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INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing

INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing


eISSN: 19457243 | ISSN: 00469580 | Current volume: 60 | Current issue: 1 Frequency: Yearly

Journal Highlights

  • Impact Factor: 2.570 (5 year)
  • Indexed In: Web of Science, PubMed/Medline, and PubMed Central
  • Published since 1964
  • Publication is subject to payment of an article processing charge (APC)
  • Submit here

INQUIRY (INQ) is an open access, peer-reviewed journal whose mission is to improve health at both the public health and individual healthcare organization levels by enabling scientists, educators, healthcare practitioners, administrators, managers, and policymakers to translate their research and ideas into actionable outcomes.

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Submission Information

Submit your manuscript at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/inq.

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 2400 USD. 

The article processing charge (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 INQEditor@sagepub.com.

Why Publish Open Access with INQUIRY

  • Visibility and Impact: Anyone anywhere in the world can read, use and cite your research
  • Rigorous Standards: Double-blind peer review policy
  • Flexibility: No page limits or page charges, and authors can publish full data sets, figures, tables, etc
  • Copyright: Authors retain copyright under a Creative Commons License

INQUIRY is a JCR-ranked, SCI-indexed, broad-spectrum, open access journal whose mission is to improve health at both the public health and individual healthcare organization levels by enabling scientists, educators, healthcare practitioners, administrators, managers, and policymakers to translate their research and ideas into actionable outcomes.

Article Types and Topics of Interest
INQUIRY welcomes original research, reviews, commentaries, policy briefs, case reports, and editorials with implications at the public health or health organization levels, particularly in the following areas:

  • Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Immunology
  • Chronic Disease Epidemiology
  • Health Policy, Planning, and Implementation
  • Health Economics and Financing
  • Health Services Research, Administration, and Patient Care
  • Health Care Access, Quality Assurance, and Evaluation
  • Health Promotion, Communication, and Education
  • Addiction and Substance Abuse
  • Mental Health
  • Environmental and Occupational Health
  • Institutional Ethics
  • Biostatistics

