Journal profile · Multiple
Palliative Care & Social Practice
ISSN 2632-3524 · SAGE
Palliative Care & Social Practice: CAS Zone 3 · Medicine (2025 upgraded edition); fully open access; APC about USD 2,000; median 141 days to acceptance (99 articles, last 24 months); 112 articles in 2025; indexed in ESCI and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Palliative Care & Social Practice is published by SAGE and is in Zone 3 of Medicine in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues, Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health and Geriatric Care and Nursing Homes, together about 52% of its articles. Its main subfields are Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Gold open access journal – all articles are made freely available online immediately upon publication Listed in PubMed and indexed in Scopus Rigorous peer review Internationally renown, expert Editorial Board, panel of Associate Editors and Editors-in-Chief In-house Managing Editor to ensure timely attention to manuscripts Palliative Care and Social Practice is a peer-reviewed open access palliative care journal publishing articles from symptom science, clinical practice, and health services research. However, its aim is also to publish cutting-edge research from the realm of social practice - from public health theory and practice, social medicine, and social work, to social sciences related to dying and its care, as well as policy, criticism, and cultural studies. Please see the Aims and Scope tab for further information. Palliative Care and Social Practice is affiliated with Public Health Palliative Care International (PHPCI). The journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statement Palliative Care and Social Practice promotes inclusive, open science that reflects the disciplinary, human, and geographic diversity of the palliative care community. Diversity as a core value embodies inclusiveness, mutual respect, and multiple perspectives. We welcome editors, editorial board members, peer reviewers and authors from all backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, nationalities, races, religions, sexes, sexual orientations, gender identities, mental or physical (dis)abilities, ages, career stages, socioeconomic status or any other individual status. We are committed to continually improving our editorial and review processes whilst playing our part in eradicating bias and inequality in all forms. Submission information Submit your manuscript today at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pcr. Please see the Submission Guidelines tab for more information on how to submit your article to the journal. Article processing charge (APC) information The APC is for this journal is currently $2400. The APC is payable when a manuscript is accepted after peer review, before it is published. The APC is subject to taxes where applicable. Please see further details here. Contact Please direct any queries to PCR@sagepub.com.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Multiple
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Palliative Care and End-of-Life IssuesMedicine32.7%
- Grief, Bereavement, and Mental HealthPsychology13.5%
- Geriatric Care and Nursing HomesHealth Professions5.8%
- Patient Dignity and PrivacyMedicine4.5%
- Childhood Cancer Survivors' Quality of LifeMedicine4.2%
- Family and Patient Care in Intensive Care UnitsHealth Professions4%
- Cancer survivorship and careMedicine3.9%
- Family Support in IllnessSocial Sciences3.4%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Medicine Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Health Care Sciences & Services | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Public, Environmental & Occupational Health | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Medicine Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Medicine | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Health Care Sciences & Services | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Public, Environmental & Occupational Health | Zone 2 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Not covered
Not covered by this edition.
Database indexing
ESCIScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
PubMedPublisher website
As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 3.1LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 0.81LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.14LetPub ·
- h-index
- 24OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 96OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 1.81OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 7.4%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 100%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 93LetPub ·
- Articles per year (publisher)
- 3Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 499 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 137 | 137 | 18 |
| 2025 | 112 | 112 | 159 |
| 2024 | 86 | 86 | 429 |
| 2023 | 66 | 66 | 512 |
| 2022 | 45 | 45 | 493 |
| 2021 | 35 | 35 | 481 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with PubMed · to
141 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 115 days – 181 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 29 days (99 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 182 days
- Sample
- 99 articles with submission and acceptance dates (269 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 9 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | USD 2,000 | Yes | CC BY, CC BY-NC | |
| OpenAlex | USD 2,000 | — | — | |
| Publisher website | USD 2,400 | — | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare9 items from the author guidelines
- Abstract
- ≤ 300 words
- Keywords
- ≥ 2
- Manuscript length
- ≤ 6,000 words
- Reference style
- Vancouver
- First submission
- Free format: the journal's layout is not required
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
- Highlights
- Optional
- Graphical abstract
- Optional
- Cover letter
- Required
Article types accepted8
- original articleView our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Please visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstrac…Length not stated
- original articlesOriginal Articles. The Editors will consider original research, including practice research and evaluations, with clearly stated aims, well-reported methodology…Length not stated
- original researchView our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Please visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstrac…Length not stated
- original research articleView our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Please visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstrac…Length not stated
- reviewView our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Please visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstrac…Length not stated
- review articleView our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Please visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstrac…Length not stated
- scoping reviewsScoping Reviews– these reviews assess the scope of available literature on a topic through comprehensive synthesis. It may help determine whether a systematic r…Length not stated
- systematic reviewView our Special Collections currently accepting submissions. Please visit the Sage Journal Author Gateway for guidance on producing visual and/or video abstrac…Length not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, Publication ethics, Open access, Peer review, Plagiarism, Preprints, Trial registration / reporting guidelines
- Authorship 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.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability 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 ava…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Publication ethics 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. All papers reporting studies involving human participants, human data or human tissue must state that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board approved th…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Publishing fees and open access
Online-only journal Model summary
Palliative Care and Social Practice 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, p…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Single anonymized peer review Model summary
The following summary describes the peer review process for this journal: Identity transparency: Single Anonymized Reviewer interacts with: Editor Review information published: None 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 rejec…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Plagiarism 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.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Preprints 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…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Trial registration / reporting guidelines 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.
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- SAGE
- ISSN
- 2632-3524
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗DOAJ
- Aims & Scope ↗DOAJ
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗DOAJ
- Editorial board ↗DOAJ
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Palliative Care & Social Practice
What CAS zone is Palliative Care & Social Practice in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Palliative Care & Social Practice is in Zone 3 of Medicine, and in Zone 3 of the minor category Health Care Sciences & Services / Public, Environmental & Occupational Health. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 2 of Medicine. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
How long does peer review take at Palliative Care & Social Practice?
Based on the dates recorded on 99 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 141 days (interquartile range 115–181 days). Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of Palliative Care & Social Practice?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Abstract: ≤ 300 words; Keywords: ≥ 2; Manuscript length: ≤ 6,000 words; Reference style: Vancouver; First submission: Free format: the journal's layout is not required; Suggested reviewers: Optional; Highlights: Optional; Graphical abstract: Optional; Cover letter: Required. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Which databases index Palliative Care & Social Practice?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Palliative Care & Social Practice is indexed in ESCI, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists PubMed; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Palliative Care & Social Practice open access, and what is the APC?
Palliative Care & Social Practice is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 2,000.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, DOAJ, Publisher website; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-25). Last updated: .