Submission guidelines

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Please read the guidelines in full before submitting your manuscript.
Manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.

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This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.

The Journal recommends that authors follow the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE).

Sage is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the author responsibilities section on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

We also encourage you to familiarize yourself with our Editorial Policies and our Publication Ethics Policies.

Sage Publishing disseminates high-quality research and engaged scholarship globally, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in publishing. We encourage submissions and peer review from a diverse range of authors and reviewers from across all countries and backgrounds. Read our diversity, equity, and inclusion pledge.

Please read the guidelines below then submit your manuscript here.

Access: Open Access
APC: See article processing charge information below
Accepts preprints? Yes
Identity transparency: All identities visible

Please note that this journal is online-only and does not offer print copies.

Cancer Control is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. All accepted articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication, are published under a Creative Commons license, and hosted online in perpetuity.

If, after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time article processing charge (APC) is payable to cover the cost of publishing, paid by the funder, institution, or author. There is no charge for submitting a manuscript.

The APC for this journal is $3000.

Brief reports, Research Notes, Mini Reviews and Technical Notes will receive a 20% discount on the APC. Commentary and Views will receive a 40% discount. There will be no APC for Correspondences and Editorials.

The APC is payable when a manuscript is accepted after peer review, before it is published. The APC is subject to taxes where applicable. Tax-exempt status can be indicated by providing appropriate registration numbers when payment is requested. Please see further details on tax-exempt status here.

For general information on open access at Sage please visit the Open Access page.

Authors may be eligible for discounts to their APC via open access agreements that Sage has with participating institutions. Discounts depend on the terms of the agreement, find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. Eligibility is determined by the corresponding author’s affiliation at acceptance matching an agreement.

Your article may be eligible for a full or partial waiver due to our participation in initiatives to increase accessibility to publication across the international academic community. More information about discounts and eligibility.

Your article must be within the scope of the journal and be of sufficient quality. If not, it will not be reviewed. Please read the journal’s Aims and Scope to see if your article is appropriate.

The manuscript must be your original work, you must have the rights to the work, and you must have obtained and be able to supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, including figures, illustrations, tables, lengthy quotations, or other material previously published elsewhere.

Article types

View our topical sections currently accepting submissions

View our Special Collections currently accepting submissions.

Original Research articles

Description: Original, in-depth, research articles must follow the Aims & Scope of CCX with emphasis on prevention, detection, diagnosis, prognosis, treatment or survivorship of cancer. Research articles must have the potential for clinical application. Case studies will not be considered, however case series with an in-depth literature review will be considered. For in silico studies using public databases (bioinformatics, prediction, SEER, etc.), external biological or clinical validation is required. Studies conducted solely in in vitro models will not be considered. If presenting in vitro data, these must be validated in vivo or in clinical samples/patients. CCX does not impose word or figure limits but does reserve the right to ask for manuscripts to be edited and/or shortened.

Abstract structure: Structured abstract is required.

Minimum number of peer reviewers: 2

Notes:All research involving animals must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the study was conducted. Submissions including animal studies must adhere to the ARRIVE reporting guidelines and include a completed ARRIVE checklist submitted as a supplementary file not for review. Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki. Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals. All papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the title page the name(s) of the ethics committee(s), institution(s), approval number(s), and approval date(s) for each animal or human study. An anonymized version of each statement must be included in the methods section. For human studies, there must be a patient consent statement in the methods and it should include whether the consent was written or verbal. Clinical studies must follow the relevant reporting guidelines based on the study type as indicated by the EQUATOR Network. Randomized controlled trials must be registered prior to the study start date and registration information (including a link and the registration number), must be included in the submission title page. Randomized controlled trials must include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and CONSORT checklist submitted as a supplementary file not for review.

Review articles

Description: Review Articles are narrative or literature reviews that report on the existing state of understanding in a specific research area and/or topic. Reviews should be recognized as scholarly by specialists in the covered field, but should also be written with a view to informing readers who are not specialized in that particular field, and should be presented using simple prose. Excessive jargon and technical details should be avoided. CCX does not impose word or figure limits but does reserve the right to ask for manuscripts to be edited and/or shortened.

