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Illness, Crisis & Loss

Illness, Crisis & Loss


eISSN: 15526968 | ISSN: 10541373 | Current volume: 32 | Current issue: 1 Frequency: Quarterly
Illness, Crisis & Loss is a premier refereed and international journal. It furthers an understanding and knowledge of the social scientific, psychosocial and ethical issues associated with life-threatening illness, traumatic human crises, grief, and loss. The broad and unique focus of the journal makes it relevant to a wide range of social scientists, qualitative and quantitative researchers as well as students, grief counselors, therapists, social workers, thanatologists, physicians and nurses, medical ethicists, and anyone else who works with people in crisis situations across the world. The journal is famed for its interdisciplinary and global focus.

Illness, Crisis and Loss evaluates the processes of illness and loss on the one hand, and analyses what we understand by ‘dying’ and ‘bereavement’ and loss on the other hand. Illness, Crisis & Loss publishes original peer-reviewed articles and book reviews on social science, psychological and ethical issues associated with life-threatening illnesses, traumatic human and organizational crises, grief, and loss.

Through refereed articles and book reviews, you will also discover the latest cutting- edge research on ethical, theoretical, methodological, social scientific and psychosocial issues from those working on the frontline and in researchers documenting the narratives of people who gave gone through processes of illness, crisis and loss from across the globe.

Editor
Jason L. Powell University of Liverpool, UK
Associate Editor
Paul Taylor University of Chester, UK
Patricia L. Wright The University of Scranton, USA
Editorial Board
Fereshteh Ahmadi University of Gävle, Sweden
Gavin J. Andrews McMaster University, Canada
Carrie Arnold Kings University College, Canada
Robert Bendiksen Former ICL Editor, University of Wisconsin—La Crosse, USA
Ivy Lynn Bourgeault University of Ottawa, Canada
Mike Brennan Liverpool Hope University, UK
Cecilia Chan University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Elizabeth J. Clark ICL Founding Editor, National Association of Social Workers, Washington, D.C., USA
Inge B. Corless Massachusetts General Hospital, USA
Gerry R. Cox Former ICL Editor, University of Wisconsin—La Crosse, USA
Jodie Croxall Swansea University, UK
Ian Cummins University of Salford, UK
Fiona Cust Staffordshire University, UK
Kenneth J. Doka College of New Rochelle, New York, USA
Cemil Egeli University of Chester, UK
Arthur Frank University of Calgary, Canada
Timothy Gongaware Former ICL Editor, University of Wisconsin—La Crosse, USA
Connie Holden The Conversation Project in Boulder County, USA
Nur Atikah Mohamed Hussin Tampere University, Finland
June Keeling University Keele, UK
Allan Kellehear Department of Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Janice Winchester Nadeau Minnesota Human Development Resources, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Neil Thompson Former ICL Editor, Avenue Consulting, Ltd., Wales, UK
Mary Alice Varga University of West Georgia, USA
Azrini Wahidin University of Warwick, UK
Jackie Watts The Open University, UK
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  • Manuscript Submission Guidelines: Illness, Crisis & Loss

    This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics

    Please read the guidelines below then visit Illness, Crisis & Losss submission site https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ill to upload your manuscript. Please note that manuscripts not conforming to these guidelines may be returned. Remember you can log in to the submission site at any time to check on the progress of your paper through the peer review process.

    Only manuscripts of sufficient quality that meet the aims and scope of Illness, Crisis & Loss will be reviewed.

    There are no fees payable to submit or publish in this Journal. Open Access options are available - see section 3.3 below.

    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, and that you have obtained and can supply all necessary permissions for the reproduction of any copyright works not owned by you, that you are submitting the work for first publication in Illness, Crisis & Loss and that it is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has not already been published elsewhere. Please see our guidelines on prior publication and note that Illness, Crisis & Loss may accept submissions of papers that have been posted on pre-print servers; please alert the Editorial Office when submitting (contact details are at the end of these guidelines) and include the DOI for the preprint in the designated field in the manuscript submission system. Authors should not post an updated version of their paper on the preprint server while it is being peer reviewed for possible publication in Illness, Crisis & Loss. If the article is accepted for publication, the author may re-use their work according to Illness, Crisis & Loss's author archiving policy.

