Author Guidelines

Instruction for Authors:

Journal objectives

Palliative & Supportive Care in Cancer is a quarterly, international, peer-reviewed journal published in English under the technical support of the Cancer Research Center affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. The journal publishes original research papers, editorials, viewpoints and review articles on subjects in medicine, technology, supportive treatment surgeries and additional care, or alternative cancer therapy at all stages of the disease, issues associated with nursing and rehabilitation, psychosocial, spiritual and ethical issues and palliative care policies for cancer patients.

Legal and ethical issues

Author(s) should certify that neither the submitted manuscript nor another one with substantially similar content under their authorship has been published in any language or being considered for publication elsewhere. Author(s) should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to published article. In the event that an author is added or removed from the list of authors, written acceptance, signed by author(s), must be submitted to the editorial office. Sources of financial support for the project should be acknowledged. If the study involves human beings, the author(s) must include a statement that the study was approved by the local ethical committee and that written informed consent was obtained from the study participants.

Anonymous review

Submitted articles are reviewed anonymously by members of the editorial board. Authors should not insert their own or their organization's name anywhere in the text of their article. The author's and the institution's name should only appear on the title page, which will not be presented to the reviewers.

Types of articles

• Original/Research Article:

  Original research papers should be divided into the following sections: abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgements, conflict of interest and references. The word limit is 4000 for original quantitative articles and 5000 for qualitative articles (excluding the abstract, tables and references). The references section should not be extensive, with preferably no more than 40 items. The number of tables and figures should not exceed 5.

• Review articles:

  Review articles should include abstract, introduction, materials and methods, headings, subheadings (if required), discussion, conclusion, acknowledgements, conflict of interest and references sections. Citing review articles conducted by experts of the study subject are welcome. The word limit for review articles is 6000. The number of items on the references list should be between 30 and 60, preferably, with 3 to 5 pertaining to the authors themselves.

• Case Reports:

  Case reports should be arranged as follows: Abstract (unstructured, not exceeding 200 words), Introduction, Case Report, Discussion, References, and Figures. The length should not exceed 1000 words.

• Short reports:

  Short reports are similar to original research articles in structure. Their word limit is 2000, and no more than 2 tables should be inserted in each report article.

• Letter to the editor:

  There is usually no need for including an abstract, tables or scales in letters to the editor. The word limit is 1000 words, and no more than 5 references should be included.

Guidelines for writing articles:

All articles should be drafted in “Microsoft Word” using Times New Roman, 12-point font size, 1.5 spaced, on A4 paper sheets and with appropriate margins (1 inch from each side). Figures (images) are acceptable in JPEG or GIF only. If English is not your first language, the article should be translated and edited by an academic fluent in English. Although the previous step is not compulsory, it will help improve the quality of the article, increase the likelihood of its acceptance, and shorten the process of acceptance, although it still does not guarantee acceptance. Articles submitted should contain the following sections with the features explained:

1)      Title page: Including a short title, the name of the author(s), affiliated institute, institute, university and department. The full postal address, e-mail address and telephone and fax numbers of the corresponding author.

2)      Abstract: Abstract should be structured, and should include introduction, objectives, method, results, conclusion, and key words. Abstract should not contain more than 250 words. 3 to 7 key words should be selected according to Mesh. For correct selection of key words, the following address may be helpful: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/MBrowser.html

3)      Introduction: This should be a brief expression of the need for study, citing previous studies on the subject, and explaining objectives at the end.

4)      Method: Interventional studies should include full and clear explanation of sampling method used and relevant details about the intervention and the study tools, the statistical analytical methods and the software used. Adequate acceptable details of the methods used in other studies cited should also be provided.

5)      Results: The results section should include a brief explanation of the samples and the findings of the study. The tables and figures should be numbered as they are referred to in the findings section. The tabulated results should not be repeated in the text. Abbreviations used in the table should be explained below it. The number of tables and scales should not exceed 5.

6)      Discussion: The discussion section should be rich and must include a comparison of the findings obtained by the study with the findings of other studies cited and explain the reasons for their consistencies or inconsistencies. This section should also include an explanation of the study limitations and strengths, as well as recommendations for future studies.

