About the journal
About the Journal of Death
The Journal of Death (JOD) is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal of scholarship on death, dying, bereavement and end-of-life care, from clinical, psychological, social, cultural, ethical and legal perspectives. It is published by Open Access Pub.
- Short title JOD
- Open access, CC BY 4.0
- Volume 1 began in 2025
Purpose and readership
Scholarship on how people die, are cared for and are mourned
JOD serves clinicians, counselors, researchers, educators and policymakers who work with dying people, bereaved families and the communities and institutions around them.
JOD publishes original research, reviews and scholarly commentary on death, dying, bereavement and end-of-life care. The journal brings together work on how people die, how they are cared for at the end of life, and how individuals and communities live with loss.
Its aims are to publish methodologically sound research that informs care, education, practice and policy; to support dialogue between the clinical, social and humanistic disciplines that study death; and to make that work freely available to everyone who can use it.
The journal welcomes contributions from thanatology, palliative medicine, nursing, psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, philosophy, bioethics and law. The Aims and Scope page describes the fields covered and the research the journal considers.
Article types
- Original Research
- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
- Review
- Methods
- Short Communication
- Case Report
- Perspective or Commentary
- Book Review
- Letter
Preparation guidance for each type is given in the Instructions for Authors.
Journal register
Identity, rights and editorial terms
- Full title
- Journal of Death
- Short title JOD.
- Publisher and owner
- Open Access Pub
- The journal is owned and published by Open Access Pub. openaccesspub.org
- Publication history
- Since 2025
- Volume 1 began in 2025. Articles are published as they are ready, with no fixed number of issues per year.
- Access
- Open access
- Every article is free to read, download and share from the day of publication, with no subscription or registration.
- License and copyright
- CC BY 4.0
- Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Authors retain copyright.
- Peer review
- Single-blind by default
- Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request.
- Article processing charge
- USD 1,200
- Payable only after acceptance; withdrawal after submission is subject to the journal's withdrawal policy.
- Research integrity
- Similarity screening
- Submitted manuscripts are screened with Crossref Similarity Check, powered by iThenticate, and similarity reports are assessed by the editors in context.
Editorial responsibility
How manuscripts are handled
Members of the Editorial Board handle manuscripts within their expertise and advise on the journal's scope and policies.
All submissions undergo initial editorial screening. Manuscripts that meet the journal's scope and minimum requirements proceed to independent peer review. Single-blind by default; double-blind review is available on request. Manuscripts that proceed to external peer review are normally evaluated by at least two independent subject-matter experts.
Editorial decisions are based on scope, scientific quality, methodological rigor, ethical compliance, reporting quality, and relevance to the journal. They are independent of the article processing charge and of any fee-relief inquiry. Editors with a conflict of interest are recused from handling the manuscript.
Research on dying, grief and suicide often involves people in vulnerable circumstances. The journal expects such work to show appropriate ethical oversight, care in consent and confidentiality, and respectful reporting. The full requirements are set out in the Editorial Policies.
Open access and copyright
Free to read and reuse
All JOD articles are freely available on openaccesspub.org from the day of publication, without subscription or registration.
Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0), which permits anyone to read, download, copy, distribute, adapt and reuse the work for any lawful purpose, provided the authors and the original publication are credited. Authors retain copyright in their work. See Copyright and License.
Preservation and discovery
A lasting scholarly record
JOD articles will be deposited in Portico, a not-for-profit digital-preservation archive, so that the published record remains available for the long term. Read our preservation policy.
Each article is published in HTML, PDF and XML. The Indexing page describes how JOD articles are preserved and made discoverable.
Contact
Editorial office
Questions about the journal, its policies or a manuscript can be sent to the JOD editorial office at Open Access Pub.
- info@openaccesspub.org
- Publisher
- Open Access Pub, openaccesspub.org
- For authors
- Instructions for Authors and Article Processing Charges