Cancer Informatics
Journal Highlights
- Indexed using PubMed Central (PMC), ESCI, Scopus, and DOAJ
- Published since 2008
- Publication is subject to payment of an article processing charge (APC)
Cancer Informatics is an open access, peer reviewed, international journal that focuses on reporting bioinformatics analyses of molecular genetics and/or clinical data pertaining to human cancer risk, prevention, outcome, or treatment response. Please see the Aims and Scope tab for further information.
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Submission Information
Submit your manuscript here.
Please see the Submission Guidelines tab for more information on how to submit your article to the journal.
Open access article processing charge (APC) information
Publication in the journal is subject to payment of an article processing charge (APC). The APC serves to support the journal and ensures that articles are freely accessible online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons license.
The APC for this journal is currently $1848 USD.
The article processing charge (APC) is payable only if your article 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 here.
Contact
Please direct any queries to barbara.rattner@sagepub.com.
The field of cancer research relies on advances in many other disciplines, including omics technology, mass spectrometry, radio imaging, computer science, and biostatistics. Cancer Informatics provides open access to peer-reviewed high-quality manuscripts reporting bioinformatics analysis of molecular genetics and/or clinical data pertaining to cancer, emphasizing the use of machine learning, artificial intelligence, statistical algorithms, advanced imaging techniques, data visualization, and high-throughput technologies. As the leading journal dedicated exclusively to the report of the use of computational methods in cancer research and practice, Cancer Informatics leverages methodological improvements in systems biology, genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and molecular biochemistry into the fields of cancer detection, treatment, classification, risk-prediction, prevention, outcome, and modeling.
Manuscript Submission
| J.T. Efird | University of Newcastle, Australia |
| Barbara Rattner, PhD | SAGE Publishing, Thousand Oaks, CA USA |
| Zemin Zhang | Peking University, China |
| Hoda Anton-Culver | University of California, Irvine, USA |
| Michael J. Becich | University of Pittsburgh, USA |
| Idriss M. Bennani-Baiti | Cancer Epigenetics Society, Austria |
| Silvio Bicciato | University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy |
| Serdar Bozdag | Marquette University, USA |
| Benedikt Brors | German Cancer Research Center, Germany |
| Enrico Capobianco | National Research Council of Italy, Italy |
| Arul Chinnaiyan | University of Michigan, USA |
| William Cho | Department of Clinical Oncology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hong Kong |
| Robert Clarke | Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, D.C., USA |
| Robert C. Cockrell | University of Vermont, USA |
| Kevin Coombes | University of Texas, USA |
| Rebecca Crowley | University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, USA |
| Roger Day | University of Pittsburgh, USA |
| Thomas S. Deisboeck | Massachusetts General Hospital, USA |
| Eytan Domany | Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel |
| Edward R. Dougherty | Texas A&M University, USA |
| Ziding Feng | Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, USA |
| David J. Foran | Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, USA |
| Ge Gao | Peking University, China |
| Jianjiong Gao | Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, USA |
| Debashis Ghosh | Penn State University, USA |
| Judith D. Goldberg | New York University School of Medicine, USA |
| Alex Graudenzi | University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy |
| William Grizzle | University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA |
| Jack K. Horner | JKH Consulting, USA |
| Grant Izmirlian | National Cancer Institute, USA |
| Sarath C. Janga | Indiana University - Purdue University, USA |
| Igor Jurisica | University of Toronto, Canada |
| R. Krishna Murthy Karuturi | The Jackson Laboratory, USA |
| Meik Kunz | Universität Erlangen–Nürnberg, Germany |
| Eva K. Lee | Emory University, USA |
| Lang Li | Indiana University - Purdue University, USA |
| Jack W. London | Thomas Jefferson University, USA |
| Mia Markey | University of Texas at Austin, USA |
| Gary M. Marsh | University of Pittsburgh, USA |
| Geoff McLachlan | University of Queensland, Australia |
| Jill P Mesirov | University of California, San Diego, USA |
| Hiroshi Mizushima | National Institute of Public Health, Japan |
| Michael Ochs | Fox Chase Cancer Center, USA |
| Elissa M. Ozanne | University of California, San Francisco, USA |
| Taesung Park | Seoul National University, South Korea |
| Matea Pavic | University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland |
| Paul Martin Putora | Kantonsspital St. Gallen and University of Bern, Switzerland |
| Kun Qu | Stanford University School of Medicine, USA |
| Joel Saltz | Emory University, USA |
| Ravi Sankar | University of South Florida, USA |
| Roland Schwarz | Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology, Germany |
| Simon Sherman | University of Nebraska Medical Center, USA |
| Richard Simon | National Cancer Institute, USA |
| Sudhir Srivastava | National Institutes of Health, USA |
| George S. Stamatakos | National Technical University of Athens, Greece |
| David J. States | Affigen |
| Mahlet Tadesse | Georgetown University, USA |
| Aik Choon Tan | University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, USA |
| Alex Tsodikov | University of Michigan, USA |
| William J. Welsh | Rutgers University, USA |
| James Willey | University of Toledo Health Sciences Campus, Toledo, Ohio, USA |
| Ka-Chun Wong | City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong |
This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics.