    If your paper is accepted, you must include a link on your preprint to the final version of your paper.

    1. What do we publish?
      1.1 Aims & Scope
      1.2 Article types
      1.3 Writing your paper
    2. Editorial policies
      2.1 Peer review policy
      2.2 Authorship
      2.3 Acknowledgements
      2.4 Funding
      2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
      2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
      2.7 Research Data
    3. Publishing policies
      3.1 Publication ethics
      3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
      3.3 Open access and author archiving
    4. Preparing your manuscript
      4.1 Formatting
      4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
      4.3 Supplemental material
      4.4 Reference style
      4.5 English language editing services
    5. Submitting your manuscript
      5.1 ORCID
      5.2 Information required for completing your submission
      5.3 Permissions
    6. On acceptance and publication
      6.1 Sage Production
      6.2 Online First publication
      6.3 Access to your published article
      6.4 Promoting your article
    7. Further information
      7.1 Appealing the publication decision

     

    1. What do we publish?

    1.1 Aims & Scope

    Before submitting your manuscript to Illness, Crisis & Loss, please ensure you have read the Aims & Scope.

    1.2 Article Types

    Only original research articles are accepted to the journal. Please note that articles submitted to the journal should be between 5000-7000 words inclusive of references. Please note due to space constraints, the journal advises authors to write their articles inclusive of the minimum 5000 words or maximum 7000 words which includes abstract, five keywords and references.

    All articles must have an abstract of 150 words. It is the discretion of the author to use other particular sub-headings throughout the article.

    As a prospective guide, an article must also have an introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, discussion, conclusion and references. It is the discretion of the author to use the above word count to accommodate such examples of sub-headings and subsequent information contained in the original article.

    Related to this, the majority of original articles published by the journal report results of research studies. The examples of research studies published include on:

    (1) The development, extension and/or application of conceptual and theoretical interpretations of topics of illness, bereavement and crisis interventions grounded in broad human and social sciences such as Psychology, Health Sciences, Sociology, Health Economics, Politics, Bereavement Counselling, Nursing and Social Work.

    (2) Innovative qualitative and/or quantitative methodological developments in examining topics associated with illness, crisis and the grieving process.

    (3) Comparative analysis of different cultural interpretations of loss, bereavement and grief across different nation states.

    (4) Historical and contemporary articles associated with understanding the changing meanings of illness, crisis and loss across time and space.

    (5) Original empirical studies on validation and reliability methodologies related to topics associated with illness, crisis and loss.

    There is no limit on the number of references allowed in an article.

    1.3 Writing your paper

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

    1.3.1 Make your article discoverable

    For information and guidance on how to make your article more discoverable, visit our Gateway page on: How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.

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    2. Editorial policies

    2.1 Peer review policy

    As part of the submission process you will be asked to provide the names of 3 peers who could be called upon to review your manuscript. Recommended reviewers should be experts in their fields and should be able to provide an objective assessment of the manuscript. Please be aware of any conflicts of interest when recommending reviewers. Examples of conflicts of interest include (but are not limited to) the below: 

    • The reviewer should have no prior knowledge of your submission
    • The reviewer should not have recently collaborated with any of the authors
    • Reviewer nominees from the same institution as any of the authors are not permitted

    You will also be asked to nominate peers who you do not wish to review your manuscript (opposed reviewers).

    Please note that the Editors are not obliged to invite/reject any recommended/opposed reviewers to assess your manuscript.

    Illness, Crisis & Loss 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 Illness, Crisis & Loss 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.

    The Editor or members of the Editorial Board may occasionally submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in Illness, Crisis & Loss. 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.

    2.2 Authorship

    All parties who have made a substantive contribution to the article should be listed as authors. Principal authorship, authorship order, and other publication credits should be based on the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status. A student is usually listed as principal author on any multiple-authored publication that substantially derives from the student’s dissertation or thesis.

    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.

    2.3 Acknowledgements

    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. Please supply any personal acknowledgements separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.