Abstract structure: Unstructured

Minimum number of peer reviewers: 2

Notes:This article type also includes systematic reviews. Systematic reviews must be reported according to PRISMA guidelines and a PRISMA checklist and flowchart must be included as part of the submission. The PRISMA flowchart must be a cited figure in the manuscript. The checklist must be included as a supplementary file not for review. Systematic reviews should be registered with PROSPERO OR INPLASY and the registration information (including a link and registration number) must be included as part of submission in the title page.

Mini Review articles

Description: Mini Reviews are articles that focus on recent significant advances in fields that are within the scope of CCX. They are clear, succinct summaries that provide an up-to-date overview of progress, new developments, and/or emerging concepts in a specific field. Mini Reviews must provide clinical context and discussion of challenges and potential future developments. Mini Reviews should be approximately 2000 words. The abstract should not exceed 350 words and should be structured with a background, main body, and short conclusion. Mini Reviews should not include unpublished material or personal communications.

Abstract structure: Unstructured

Minimum number of peer reviewers: 2

Notes:: For reviews that are of broader scope, they are considered Review articles, not Mini Reviews. For submissions that do include unpublished material or personal communications, consider research article or brief report article types instead./p>

Method and Protocols

Description: Study Protocols are articles that describe the design of planned or ongoing research. This includes study design for observational, qualitative, exploratory studies, experimental studies, and systematic reviews. Study designs for clinical trials are especially encouraged. CCX endorses the SPIRIT(Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials) Statement, which provides important guidance on drafting protocols, and the PRISMA-P (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, which provide a 17-item checklist for preparing systematic review and meta-analysis protocols. Authors must follow these guidelines when preparing a study protocol manuscript. For more information on preparing a Study Protocol for submission, refer to this document.

Abstract structure: Structured abstract is required.

Minimum number of peer reviewers: 2

Notes:: All study protocols must adhere to the appropriate reporting guidelines, either SPIRIT or PRISMA-P.

Registered Reports, Pre-Data or Post-Data:

There are two types of Registered Reports: 

  1. Registered Reports – Pre-Data, i.e., before any data have been gathered
  2. Registered Reports – Post-Data, i.e., before already existing data have been examined and analyzed.

These submissions are reviewed in two stages. In Stage 1, a study proposal is considered for publication prior to data collection and/or analysis. Stage 1 submissions should include a complete Introduction, Methods, and Proposed Analyses. High-quality proposals will be accepted in principle before data collection and/or data analysis commences. Once the study is completed, the author will finish the article including Results and Discussion sections (Stage 2). Publication of the Stage 2 submission is guaranteed as long as the approved Stage 1 protocol is followed and the conclusions are appropriate. Full details can be found here. The Journal’s manuscript requirements should be adhered to for the stage 2 submission.

Abstract structure: Structured abstract is required.

Minimum number of peer reviewers: 2

Short Communications

Description: Short Communications (also known as Brief reports) are short research articles that focus on significant emergent findings or methodological innovations. Brief reports may report on breakthrough data not embedded within a complex story. The word limit must not exceed 1,500 words and there must not be more than 10 references.

Abstract structure: Structured abstract is required.

Minimum number of peer reviewers: 2

Notes:For studies that are more complex or exceed the word and reference limits, they need to be submitted as an original research article.

Research Notes

Description: Research notes are articles that are validation or replication studies. This study type aims to validate that a scientific finding is accurate, reliable, and reproducible. The structure and style should follow that of a original research article type, including a brief introduction. The article should be limited to 2,000-,4,000 words and have no more than 20 references.

Abstract structure: Structured abstract is required.

Minimum number of peer reviewers: 2

Notes:For studies that are more complex or exceed the word and reference limits, they need to be submitted as an original research article.

Technical Notes

Description: Technical notes are articles that are briefer than an original research article and highlight a practical or theoretical study or protocol. The article should be limited to 3,000 words and have no more than 15 references.

Abstract structure: Structured abstract is required.

Minimum number of peer reviewers: 2

Notes:For studies that are more complex or exceed the word and reference limits, they need to be submitted as an original research article.

Perspectives

Description: Perspectives are opinion pieces and should not exceed 3,000 words and 30 references. Perspectives should present a new vision or perspective of recent developments. They may also critically address recent publications from any journal. In the latter case, the criticized authors will be given a chance to write a prompt response. Articles may also address unsolved controversies arising in current research.