Click here to see a selection of the latest papers published in INQUIRY

Manuscript Submission

Executive Editor
Umair Shafique, MSc SAGE Publishing, USA
Section Editor – Health Financing
Brian Miller, MD, MBA, MPH Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA
Section Editor – Healthcare Analytics
Karima Lalani, PhD, MBA, RHIA, FACHE The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, USA
Section Editor – Health Services in the Asia-Pacific Region
Jay Pan, PhD Sichuan University, China
Section Editor – Mental Health
Jagdish Khubchandani, MBBS, PhD New Mexico State University, USA
Section Editor – Nutrition in Developing Countries
Zheng F. Ma, PhD, BSc, MSc Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China
Section Editor – Hospital Management
Hao Li, PhD, MBA Wuhan University, China
Editorial Advisory Board
Kurt Angstman, MD Mayo Clinic, USA
Thomas Buchmueller, Ph.D. Professor of Risk Management and Insurance; Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy, University of Michigan, USA
Joel C. Cantor, Sc.D. Distinguished Professor and Director Center for State Health Policy, Rutgers University, USA
Judith Feder, Ph.D. Professor, Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy and Urban Institute Fellow, USA
Peter Hilsenrath, PhD University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, USA
John Holahan, Ph.D. Director, Health Policy Center, The Urban Institute, USA
David H. Klein, Chairman University of Rochester, USA
James R. Knickman, Ph.D. President and CEO New York State Health Foundation, USA
Alan C. Monheit, PhD Professor of Health Economics, School of Public Health, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, USA
Marilyn Moon, Ph.D. Institute Fellow, American Institutes for Research, Silver Spring, MD, USA
James E. Rohrer, PhD Walden University, USA
Diane Rowland, Sc.D. Executive Vice President, Kaiser Family Foundation, USA
Mustafa Z. Younis Professor, School of Public Health, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS, USA
Editorial Review Board
Ariel Abeldano University of Sierra Sur. Oaxaca, Mexico 
Muhammad Abubakar University of Balochistan, Pakistan
Lola Adepoju, PhD, MPH University of Houston, USA
Mona Al-Amin Suffolk University Boston, USA
Nouf S. Alharbi King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Labiba Anam Ministry of public health and population ,Sana'a, Yemen
Padmaja Ayyagari University of South Florida, USA
Heejung Bang UC-Davis, USA
Vesna Borovnik Lesjak Zdravstveni Dom dr Adolfa Drolca Maribor, Slovenia
Patricia Brierley-Bowers Deloitte Consulting, LLP
Sean Broomhead University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Derek Brown Washington University in St. Louis, USA
Elan Burton Stanford University School of Medicine, USA
Leonardo Carnut Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Brazil
Kyle Caswell The Urban Institute, USA
Lenisa Chang, Ph.D University of Cincinnati, USA
Caroline Clements The University of Manchester, UK
Laurie Coots RTI International, USA
Michael R. Cousineau  
Jonas Preposi Cruz Shaqra University, Saudi Arabia
Patrick D’Haese, PhD, MBA MED-EL Austria; Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) Belgium
Julie Darnell Loyola University Chicago, USA
Neeraj Dayama, MBBS, PhD, MBA Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, USA
Melaku Desta Debre Markos University, Ethiopia
Lina Díaz-Castro National Institute for Psychiatry Ramon de la Fuente Muniz, Mexico
Rinshu Dwivedi Indian Institute of Information Technology, Tamil Nadu, India
Victoria Fan University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA
Maxim Gakh University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA
Shir Ginzburg Uconn Health, USA
Salime Goharinezhad Iran University of Medical Sciences, Iran
Evan V. Goldstein, PhD, MPP University of Utah School of Medicine, USA
Hengyu Gu The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China
M. Devrim Güner TOBB Economics and Technology University, Turkey
Courtney Haun Samford University, USA
Paulo Hayashi Jr State University of Campinas, Brazil
Javad Hekmat-panah The University of Chicago Medical Center, USA
Bradley Herring Johns Hopkins University, USA
Lisa Hollis-Sawyer, Ph.D Northeastern Illinois University, USA
Hao Hu University of Macau, Macau
Daizheng huang Guangxi Medical University, China
Yen-Ming Huang National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taiwan
Seyed Fahim Irandoost Urmia University of Medical Sciences, Iran
Zeynal Karaca Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, USA
Md. Abdullah Saeed Khan National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine, Bangladesh
Hogene Kim National Rehabilitation Center, Korea (the Republic of)
Sung-Woo Kim Konkuk University, Korea
Kuang-Ming Kuo National United University, Taiwan
Hailun Liang Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA
Zhiyong Lin The University of Texas at San Antonio, USA
Haidong Lu Yale University School of Public Health, USA
Jay Maddock Texas A&M University College Station, USA
Daniel Maeng Geisinger Institute, USA
Sandeep Maharaj The University of the West Indies at St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago
Lufuno Makhado University of Venda, South Africa
Wael Mancy King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
Roberto Martinez-Lacoba Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha - Campus de Albacete, Spain
James H. Marton Georgia State University Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, USA
Melissa McInerney Tufts University, USA
Nathaniel E. Miller, MD Mayo Clinic College of Medicine
Piotr Morasiewicz Opole University, Poland
Lucia Mupara University of KwaZulu-Natal College of Health Sciences,South Africa
Noureddin Nakhostin Ansari Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran
Priscilla Novak, MPH Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, USA
Xan Nowakowski, Ph.D, MPH FSU College of Medicine, USA
Wilfred Njabulo Nunu National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe
Claire O'Hanlon Department of Veterans Affairs, USA
Barbara Orban USF College of Public Health, USA
Wuqi Qiu Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Institute of Medical Information, China
Momotazur Rahman, Ph.D Brown University, USA
Redwanur Rahman University of Hail, Saudi Arabia
Emily Roberts Oklahoma State University, USA
muhammad nasir saleem CMH Lahore Medical College and Institute of Dentistry, Pakistan
Irudaya Rajan Sebastian The International Institute of Migration and Development, India
Bisakha Sen University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA
Manushi Sharma Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program, Thailand
Lu Shi Clemson University, USA
Ching Sin Siau Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
Zesheng SUN Shanghai Normal University, China
Diana Tang Macquarie University, Australia
Han Thi Ngoc Nguyen, MD University Medical Center Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
MaryJoy Umoke Ebonyi State University Faculty of Education, Nigeria
Soumya Upadhyay University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA
Samuel Valdez University of California Los Angeles, USA
Maria Vargas University of Naples Federico II School of Medicine and Surgery, Italy
Claudimar Veiga Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil
Sharuna Verghis Monash University, Malaysia
RAA Vonk Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Netherlands
Felix Walther Universitatsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus, Germany
Lucy Xiaolu Wang University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
Brad Wright University of South Carolina
Rixiang Xu Hangzhou Medical College, China
Wendy Yi Xu Ohio State University, USA
Qin Xuezheng Peking University, China
Aaron Yelowitz University of Kentucky, USA
Hua You School of Public Health Nanjing Medical University, China
Natalie Zambrino Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Switzerland
Hossein Zare, PhD, MS Johns Hopkins University, USA
  • AgeLine
  • Business Periodicals Index
  • CINAHL
  • Clarivate Analytics: Current Contents - Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences
  • Hospital Abstracts
  • Hospital Literature Index
  • Hospital Management Review
  • International Bibliography of Book Reviews (IBR)
  • International Bibliography of Periodical Literature (IBL)
  • Journal of Economic Literature
  • MEDLINE
  • ProQuest: PAIS
  • PubMed: MEDLINE
  • Social Sciences Citation Index
  • Thomson ISI
  • This Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics

    This Journal recommends that authors follow the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical
    Journals
    formulated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE)

    Please read the guidelines below and then visit the submission site (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/inq)
    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 Inquiry 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

    Please Read the Manuscript Submission Guidelines below before submitting your manuscript here:
    SUBMIT MANUSCRIPT

     

    1. Open Access
    2. Article processing charge (APC)
    3. What do we publish?
    4. Editorial policies
      4.1 Peer Review Policy
      4.2 Authorship
      4.3 Acknowledgements
      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
    5. Publishing policies
      5.1 Publication ethics
      5.1.1 Plagiarism
      5.1.2 Prior publication
      5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement
    6. Preparing your manuscript
      6.1 Word processing formats
      6.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
      6.3 Supplemental material
      6.4 Journal layout
      6.5 Reference style
      6.6 English language editing services
    7. Submitting your manuscript
      7.1 How to submit your manuscript
      7.2 Pre-submission check
      7.3 Title, keywords and abstracts
      7.4 Information required for completing your submission
      7.5 ORCID
    8. On acceptance and publication
      8.1 Sage Production
      8.2 Continuous publication
    9. Further information

    1. Open Access

    Inquiry 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.

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    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 licence.

    The APC for this journal is 2400 USD.

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    3. What do we publish?

    Every effort should be made by the author to ensure that the main document file contains no clues as to the
    author identity of the author.

    On the first page should be the abstract (a maximum of 250 words) and 4-5 keywords. All tables should be placed
    at the end of the file and numbered in the order they appear in the text. We strongly encourage the appropriate
    use of bar charts and line graphs to illustrate key findings. Figures should be placed in individual text files, separate
    from the main document file.

    Article types published by Inquiry are given below, with limits on words and in-text tables given in brackets.
    Word limits include tables, but not abstracts, key words, or references.

    • Original Research (5000 words, 3 tables)
    • Reviews, including Systematic Reviews (5000 words, 3 tables)
    • Case Studies (2000 words, 3 tables)
    • Policy Briefs (1000 words, 1 table)
    • Editorials (3000 words, 3 tables)
    • Comment (1000 words) – Intended for responses to published papers or responses to other comments.
      Article Processing Charge (APC) will be waived.