    2.3.1 Third party submissions
    Where an individual who is not listed as an author submits a manuscript on behalf of the author(s), a statement must be included in the Acknowledgements section of the manuscript and in the accompanying cover letter. The statements must:

    • Disclose this type of editorial assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input
    • Identify any entities that paid for this assistance
    • Confirm that the listed authors have authorized the submission of their manuscript via third party and approved any statements or declarations, e.g. conflicting interests, funding, etc.

    Where appropriate, Sage reserves the right to deny consideration to manuscripts submitted by a third party rather than by the authors themselves.

    2.4 Funding

    Illness, Crisis & Loss 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. 

    2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests

    Illness, Crisis & Loss encourages authors to include a declaration of any conflicting interests and recommends you review the good practice guidelines on the Sage Journal Author Gateway.

    It is the policy of Illness, Crisis & Loss 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 here.

    2.6 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. Illness, Crisis & Loss 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.

    2.7 Research data

    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, we encourage you to consider using the statement to explain why it cannot be shared.
    • cite this data in your research

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    3. Publishing Policies

    3.1 Publication ethics

    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.

    3.1.1 Plagiarism

    Illness, Crisis & Loss 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 Illness, Crisis & Loss 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.

    3.1.2 Prior publication

    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.

    3.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

    Before publication, Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. Sage’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive licence agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants Sage the sole and exclusive right and licence to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than Sage. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway.

    3.3 Open access and author archiving

    Illness, Crisis & Loss offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.

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    4. Preparing your manuscript for submission

    4.1 Formatting

    The preferred format for your manuscript is Word. LaTeX files are also accepted. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

    4.2 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 colour will appear in colour online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in colour in the printed version. For specifically requested colour reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from Sage after receipt of your accepted article.

    When possible, all illustrations, graphs, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end. If this is not possible:

    Figures should be referenced in text and appear in numerical sequence starting with Figure 1. Line art must be original "drawings" in black ink proportionate to our page size. Indicate top and bottom of figure where confusion may exist. Labelling should be 8 point type. Clearly identify all figures. Large figures should be drawn on separate pages and their placement within the text indicated by inserting:

    *Insert Figure 1 here*

    Tables must be cited in text in numerical sequence starting with Table 1. Each table must have a descriptive title. Any footnotes to tables are indicated by superior lower case letters. Large tables should be typed on separate pages and their approximate placement indicated within text by inserting:

    *Insert Table 1 here*

    4.3 Supplemental material

    This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc) alongside the full-text of the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplementary files.

    4.4 Reference style

    Illness, Crisis & Loss adheres to the APA reference style. Please refer to the latest Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. A synopsis of this manual is available from the American Psychological Association. http://apa.org/

    4.5 English language editing services

    Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit Illness, Crisis & Loss’s specifications should consider using Sage Language Services. Visit Sage Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.

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    5. Submitting your manuscript

    Illness, Crisis & Loss is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ill to login and submit your article online.

    IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for Illness, Crisis & Loss in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created.  For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.

     

    5.1 ORCID

    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 unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, 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.

    The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co-authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.

    If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.

    5.2 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 in 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).

    5.3 Permissions

    Please also 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 Copyright and Permissions page on the Sage Author Gateway.

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    6. On acceptance and publication

    6.1 Sage 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 corrections should be made directly or notified to us 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. 

    6.2 Online First publication

    Online First allows final articles (completed and approved articles awaiting assignment to a future issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a journal issue, which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. Visit the Sage Journals help page for more details, including how to cite Online First articles.

    6.3 Access to your published article

    Sage provides authors with online access to their final article.

    6.4 Promoting your article

    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.

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    7. Further information

    Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Illness, Crisis & Loss editorial office as follows:

    Dr. Jason Powell:
    Jasonpwll3@gmail.com

    7.1 Appealing the publication decision

    Editors have very broad discretion in determining whether an article is an appropriate fit for their journal. Many manuscripts are declined with a very general statement of the rejection decision. These decisions are not eligible for formal appeal unless the author believes the decision to reject the manuscript was based on an error in the review of the article, in which case the author may appeal the decision by providing the Editor with a detailed written description of the error they believe occurred.

    If an author believes the decision regarding their manuscript was affected by a publication ethics breach, the author may contact the publisher with a detailed written description of their concern, and information supporting the concern, at publication_ethics@sagepub.com.

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