Abstract structure: Unstructured

Minimum number of peer reviewers: 2

Notes:Perspectives are not research articles and should not include unpublished research. If the opinion is very brief it can be submitted as a commentary instead. If the opinion is a short critique of a journal article, it should be submitted as a correspondence.

Correspondences

Description: Letters to the editor are short articles that make corrections, provide alternative viewpoints or offer counter-arguments about published research. Letters to the Editor should consist of one or two paragraphs totaling no more than 500 words, no abstract, no subheadings and fewer than 5 references. If an abstract is included, it will automatically be made the first paragraph. Letters should not include figures or research material. It must be written in a professional tone and include references to support all claims if appropriate.

Abstract structure: No abstract. If an abstract is included, it will automatically be made the first paragraph.

Minimum number of peer reviewers: 1

Notes:If the letter exceeds 500 words, it will be considered a perspective article type and subject to an APC.

Editorials

Description: Editorials are short articles invited by journal Editors and are intended to provide a brief overview of the latest research in the field. These key opinion pieces are peer reviewed and are aimed at steering discussion about the recent exciting developments in cancer research and therapy. The word limit for editorial articles is maximum 2,000 words and up to 20 references. In the context of a Special Collection, Editorials also involve a Guest Editor introducing the collection topic and offering a concise overview of the articles published within it.

Abstract structure: Unstructured

Minimum number of peer reviewers: 1

Notes:Ad hoc Editorials will not be considered. However, they may be considered as a different article type, which is at the discretion of the journal Editors.

Commentaries

Description: Commentaries are shorter than Perspectives and discuss the findings, implications, and/or outcomes of specific research. They present the author’s original ideas and suggestions, and are not simply a review of literature. Commentaries tend to have a focused opinion or view of recently published research or of important changes or trends related to the field. Commentaries must be less than 2,500 words and have no more than 20 references.

Abstract structure: Unstructured

Minimum number of peer reviewers: 2

Notes:Journal editors reserve the right to suggest a different article type if the commentary exceeds the word limit and reference limit

Clinical trial registration

The journal conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first participant enrollment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.

Reporting guidelines

Your manuscript must follow the relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines, depending on the type of study. The EQUATOR wizard can help identify the appropriate guideline. You will need to upload the appropriate checklist with your submission.

Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.

If your research involves animals, you will be asked to confirm that you have carefully read and adhered to the ARRIVE guidelines.

Formatting your manuscript

Accepted file types

The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. You do not need to follow a template, but please ensure your heading levels are clear, and the sections clearly defined.

The LaTeX files are also accepted. A LaTeX template is available on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

Your article title, keywords, and abstract all contribute to its position in search engine results, directly affecting the number of people who see your work. For details of what you can do to influence this, visit How to help readers find your article online.

Title

Your manuscript’s title should be concise, descriptive, unambiguous, accurate, and reflect the precise contents of the manuscript. A descriptive title that includes the topic of the manuscript makes an article more findable in the major indexing services.

Abstract

The journal requires a structured abstract of no more than 300 words for Original Research, Systematic Review, Study Protocol, Brief Report, Research Note, and Technical Note article types. All other article types require an unstructured abstract. The abstract must be between the title and main body of your manuscript and concisely state the purpose of research, major findings, and conclusions. For structured abstracts, please ensure that the abstract has the following headings: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Conclusion. If your research includes clinical trials, the trial registry name, URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract. Submissions that do not meet this requirement will not be considered.

For clinical trials, the trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.

This journal includes plain language summaries. For more information on how to prepare a plain language summary, please see this page.

Plain language summaries

A plain language summary (PLS) is an optional addition that can be submitted for any article type that requires an abstract. The plain language title (approx. 50 words) and plain language summary (approx. 300 words) should describe the article using non-technical language, making it accessible to a wider network of readers. More information and guidance on how to write a PLS can be found on our Author Gateway.

PLS are published directly below the scientific abstract and are open access making it available online for anyone to read. Peer review of the PLS will be conducted following our PLS reviewer guidelines. When submitting, authors should enter their plain language title and plain language summary into the box provided in the submission system when prompted. The PLS does not need to be provided in the manuscript text or as a separate file. If you are not submitting a PLS with your submission, please enter “N/A” in each box.

If you need professional help writing your Plain Language Summary, please visit our Author Services portal.

