About

The journal welcomes manuscripts in the following broad areas of research:

• Cell and molecular biology including all aspects of tumor biology from a molecular and cellular point of view. Topics of interest include animal models, hypoxia, angiogenesis, metastasis, cellular signaling, cancer stem cells, DNA damage and repair, cell cycle and apoptosis.
• Biomarker studies we will publish studies of diagnostic and prognostic markers which may ultimately be applicable in a clinical setting.  Submissions need to be REMARK compliant as established in NCI-EORTC's "Reporting Recommendations for Tumor Marker Prognostic Studies" (J Clin Oncol 23:9067, 2005) and "Reporting Recommendations for Tumor Marker Prognostic Studies (REMARK): An Abridged Explanation and Elaboration" (J Natl Cancer Inst . 2018 Aug 1;110(8):803-811.).  They should report biomarkers that have a clear biologic relevance to a particular tumor type and be validated in at least one independent validation cohort and with biological validation in vitro or in vivo. Manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation will not be considered at BMC Cancer.
• Cancer epidemiology related cancer research including all aspects of cancer epidemiology including risk factors for disease initiation and development, social determinants, environmental, behavioural, and occupational correlates.
• Experimental therapeutics and drug development including all aspects of preclinical investigations on therapeutic agents. It welcomes submissions concerning anti-cancer drug discovery and development, and targeted therapies.
• Genetics, genomics and epigenetics including all aspects of genome-scale analysis, functional genomics, genetic association studies, pharmacogenomics and epigenetics in relation to cancer biology, diagnosis and therapy.
• Tumour immunology including on all aspects of infectious agents associated with cancer and tumor immunology. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, tumor immunity, immunotherapy, cancer vaccines, viral carcinogenesis and virus-host interactions.
• Therapy studies with focus on clinical research that impacts on the treatment of cancer using systemic chemotherapy, immunotherappy, targeted therapy, and radiation. We further welcome submissions on research looking at therapy resistance mechanisms.
• Surgical oncology with focus on clinical research that impacts on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer using surgery, diagnostic imaging, interventional therapeutics, and surgical pathology.
• Systems biology, post-genomic analysis and emerging technologies including all all aspects of the function of biological systems at the molecular and cellular level, in particular those addressing network modeling, quantitative analyses and the integration of different levels of information. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, deep sequencing-based technologies, computational biology and machine learning in relation to cancer biology.

Last updated: November 2021

BMC Cancer does not make editorial decisions on the basis of the interest of a study or its likely impact. Studies must be scientifically valid; for research articles this includes a scientifically sound research question, the use of suitable methods and analysis, and following community-agreed standards relevant to the research field.

In cases where the journal is unable to find sufficient peer reviewers, the services of a publishing partner, Research Square, may be used to identify suitable reviewers and provide reports to avoid further delays for authors. Reviewers recruited by Research Square are paid a small honorarium for completing the review within a specified timeframe. Honoraria are paid regardless of the reviewer recommendation. With Research Square, a double-anonymous peer review system is in operation.

In cases where reports have been obtained by Research Square, the peer review reports will be unsigned unless the reviewer opts in to sign the report.

BMC Cancer operates a transparent peer-review system, where, if the article is published, the reviewer reports are published online alongside the article under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 but the reviewer is not named.

The benefit of transparent peer review is that it increases transparency. In addition, published reports can serve an educational purpose in helping facilitate training and research into peer review.

Manuscripts submitted to BMC Cancer are assessed by our Editors and/or peer reviewers. Editor(s) are expected to obtain a minimum of two peer reviewers for manuscripts reporting primary research or secondary analysis of primary research. It is recognized that in some exceptional circumstances, particularly in niche and emerging fields, it may not be possible to obtain two independent peer reviewers. In such cases, Editor(s) may wish to make a decision to publish based on one peer review report. When making a decision based on one report, Editor(s) are expected to only do so if the peer review report meets the standards set out in the Springer Nature Code of Conduct (section Peer-Review). Overall editorial responsibility for the journal is with the Editor, with Editorial Board Members acting as handling editors.

BMC Cancer is part of the BMC series which publishes subject-specific journals focused on the needs of individual research communities across all areas of biology and medicine. We do not make editorial decisions on the basis of the interest of a study or its likely impact. Studies must be scientifically valid; for research articles this includes a scientifically sound research question, the use of suitable methods and analysis, and following community-agreed standards relevant to the research field. 

Specific criteria for other article types can be found in the submission guidelines.

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