This 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).
Please read the guidelines below then visit the journal’s submission site to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned.
Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Cancer Informatics will be reviewed.
As part of the submission process you will be required to warrant that you are submitting your original work, that you have the rights in the work, that you are submitting the work for first publication in the Journal and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and 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.
If you have any questions about publishing with SAGE, please visit the SAGE Journal Solutions Portal.
SAGE Publishing disseminates high-quality research and engaged scholarship globally, and we are committed to diversity and inclusion in publishing. We encourage submissions from a diverse range of authors from across all countries and backgrounds.
Please Read the Manuscript Submission Guidelines below before submitting your manuscript here:
SUBMIT MANUSCRIPT
- Open Access
- Article processing charge (APC)
- What do we publish?
3.1 Aims & scope
3.2 Article types
3.3 Writing your paper
3.3.1 Making your article discoverable - Editorial policies
4.1 Peer Review Policy
4.2 Authorship
4.3 Acknowledgements
4.3.1 Writing assistance
4.4 Funding
4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
4.6 Research ethics and patient consent
4.7 Clinical trials
4.8 Reporting guidelines
4.9 Data - Publishing policies
5.1 Publication ethics
5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement - Preparing your manuscript
6.1 Word processing formats
6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
6.3 Supplemental material
6.4 Reference style
6.5 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
7.1 How to submit your manuscript
7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts
7.3 Information required for completing your submission
7.4 ORCID
7.5 Permissions - On acceptance and publication
8.1 SAGE Production
8.2 Continuous publication
8.3 Promoting your article - Further information
Cancer Informatics is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. Each article accepted by peer review is made freely available online immediately upon publication, is published under a Creative Commons license and will be hosted online in perpetuity. Publication costs of the journal are covered by the collection of article processing charges which are paid by the funder, institution or author of each manuscript upon acceptance. There is no charge for submitting a paper to the journal.
For general information on open access at SAGE please visit the Open Access page or view our Open Access FAQs.
2. Article processing charge (APC)
If, after peer review, your manuscript is accepted for publication, a one-time article processing charge (APC) is payable. This APC covers the cost of publication and ensures that your article will be freely available online in perpetuity under a Creative Commons license.
The APC for this journal is currently $1,848 USD for authors in North America and £1,399 for authors in all other countries. The APC is payable only if your article 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 here.
Before submitting your manuscript to Cancer Informatics, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.
Manuscript types eligible for submission are described below.
Original Research
Original research reports are full length original articles that present a major scientific breakthrough.These should detail original experiments/research conducted by the authors. Any research on any topic is accepted, provided it falls within the aims and scope of the journal. Original research must add to scientific knowledge on the subject and must be completed in accordance with ethical principles. Research on humans or animals must have applicable ethical approvals.
Review
Reviews are intended for a broad audience and therefore should be written with a view to informing readers who are not specialized in that particular field. Please avoid excessive jargon and technical detail. Reviews should capture the broad developments and implications of recent work. This journal accepts unsolicited review manuscripts for peer review.
Commentary
Commentaries are by invitation only. These are short summaries of significant recent and forthcoming papers, published elsewhere, that provide additional insights, new interpretations, or speculation on the relevant topic. These manuscripts may include models and/or additional data, which due to space limitations were not included or discussed in the original paper. Commentary material may be peer reviewed at the Editor's discretion.
Concise Review
These are similar to a review, but less elaborate and often sum up several studies in a more concise manner for easier reading and reference. They must be based on published articles. They should not exceed 2,500 words (excluding the abstract, references and figure and table legends), 4 figures plus tables combined, and approximately 40 references.
Meeting Report
This manuscript type reports on a meeting with specific relevance to the journal. Meetings can be international or national conferences or institutional seminars.
Methods and Protocols
Methods and protocols articles describe a powerful experiment, a method, or important technical updates relevant to the field. The Protocols section only features proven protocols; thus, the authors of the protocol must have previously used their method to produce the work reported in a peer-reviewed primary journal.
Short Report
Short reports are short, timely articles aimed at providing important, breakthrough data that are not embedded within a complex story. Short reports present new research that adds to previous studies. This can be reporting on the reliability or unreliability of research or informing readers of new factors that may influence the outcome of the study. Authors must acknowledge the work they build upon including any unpublished sources. Manuscripts should be no longer than approximately 2,000 words excluding references.
Software or Database Review
Discussing software, code, or a database, these articles should review one of these that is likely to be useful to a number of researchers in a specific subject area. The example data used in software or database reviews should be available to readers for non-commercial purposes, and reviewers must be able to use the example anonymously. Software or database reviews can be used to directly compare the reviewed programs with alternative options.
Technical Advance
A broad-scoped category of manuscript reporting an advance within the journal's scope. New procedures, experiments, standard practices, or computational methods should be presented in technical advance articles. They report on significant advancements in technology that the reader will benefit from learning about.