Keywords

Please include a minimum of 5 keywords, listed after the abstract. Keywords should be as specific as possible to the research topic.

Artwork, figures, and other graphics

For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures, and graphs in electronic format, please read Sage’s artwork guidelines.

Figures supplied in color will appear in color online.

Please ensure that you have obtained any necessary permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures, or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please see the Frequently Asked Questions page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

Title page

To ensure fair and anonymous peer review, your manuscript must be fully anonymized. Please ensure any identifying information is removed from the main manuscript document and included on the Title Page instead. Do not include any author names in the manuscript file name and remove names from headers and footers. This version of the manuscript will be sent to the peer reviewers. The Title Page will not be sent to peer reviewers. See the Sage Journal Author Gateway for detailed guidance on making an anonymous submission.

The Title Page should include:

  • Article title
  • The full list of authors including names and affiliations of each
    • The listed affiliation should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a note at the end of the manuscript – please indicate this on the title page.
    • All persons eligible for authorship must be included at the time of submission (please see the authorship section for more information).
  • Contact information for the corresponding author: name, institutional address, phone, email
  • Acknowledgments section
  • Declaration of conflicting interest
  • Funding statement
  • Ethical approval and informed consent statements
  • Data availability statement
  • Any other identifying information related to the authors and/or their institutions, funders, approval committees, etc, that might compromise anonymity.
Acknowledgments

If you are including an Acknowledgements section, this will be published at the end of your article. The Acknowledgments section should include all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship. Per ICMJE recommendations, it is best practice to obtain consent from non-author contributors who you are acknowledging in your manuscript.

Writing assistance and third party submissions: if you have received any writing or editing assistance from a third-party, for example a specialist communications company, this must be clearly stated in the Acknowledgements section and in the covering letter. Please see the Sage Author Gateway for what information to include in your Acknowledgements section. If your submission is being made on your behalf by someone who is not listed as an author, for example the third-party who provided writing/editing assistance, you must state this in the Acknowledgements and also in your covering letter. Please note that the journal editor reserves the right to not consider submissions made by a third party rather than by the author/s themselves.

Author contributions

You will be asked to list the contribution of each author as part of the submission process. Please include the Author Contributions heading within your submission after the Acknowledgements section. The information you give on submission will then show under the Author Contributions heading later at the proofing stage.

Statements and declarations

Please include a section with the heading ‘Statements and Declarations’ at the end of your submitted article, after the Acknowledgements section [and Author Contributions section if applicable] including each of the sub-headings listed below. If a declaration is not applicable to your submission, you must still include the heading and state ‘Not applicable’ underneath. Please note that you may be asked to justify why a declaration was not applicable to your submission by the Editorial Office.

Ethical considerations

Please include your ethics approval statements under this heading, even if you have already included ethics approval information in your methods section. If ethical approval was not required, you need to explicitly state this. You can find information on what to say in your ethical statements as well as example statements on our Publication ethics and research integrity policies page.

All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved the study, or waived the requirement for approval, providing the full name and institution of the review committee in addition to the approval number. If applicable, please also include this information in the Methods section of your manuscript.

Please include any participant consent information under this heading and state whether informed consent to participate was written or verbal. If the requirement for informed consent to participate has been waived by the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board (i.e. where it has been deemed that consent would be impossible or impracticable to obtain), please state this. If this is not applicable to your manuscript, please state ‘Not applicable’ in this section. More information and example statements can be found on our Publication ethics and research integrity policies page.

Submissions containing any data from an individual person (including individual details, images or videos) must include a statement confirming that informed consent for publication was provided by the participant(s) or a legally authorized representative. Non-essential identifying details should be omitted. Please do not submit the participant’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent to publish but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file in addition to the statement confirming that consent to publish was obtained within the manuscript text. If this is not applicable to your manuscript, please state ‘Not applicable’ in this section.

Declaration of conflicting interest

The journal requires a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors so that a statement can be included in your article. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, see our policy on conflicting interest declarations and the ICMJE recommendations.

If no conflict exists, your statement should read: ‘The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article’.

Funding statement

All articles need to include a funding statement, under a separate heading, even if you did not receive funding. You’ll find guidance and examples on our Funding page.

Data availability

The Journal is committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research, and has the following research data sharing policy. For more information, including FAQs please visit the Sage Research Data policy pages.

