Aims & Scope
Journal of Death (JOD) publishes interdisciplinary research examining the theoretical, clinical, cultural, and ethical dimensions of death, dying, and mortality across medical, psychological, sociological, anthropological, philosophical, and legal frameworks.
Thanatology
End-of-Life Care
Bereavement Studies
Death Ethics
Mortality Research
Cultural Death Practices
Core Research Domains
Medical & Clinical Sciences Tier 1
- Palliative care interventions and outcomes research
- Hospice care models and quality metrics
- End-of-life symptom management and pain control
- Medical decision-making in terminal illness
- Organ donation ethics and procurement systems
- Prognostication and communication of terminal diagnosis
Typical Fit: Randomized controlled trial comparing palliative sedation protocols in cancer patients with refractory symptoms, including quality-of-life outcomes and family satisfaction measures.
Psychological & Behavioral Sciences Tier 1
- Grief and bereavement processes across lifespan
- Complicated grief and prolonged grief disorder
- Death anxiety and terror management theory
- Psychological interventions for anticipatory grief
- Suicide prevention and postvention strategies
- Trauma and loss in mass casualty events
Typical Fit: Longitudinal study examining predictors of complicated grief in bereaved parents, testing cognitive-behavioral interventions with validated outcome measures and 12-month follow-up.
Sociocultural & Anthropological Studies Tier 1
- Cross-cultural death rituals and mourning practices
- Memorialization traditions and contemporary adaptations
- Social construction of death and dying
- Death in media, literature, and popular culture
- Historical mortality patterns and demographic transitions
- Funerary archaeology and mortuary practices
Typical Fit: Ethnographic study of digital memorial practices in three cultural contexts, analyzing how social media transforms traditional mourning rituals and community grief expression.
Ethics, Law & Policy Tier 1
- Medical aid in dying and assisted suicide legislation
- Euthanasia ethics and comparative policy analysis
- Right-to-die legal frameworks and case law
- Advance directives and surrogate decision-making
- Forensic thanatology and death investigation
- Capital punishment debates and abolition movements
Typical Fit: Comparative legal analysis of medical aid in dying legislation across five jurisdictions, examining eligibility criteria, safeguards, and utilization rates with ethical implications.
Secondary Focus Areas
Philosophical & Existential Inquiry
Philosophical investigations of mortality, meaning-making in face of death, existential perspectives on finitude, phenomenology of dying, and ontological questions about death and consciousness. Must demonstrate rigorous philosophical methodology.
Educational & Professional Development
Death education curricula and pedagogy, professional training in end-of-life care, communication skills development for healthcare providers, and evaluation of thanatology education programs. Requires empirical assessment of learning outcomes.
Technology & Digital Legacies
Digital memorialization platforms, posthumous data management, artificial intelligence applications in grief support, virtual reality in end-of-life care, and technological mediation of death rituals. Must address social or ethical implications.
Public Health & Epidemiology
Mortality surveillance systems, cause-of-death certification accuracy, excess mortality analysis, health disparities in end-of-life care access, and population-level interventions to improve death quality. Requires robust epidemiological methods.
Emerging Research Frontiers
Article Types & Editorial Priorities
Priority 1
Fast-Track Review (21 days to first decision)
Original Research Articles
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Methodological Innovations
Theoretical Frameworks
Priority 2
Standard Review (35 days to first decision)
Short Communications
Research Notes
Perspectives & Commentaries
Book Reviews
Rarely Considered
Requires exceptional justification
Single Case Reports
Opinion Pieces
Letters to Editor
Editorial Standards & Requirements
Reporting Guidelines (Mandatory)
- CONSORT for randomized controlled trials
- STROBE for observational studies
- PRISMA for systematic reviews
- COREQ for qualitative research
- CARE for case reports (if accepted)
- SRQR for qualitative systematic reviews
Research Ethics Requirements
- IRB/Ethics committee approval documentation
- Informed consent procedures for human subjects
- Vulnerable population protections
- Data privacy and confidentiality safeguards
- Conflict of interest disclosures
- Funding source transparency
Data & Reproducibility Policy
- Data availability statements required
- Public repository deposition encouraged
- Statistical code sharing for quantitative studies
- Qualitative codebooks and interview guides
- Study protocols for clinical research
- Materials sharing for replication
Preprint & Prior Publication
- Preprints permitted (arXiv, medRxiv, SocArXiv)
- Conference abstracts do not preclude submission
- Thesis chapters acceptable with disclosure
- No duplicate publication or salami slicing
- Translations require original permission
- Replication studies explicitly welcomed
