A manuscript will be reviewed for possible publication with the understanding that it is being submitted to The Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice (JPORP) alone at that point in time and has not been published anywhere, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere. The journal expects that authors would authorize one of them to correspond with the Journal for all matters related to the manuscript. All manuscripts received are duly acknowledged. On submission, editors review all submitted manuscripts initially for suitability for formal review. Manuscripts with insufficient originality, serious scientific or technical flaws, or lack of a significant message are rejected before proceeding for formal peer-review. Manuscripts that are unlikely to be of interest to JPORP readers are also liable to be rejected at this stage itself.

Manuscripts received from Editorial Board members will be screened by the co-Editors in Chief and sent to external peer reviewers. The editorial board members who are authors will be excluded from publication decisions.

Manuscripts that are found suitable for publication in JPORP are sent to two or more expert reviewers. During submission, the contributor is requested to provide names of two or three qualified reviewers who have had experience in the subject of the submitted manuscript, but this is not mandatory. The reviewers should not be affiliated with the same institutes as the contributor/s. However, the selection of these reviewers is at the sole discretion of the editor. The journal follows a single-blind review process, wherein the authors are unaware of the reviewers' identity. Every manuscript is also assigned to a handling co-Editor for Associate Editor (AE) assignment who carry out the peer reviewer appointment, and then based on the comments from the AE and reviewers, the handling co-editor makes a final decision on the manuscript. The comments and suggestions (acceptance/ rejection/ amendments in manuscript) received from reviewers are conveyed to the corresponding author. If required, the author is requested to provide a point-by-point response to reviewers' comments and submit a revised version of the manuscript. This process is repeated until reviewers and editors are satisfied with the manuscript. Invited Commentary papers are assigned to a suitable Associate Editor who provides the review and suggests a decision to the co-Editor who is then responsible for making the final decision.  ​ ​

Manuscripts accepted for publication are copy edited for grammar, punctuation, print style, and format. Page proofs are sent to the corresponding author. The corresponding author is expected to return the corrected proofs within three days. It may not be possible to incorporate corrections received after that period. The whole process of submission of the manuscript to the final decision and sending and receiving proofs is completed online. To achieve faster and greater dissemination of knowledge and information, the journal publishes articles online as and when they are ready, ahead of allocation to a compendium.

The authors can appeal to the editor's decision if they have a piece of strong reason evidence or information in response to the editor's and reviewer's comments. If the authors wish to appeal the decision, they should email the editorial office ([email protected]​) explaining in detail the reason for the appeal. The appeals will be acknowledged by the editorial office and will be investigated in an unbiased manner. The processing of appeals will be done within 6 – 8 weeks. While under appeal, the said manuscript should not be submitted to other journals. The final decision rests with the co-Editors in Chief of the journal. Second appeals are not considered.

Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice adheres to the ethical principles outlined by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) available at: http://publicationethics.org/.

Protection of human individuals in research: Documented review and approval from a formally constituted review board (Institutional Review Board or Ethics committee) is required for all studies (prospective or retrospective) involving people, medical records, and/or human tissues.

We request that the right to privacy of patients is respected and that informed consent is obtained. Identifying information (names, initials, or hospital numbers) cannot be used in manuscripts.

Protection of animals in research: When performing experiments on animals or animal tissues, we request that authors seek approval by an institutional ethics committee and strictly follow the institutional and national guide for the care and use of laboratory animals. At time of manuscript submission, we request that authors provide information on the study approval by an institutional ethical committee. We can only consider manuscripts reporting on studies on animals or animal tissues if ethical committee approval of the study can be documented.

Data Sharing Statement: Manuscripts must contain a data sharing statement on whether data is available or not as outlined in the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors policy (www.icmje.org). A data sharing plan must be included in a trial’s registration for those that begin enrolling participants on or after 1 January 2019. Authors of secondary analyses using shared data must reference the source of the data and attest their use was in accordance with any terms agreed.

The Journal favors registration of clinical trials and would publish clinical trials that have been registered with a clinical trial registry that allows free online access to the public. Registration in the following trial registers is acceptable: 

This is applicable to clinical trials that have begun the enrolment of subjects in or after June 2008. Clinical trials that have commenced enrolment of subjects prior to June 2008 would be considered for publication in JPORP only if they have been registered retrospectively with the clinical trial registry that allows unhindered online access to public without charging any fees.