Editorial
Written by the Editor-in-Chief, deputy Editor-in-Chief, Guest Editor or Associate Editor of a journal, editorials are intended to inform readers of changes concerning the journal, or to introduce supplements, special issues, or new ideas relevant to the journal. In limited circumstances individuals other than the individuals listed here may propose an editorial topic if they wish.
The SAGE Author Gateway has some general advice and on how to get published, plus links to further resources.
3.3.1 Making your article discoverable
When writing up your paper, think about how you can make it discoverable. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article through search engines such as Google. For information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords, have a look at this page on the Gateway: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online
The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers. Cancer Informatics utilizes a single-blind peer review process in which the reviewer’s name and information is withheld from the author. All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Reviewers make comments to the author and recommendations to the Editor-in-Chief who then makes the final decision.
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.
Cancer Informatics is committed to delivering high quality, fast peer-review for your paper, and as such has partnered with Publons. Publons is a third party service that seeks to track, verify and give credit for peer review. Reviewers for Cancer Informatics can opt in to Publons in order to claim their reviews or have them automatically verified and added to their reviewer profile. Reviewers claiming credit for their review will be associated with the relevant journal, but the article name, reviewer’s decision and the content of their review is not published on the site. For more information visit the Publons website.
Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors. The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:
(i) Made a substantial contribution to the concept or design of the work; or acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data;
(ii) Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content;
(iii) Approved the version to be published;
(iv) Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
When a large, multicentre group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.
Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section. Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, or a department chair who provided only general support.
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section. Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance. It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
Any acknowledgements should appear first at the end of your article prior to your Declaration of Conflicting Interests (if applicable), any notes and your References
Cancer Informatics requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
4.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
It is the policy of Cancer Informatics to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.
Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’. For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations.
4.6 Research ethics and patient consent
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, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.
For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.
Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative. Please do not submit the patient’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 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.
Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants.
All research involving animals submitted for publication must be approved by an ethics committee with oversight of the facility in which the studies were conducted. The journal has adopted the Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare for Veterinary Journals published by the International Association of Veterinary Editors.
Cancer Informatics conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment 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.
The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed CONSORT flow chart as a cited figure and the completed CONSORT checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. Systematic reviews and metaanalyses should include the completed PRISMA flow chart as a cited figure and the completed PRISMA checklist should be uploaded with your submission as a supplementary file. The EQUATOR wizard can help you identify the appropriate guideline.
Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.
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 Publication Ethics page on the SAGE Author Gateway.
Cancer Informatics and SAGE take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of published articles. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked with duplication-checking software. Where an article, for example, is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where the authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article; taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author's institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; or taking appropriate legal action.
If material has been previously published, it is not generally acceptable for publication in a SAGE journal. However, there are certain circumstances where previously published material can be considered for publication. Please refer to the guidance on the SAGE Author Gateway or if in doubt, contact the Editor at the address given below.
5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
Before publication SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Cancer Informatics 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, for example, to meet particular funder mandates, made at the author’s request.
The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. There is no need to follow a specific template when submitting your manuscript in Word; however, please ensure your heading levels are clear, and the sections clearly defined. If you are not able to submit your manuscript in Word format, please write to the Managing Editor.
6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format, please visit SAGE’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines. Figures supplied in color will appear in color online.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. These will be subjected to peer-review alongside the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files, which can be found within our Manuscript Submission Guidelines page.
Cancer Informatics adheres to the AMA reference style (this site requires a subscription). Please review the guidelines on AMA to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
If you use EndNote to manage references, you can download the AMA output file here.
6.5 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 Language Services. Visit SAGE Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
7.1 How to submit your manuscript
To submit your manuscript to Cancer Informatics, please visit our manuscript submission site. Please ensure that references are formatted with the AMA reference style.
7.2 Title, keywords and abstracts
Please supply a title, short title, an abstract and keywords to accompany your article. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting the SAGE Journal Author Gateway for guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
7.3 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed on the manuscript 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 manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process SAGE is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities ensuring that their work is recognized.
We encourage all authors to add their ORCIDs to their SAGE Track accounts and include their ORCIDs as part of the submission process. If you don’t already have one you can create one here.
Authors are responsible for obtaining 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 visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway.
8. On acceptance and publication
If your paper is accepted for publication after peer review, you will first be asked to complete the contributor’s publishing agreement. Once your manuscript files have been checked for SAGE Production, the corresponding author will be asked to pay the article processing charge (APC) via a payment link. 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 no production work will occur on your paper until the APC has been received.
Your SAGE Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal SAGE Edit, or by email to the corresponding author and should be returned promptly. 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. Please note that if there are any changes to the author list at this stage all authors will be required to complete and sign a form authorizing the change.
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.
Publication is not the end of the process! You can help disseminate your paper and ensure it is as widely read and cited as possible. The SAGE Author Gateway has numerous resources to help you promote your work. Visit the Promote Your Article page on the Gateway for tips and advice.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission process should be sent to the Cancer Informatics editorial office as follows:
Barbara Rattner, PhD | barbara.rattner@sagepub.com