Subject to appropriate ethical and legal considerations, authors are encouraged to:

  • Share your research data in a relevant public data repository
  • Include a data availability statement linking to your data. If it is not possible to share your data, use the statement to confirm why it cannot be shared.
  • Cite this data in your research

Reference style and citations

The journal follows the AMA Manual of Style. View the AMA Manual of Style to ensure your manuscript conforms.

Every in-text citation must have a corresponding citation in the reference list and vice versa. Corresponding citations must have identical spelling and year.

Authors should update any references to preprints when a peer reviewed version is made available, to cite the published research. Citations to preprints are otherwise discouraged.

EndNote

If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the AMA EndNote output file.

Supplemental material

This Journal can host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc.) alongside the full text of the article. Your supplemental material must be one of our accepted file types. For that list and more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files.

English language editing services

Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using Sage Author Services. Visit Sage Author Services for further information.

As part of the submission process you will need to confirm that this is your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that this is for first publication in this Journal, that it is not being considered for/has not already been published elsewhere, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you.

Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that the journal may accept submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers.

Preprints

The journal will consider submissions of manuscripts that have been posted on preprint servers.

Please enter the preprint DOI in the designated field when submitting your manuscript. We advise that you inform the Journal Editorial office about your posted preprint at submission.

Note that you should not post an updated version of your manuscript on a preprint server while it is being peer reviewed.

Learn more about our preprint policy.

Submission site

Submit your manuscript online here.

Please read the submission guidelines before submitting the manuscript.

From the submission site you can create submissions and revisions and track the status of your manuscripts. Please note, you will need to create a new CONNECT account on the Sage Journals Submission site the first time you use it, your Sage Track account will not work on this submission system.

IMPORTANT: To submit a revision for a manuscript that was submitted to Cancer Control via Sage Track prior to 17th October 2023, please submit your revision in Sage Track, not via Sage Journals Submission. All transfers into Cancer Control will also need to be submitted via Sage Track. Please reference the email you received after approving the transfer or reach out to our Transfer Support Team for assistance.

Manuscripts should only be submitted with the consent of all contributing authors. The individual responsible for submitting the manuscript should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the manuscript are listed as authors.

Ensure you upload all relevant manuscript files, including any additional supplemental files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).

Authorship

Please view our authorship policies, which includes information on criteria for authorship, who should be the corresponding author and more.

Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.

Files

  • Cover letter. To help the Editor in their preliminary evaluation, please indicate why you think the manuscript is suitable for the journal readership. The Cover Letter is also the place to indicate any special circumstances the Editor should be aware of. Examples include: submitting to a Special Collection, invited to submit an article, or editorial assistance provided to prepare and/or submit the manuscript
  • Title Page with all required identifying information as laid out in Preparing your manuscript for submission (above). This will not be sent to the peer reviewers.
  • Your manuscript, properly formatted and anonymized according to all stipulations above, and within the scope of the journal. Any information that compromises the anonymity of the author(s) should be removed or anonymized and included on the Title Page instead. See above for more information on anonymization. This version will be sent to the peer reviewers.
  • Figures and images.
  • Supplemental material. This journal can host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images, etc) alongside the full-text of the article. Your supplemental material must be one of our accepted file types. For that list and more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files.
  • Supplemental material not for review and not for publication: Any material that you would like to provide to the editor, but not be published as Supplemental material. This includes materials like raw data and ethics approval forms.
  • Author Contribution: The submitting author must complete and sign this form and include it as part of the submission process.