    All article types require a structured abstract except commentaries, which include a summary.
    Citations should be numbered in AMA style. A citation program such as EndNote should be used. 

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    4. Editorial policies

    4.1 Peer review policy

    Following a preliminary triage to eliminate submissions unsuitable for Inquiry, all papers are sent out for
    review.

    Please include a cover letter in your submission. To help the Editor in his preliminary evaluation, please
    indicate in this letter why you think the paper is suitable for publication.

    The journal’s policy is to have manuscripts reviewed by two expert reviewers. Inquiry utilizes a double anonymized
    peer review process in which the reviewer and author’s names and information are withheld from
    the other.

    All manuscripts are reviewed as rapidly as possible, while maintaining rigor. Peer review is managed by
    the Sage Managing Editor who assigns each submitted manuscript to appropriate reviewers and, with the
    input of the Editorial Board, and comments and recommendations of the reviewers, makes decisions on
    the eligibility of the article for publication.

    4.2 Authorship

    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

    4.3 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.

    4.3.1 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.

    4.3.2 Writing assistance

    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.

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

    4.4 Funding

    Inquiry 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 Inquiry 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 ARRIVE guidelines.

    4.7 Clinical trials

    Inquiry 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.

    4.8 Reporting guidelines

    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
    Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials  (CONSORT) flow chart as a cited figure, and a completed
    CONSORT checklist as a supplementary file.

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

    4.9 Data

    At Sage we are committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research. Inquiry requests all authors to share their research data in a suitable public repository as a condition of publication. This is subject to ethical considerations and in such cases the journal editor may grant an exception and authors should contact the Editorial Office at umair.shafique@sagepub.com. Authors are also required to include a data accessibility statement in their manuscript file and to follow data citation principles. For more information please visit the Sage Author Gateway, which includes information about Sage’s partnership with the data repository Figshare.

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    5. Publishing policies

    5.1 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.

    5.1.1 Plagiarism

    Inquiry 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.

    5.1.2 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.

    5.2 Contributor's publishing agreement

    Before publication Sage requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing
    Agreement. Inquiry publishes manuscripts under Creative Commons licenses. The standard Inquiry license
    is Creative Commons by Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0), 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.

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    6. Preparing your manuscript

    6.1 Word processing formats

    Preferred formats for the text and tables of your manuscript are Word DOC, RTF, XLS. LaTeX files are also
    accepted. The text should be double-spaced throughout and with a minimum of 3cm for left and right
    hand margins and 5cm at head and foot. Text should be standard 10 or 12 point. Word and (La)Tex
    templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.

    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.

    6.3 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. 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.

    6.4 Journal layout

    Inquiry conforms to the AMA style. Click here to review guidelines on AMA.

    6.5 Reference style

    Inquiry adheres to the reference style specified in the AMA Manual of Style 11th Edition, Click here to
    review the guidelines to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.

    6.6 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.

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    7. Submitting your manuscript

    7.1 How to submit your manuscript

    Inquiry is hosted on Sage Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by
    ScholarOne™ Manuscripts.

    Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/inq 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 the journal 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.

    7.2 Pre-submission check 

    Prior to submitting, you may consider running your manuscript through the Paperpal Preflight service, which instantly checks your manuscript and helps you address the most common errors and omissions. 

    7.3 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
    .

    7.4 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).

    7.5 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.

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    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 check 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.

    8.1 Sage Production

    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. 

    8.2 Online publication

    One of the many benefits of publishing your research in an open access journal is the speed to
    publication. With no issues to fill and 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. Check the ‘Latest Articles’ tab on the journal website
    for the latest published content.

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    9. Further information

    Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the Manuscript Submission process should
    be sent to the Editor, Umair Shafique | umair.shafique@sagepub.com

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