7)      Conclusion: This section should include clear and concise conclusions about the study findings, and irrelevant issues should be avoided.

8)      If applicable, the authors should express their gratitude to the individuals and/or institutions that have cooperated in conducting the study (through funding, data collection, etc.).

Conflict of interest:

Authors should state any conflict of interest that may affect results, such as financial support, consultation, and personal or organizational relationships. If there is no conflict of interest, they should state in a clear sentence that there have been no conflicts of interest.

References:

The references should be listed in the order in which they have appeared in the text (Vancouver citation style). None-English references must be translated to English and marked as [In Persian or In Arabic etc.] at the end. Abbreviate names of journals should be italicized. The reference number should appear in parentheses at the end of the sentence and before the full stop. Only the first 6 authors should be listed, and for any number of authors beyond that, et al. should be used after the third author’s name.

Referencing Guidelines:

• Articles:

Author(s)’ name(s) / paper title / abbreviated Journal title (in italics) /year/volume (number)/ inclusive page numbers

Sample article citation: 

Sajjadi M, Rassouli M, Abbaszadeh A, Alavi Majd H, Zendehdel K. Psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Mishel's Uncertainty in Illness Scale in Patients with Cancer. Eur J Oncol Nurs 2014;18(1):52-57.

• Books: 

Author(s)’ name(s) (or the name of the institution in charge) / book title / Volume number (if it’s not the first edition) / place of publication / publisher / year of publication

Sample book citation: 

Adams  DO,  Edelson  PJ,  Koren  HS.  Methods  for  studying  mononuclear  phagocytes .   San  Diego,  CA: Academic; 2005.

• Chapter-in-Book: 

Author(s)’ name(s) / chapter number / chapter title / book editors / book title / volume number (if it’s not the first edition) / place of publication / Publisher / year of Publication / inclusive page numbers

Sample book citation: 

Rassouli M, Sajjadi M. Palliative care in the Islamic Republic of Iran. In: Silberman M, ed. Palliative Care to the Cancer Patient: The Middle East as a Model for Emerging Countries. New York: Nova, 2014.PP:39-53.

• Conference paper: (not recommended to use)

Presenter(s)’  name(s)  /  paper  title  /  compiler(s)’  name(s)  /  Conference  name,  date,  and  place  /  place  of  publication / publisher / inclusive Page numbers.

Sample conference paper citation: 

Bengtsson S, Solheim BG. Enforcement of data protection, privacy   and security in medical informatics. In: Lun  KC,  Degoulet  P,  Piemme  TE,  Reinhoff   O,  editors.  MEDINFO  92.

 Proceedings  of  the  7th  world congress  on  medical   informatics;  1992  sep  6-10;  Geneva,  Switzerland;  1992.  Amsterdam:  North-Holland; 1992. P: 1561-5.

• Dissertation:

Author(s)’ name(s) / thesis  full title / Author(s)’ academic level and  major / university /  year .

Sample dissertation citation: 

Fenster SD. Cloning and Characterization of Piccolo, A Novel Component of the Presynaptic Cytoskeletal Matrix [dissertation]. Birmingham: University of Alabama; 2000.

• Website:

Composer (s)’ name(s) (or institute) / topic / year (if available) / website address / access date 

Sample website citation: 

Fehrenbach MJ. Dental hygiene education.2000. Available from: http://www.dhed.net/Main.html.Accessed 2009 Jun 15.

International Society for Infectious Diseases. Available from: http://www.promedmail.org. Accessed April 29, 2004.

Final Confirmation: 

To avoid typographical errors, the article is returned to the corresponding author to be proof-read before the final submission. 

Publication Fees: 

Authors are not charged for their paper publication. 

Paper Retention: 

All manuscripts will be retained in the Journal Office but even unaccepted papers will not be returned to the authors. 

The  editorial  office  reserves the  privilege  of  accepting,  rejecting,  revision, or  edition  of  the manuscript to conform to the stylistic conventions established for the Journal. Authors are responsible for ideas, theories, or opinions put forward in the paper. Authors’ rights are reserved.