Other information required for submission

  • ORCID ID of the submitting author.
    • It is strongly encouraged that all co-authors ensure their ORCID IDs are linked to their accounts in the submission system prior to article acceptance, as this is the only way to have their ORCID ID present on the published article. ORCID IDs cannot be added to manuscripts after acceptance/publication. Please note that each co-author must log in to the submission system to add their own ORCID ID to their account. To add an ORCID ID, edit your account, click the link when prompted, and sign into your ORCID account to validate your ID. You will then be redirected back to the submission system and your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata.
    • Please create an ORCID ID if you do not already have one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
  • Complete list of authors, with their institutional affiliations.
    • The author information you enter at submission must exactly match what is included on your manuscript and/or title page, including full names, academic affiliations, and corresponding author contact details.
    • The listed affiliation should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a note at the end of the manuscript.
    • All listed authors must meet the criteria for authorship (above).
    • All persons eligible for authorship must be included at the time of submission.
    • All authors must have given consent for the manuscript to be submitted in its current form.
  • Keywords: During submission, you may be asked to select or enter keywords for your manuscript. These keywords are used to match appropriate reviewers to your manuscript.
  • The number of figures, tables, and words in your manuscript.
  • Funder information: Name, grant/award number.
  • You may be required to enter your declaration of conflicting interest as part of the submission process, in addition to listing it on your manuscript and/or title page. Please have it on hand.
  • If you have posted your manuscript to a preprint server, you will be asked to supply the DOI (this does not prohibit submission, but no changes should be made to the preprint version while your manuscript is under evaluation in this journal). Please see our guidelines on prior publication. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to the journal's author archiving policy. If your manuscript is accepted, you must include a link in your preprint to the final version of your published article.

The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal:
Identity transparency:Double-anonymized
Reviewer interacts with: Executive Editor, Deputy Editor, Managing Editors, Section Editors
Review information published:

  1. Review reports (author opt in)
  2. Review reports (reviewer opt in)
  3. Author/editor communication
  4. Reviewer identities (reviewer opt in)

Your manuscript will undergo an initial evaluation. If it does not conform to the requirements laid out in these guidelines, it will be returned to you for amendments prior to peer review. Manuscripts may be desk rejected without peer review at this point if they are out of scope for the journal or otherwise unsuitable.

After passing the initial evaluation, your manuscript will then be peer reviewed. You can log in at any time to check the status of your manuscript. We will notify you when a decision has been reached.

Cancer Control adheres to a rigorous double-anonymized reviewing policy in which the identity of both the reviewer and author are always concealed from both parties.

The following manuscript types may not require two independent reviews to be accepted: Commentaries, Editorials, Correspondences.

To ensure the integrity of the peer review process we assign reviewers and cannot accept author recommendations.

All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor who then makes the final decision on all manuscripts, including those appearing in a special issue or special collection. The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in the Journal. In these cases, the peer review process will be managed by alternative members of the Board and the submitting Editor/Board member will have no involvement in the decision-making process.

Read Sage's complete peer review policy.

Plagiarism

The journal and Sage take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. Please read Sage's complete policy on plagiarism and the actions we may take.

After acceptance you will receive instructions via email inviting you to complete the Open Access process. This will include signing the appropriate Creative Commons license and, where applicable, paying the Article Processing Charge (APC) or assigning a bill payer. Once the APC has been processed, your article will be prepared for publication and can appear online within an average of 30 days. Please note that, where an APC is applicable, production work cannot be completed on your manuscript until payment has been received.

Contributor’s Publishing Agreement

Before publication we require the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. The journal publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The standard license for the journal is Creative Commons by Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC), which allows others to re-use the work without permission as long as the work is properly referenced and the use is non-commercial. For more information, you are advised to visit Sage's OA licenses page. Alternative license arrangements are available at the author’s request (e.g. to meet particular funder mandates).

Preprints

If your manuscript was posted on a preprint server prior to acceptance, you must include a link in your preprint to the final published version of your published article.

Production

Your Sage Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal, Sage Edit, or by email, and should be returned promptly to avoid delaying publication. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence, and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate. This is the final opportunity to make changes to your manuscript. Further corrections will not be possible after publication. Changes to the author list are not permitted at this stage.

Publication

One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to publication. With no page count constraints, your article will be published online in a fully citable form with a DOI number as soon as it has completed the production process. At this time it will be completely free to view and download for all.

Promoting your article

Publication is not the end of the process. Between us, we can ensure that your article is found, read, downloaded and cited as widely as possible. Many of the most effective tactics are those you can do quickly and easily to your network of contacts and peers. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Sage Journal Author Gateway for numerous resources to help you promote your work.

The Sage Journal Author Gateway has some general advice on how to get published, plus links to further resources. Sage Author Services also offers authors a variety of ways to improve and enhance your article including English language editing, plagiarism detection, and video abstract and infographic preparation.

If you have any questions about publishing with Sage, please visit the Sage Journals Solutions Portal.

You can view our complaints and appeals procedure.

Contact us

Questions about peer review can be sent to ccx@sagepub.com. All other queries should be sent to ccx.editor@sagepub.com