needing permission to reproduce, and even then the original source still needs to be acknowledged.
Who do I send a permission request to?
Usually the publisher of the original work holds the copyright, unless explicitly stated otherwise. We recommend that you approach the original publisher first, and they will inform you if you need to contact the author.
How do I request permission?
Most publishers have forms on their websites that can be completed electronically, or use automated electronic permissions services like Rightslink® to grant permissions automatically online.
If no electronic form or service is available, you must send an email or letter to the copyright holder. A template permissions request is included below; note for emails no signature is required.
Dear <rightsholder>
<Article title>
I am writing/editing/contributing to an academic work under the provisional title above, to be published by Cambridge University Press in <title of journal>, in <month (if known) and year of publication>.
I request your permission to include the following material in this work:
Author:
Title:
Date of publication: <volume and issue if applicable>:
ISBN <ISSN if journal>:
Page no.(s):
Illustration no.(s):
Table no.(s):
Unless otherwise informed, permission will be assumed to grant the nonexclusive right to use the material in print and electronic editions of the work throughout the world, in all revised editions of the work and as part of a sample of the work made available online for promotional purposes only.
I further request permission for the material to be included in any reprint published under licence from Cambridge University Press.
The source of the material will be fully acknowledged in the usual way. Please indicate below if you have any special requirements: ..............................................................
..............................................................
Please indicate your agreement to this request by <way of reply to this email/signing and returning one copy of this letter>:. The duplicate is for your own records. By your countersignature, you warrant that you control these rights and are authorised to grant this permission.
If this is not the case, I would be grateful if you could let me know to whom I should apply.
Yours sincerely
<Signature lines>:
I/we hereby grant the permission detailed above.
Signed:............................. Date: ..................
When do I not need to request permission?
- Creative Commons – where third party content is published under a Creative Commons licence (CC-BY / CC-BY-NC / CC-BY-NC-ND etc.), you may not need to request permission to reuse the content as long as you fully acknowledge the original source. Please check carefully the terms of the license before reusing material. More information about Creative Commons licenses can be found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
- Content in the public domain – material that is not under copyright is considered to be in the public domain, and you do not need to request permission to use such material. This includes works for which the copyright has expired and has not since been renewed.
My article includes third party materials and will be published Gold Open Access. What type of permissions do I need to request?
If your article is to be published Gold Open Access, you will have to make sure all of the permissions requested from third party copyright owners includes the non-exclusive right to use the third party materials in the open access version of your article and under an equivalent creative commons licence.
If your article is transformed to a Gold OA publication post-submission, you will need to review the current permissions already in place and determine whether or not the rights originally granted cover the open access version of your article. If not, then you will need to request further permissions from the copyright holder.
How do I acknowledge permission in my paper?
Even if written permission is not required, you must fully acknowledge the original source of any material where you do not hold copyright in your article. The copyright holder will inform you if there is any specific wording required for this acknowledgement. For figures or tables from other sources, you should place this acknowledgement at the end of the caption.
What permissions information do I need to provide to my journal?
You will be asked to supply copies of any emails or letters granting permission to reuse material with your transfer of copyright or license to publish form.
Patient photographs
Please note that hospitals usually hold copyright for any photographs taken during the course of work done on their premises. Permission to use the photograph in your article also needs to be obtained from the patient in the photograph if the subject of the photograph can be recognised.
Material from the internet
Please be aware that even if a copyright notice is not displayed, content on websites is still protected by copyright and so permission to reuse material will need to be obtained from the copyright holder.
Publishing ethics
This journal publishes in accordance with Cambridge University Press’s publishing ethics guidelines, which apply to authors, peer reviewers, the editorial office and the journal as a whole. Anyone who believes that these guidelines have not been followed should raise their concern with the editor or email publishingethics@cambridge.org.