Manuscripts containing original material are accepted for consideration if neither the article nor any part of its essential substance, tables, or figures has been or will be published or submitted elsewhere before appearing in Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice (in part or in full, in other words or in the same words, in English or in another language), and will not be submitted elsewhere unless rejected by the Journal or withdrawn by the author. (This restriction is exclusive of abstracts of the Work submitted for presentation to learned societies and scholarly forums). Simultaneous submissions of the same article to multiple journals are prohibited. If an author violates this requirement or engages in similar misconduct, Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice's Editorial Board may reject the manuscript or impose a moratorium on acceptance of new manuscripts from the author. If it deems the misconduct sufficiently serious, the Editorial Board can refer the matter for investigation to the author's academic institution or hospital or to the appropriate state or local disciplinary body. A letter of permission is required for any and all material that has been published previously or is "in press" by another journal. It is the responsibility of the author to request permission from the publisher for any material that is being reproduced. This requirement applies to text, illustrations, and tables. These permissions must be supplied to Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice upon submission of the article, along with ample acknowledgement of the original source of the materials in the legend and/or text.

To reiterate, any previously published material (including material published in foreign-language, open access, or e-journals) that is included in a submission to Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice needs to:

a) Clearly reference the original publication of the previously published material.

b) Be accompanied by a letter of permission from the copyright holder of the material. Any fee associated with permission to reuse previously published material is the responsibility of the author of the manuscript.

If an author submits an article to Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice that contains material to which he or she holds the copyright (figures, material from articles published on open-access or e-journals, and so on), he or she needs to clearly indicate that he or she holds the copyright and provide Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice with written permission to use the previously copyrighted material. Authors retain copyright of all material published in Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice. All permission statements allowing Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice to publish previously published material must extend to all print and digital media (so that material can be both printed and placed on the Journal's website) and must not include any time limitations.

Plagiarism is when an author passes off the work of someone else as his or her own. This can also include self-plagiarism, which happens when an author reuses portions of his or her previously published work without the proper references. Manuscripts containing plagiarized content will not be considered for publication in Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice. All authors need to take responsibility for their manuscripts. If your name is on a manuscript, make sure all of the material in the paper either is original or is properly cited and has proper permission to be reproduced. If you have a question about the originality of any part of a manuscript, verify it with your co-authors. Senior authors should pay special attention to what the junior authors are doing and where they are sending their manuscripts.

If you realize you have made an error of dual publication or plagiarism inadvertently, proactively contact the editorial office. It is much better to come forward of your own volition than to have an accusation made against you.

If Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice learns of a case of plagiarism after publication, Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice will conduct an investigation. If plagiarism is found, the author, the author's institution and funding agencies, and the original publication will be notified. A statement noting the plagiarism, providing a reference to the plagiarized material, and linking to the original to the original paper may follow. Depending on the extent of the plagiarism, the paper may also be formally retracted.

Illustrations, figures, and tables should be labelled clearly, arranged symmetrically, in either "portrait" or "landscape" orientation, and numbered sequentially in the text. Photographs should be identical in terms of size, position, and lighting. Figures must be accompanied by legends attached at the end of the manuscript.

Graphics altering programs can be used to assemble multi-panel images, clean up dust specs from scanning in originals, and cropping. However, these programs should not be used improperly to attempt to modify results. 

All sources of funds supporting the work and a statement of financial interest, if any, must be included for each author of a manuscript, along with a list of all products, devices, drugs, etc. used in the manuscript. All manuscripts must have this information. Each author is required at the time of submission to disclose any commercial associations or financial disclosures that might pose or create a conflict of interest with information presented in any submitted manuscript. Such associations include any of the following: consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interest, patent licensing arrangements, payments for conduction or publicizing a study described in the manuscript, royalty recipient, grant recipient, employee, board member and review panel member.

Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice takes full responsibility to correct errors as they occur. Content that is published online or in an issue is considered the final published record and must be preserved; therefore, all changes to articles must be made as a formal correction. Corrections will be published online and in the next available issue and will be bi-directionally linked to the original article.  These corrections will then be picked up by Ovid and transmitted to indexing services and other aggregating databases.

Corrections will be reviewed and considered if they affect the publication record, the scientific integrity of the paper, or the reputation of the authors, or of Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice.  Corrections that do not significantly affect the paper may not be approved (i.e. a spelling error).

Retractions will be considered if results are invalid or ethical guidelines have been violated (i.e. applicable cases of plagiarism or ghostwriting). All co-authors must sign a retraction detailing the error and how the conclusions were affected.

All decisions about corrections or retractions are made by the Editor. Author consultation may be required. In situations where co-authors disagree about a correction, the Editors will consult with independent peer-reviewers before applying the appropriate correction. The dissenting author(s) position will be noted on the correction.

Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. To provide open access, the journal charges publication fees for each article published. These fees cover the expenses incurred by publication, including the peer review process, journal production and publication, and hosting and archiving fees. Fees vary by article type.

The APCs for Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice are $1,050 USD for Tier 1 manuscripts (Articles, Guideline Articles, Review Articles) and $525 USD for Tier 2 manuscripts (Letters, Case Reports, Editorials). Discounted APCs are available for members of the International Psycho-oncology Society where both the first and last authors are verified members at the time of submission. IPOS member APC rates are as follows: $840 for Tier 1 papers and $420 for Tier 2 papers. 

Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice belongs to the CLOCKSS and Portico digital archiving programs.​