The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) is the world's oldest and largest professional organization devoted to cancer research, founded in 1907 and headquartered in Philadelphia. As a non-profit society publisher, it runs a tightly focused portfolio of 10 peer-reviewed journals that together cover the full arc of cancer science - from basic tumor biology (Cancer Research, Molecular Cancer Research) through drug development (Molecular Cancer Therapeutics), immunology (Cancer Immunology Research), translational and clinical work (Cancer Discovery, Clinical Cancer Research, Blood Cancer Discovery), to population science and prevention (Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention; Cancer Prevention Research), plus the fully open-access Cancer Research Communications, launched in 2021.

If your paper is about cancer in any form, an AACR journal is a natural home. This guide covers how to pick the right title, what open access costs, how peer review works, and how to submit.

All 10 AACR journals are oncology journals - the portfolio's depth comes from covering every research modality rather than every discipline. Article types include original research articles, reviews, perspectives, clinical trial reports, and brief reports; each journal's Information for Authors page lists its specific formats and length limits. AACR journals use the AACR numbered citation style, and manuscript templates for each title are available on SciSpace.

AACR offers three open-access routes:

• Gold OA - Cancer Research Communications is the portfolio's fully open-access journal. All articles publish under a CC BY license.
• Hybrid OA - the other nine journals are subscription titles that offer a paid open-access option per article.
• Green OA - self-archiving of the accepted manuscript is permitted; check each journal's archiving terms for embargo details.

Prices are revised periodically and member discounts are substantial - always check the AACR publication fees page before submitting. Fee waivers and reductions are considered for authors without funding, and Cancer Research Communications applies country-tiered discounts automatically.

AACR journals use single-anonymized peer review: reviewers know the authors' identities, but not vice versa. Editors are practicing cancer researchers, and the society's editorial boards are drawn from its 58,000+ membership. Decisions on the selective flagship titles (Cancer Discovery, Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research) can take longer than at broad-scope venues; Cancer Research Communications is built for faster, criterion-based review.

1. Pick the journal. Use the journal-selection page at aacrjournals.org to match your manuscript's scope, or start from the decision table above.
2. Read the Information for Authors. Each AACR journal has title-specific requirements for article types, length, and figures.
3. Prepare your manuscript. Use the AACR template for your target journal on SciSpace, with AACR numbered citations.
4. Submit via AACR SmartSubmit. All AACR journals use the SmartSubmit online submission system; each journal has its own submission site linked from its homepage.
5. Consider AACR membership. Member APC discounts (roughly $800 on hybrid OA,$350 on Cancer Research Communications) can offset the membership fee in a single paper.

AACR is a COPE member and follows COPE guidance on authorship, corrections, and retractions. The journals enforce disclosure of conflicts of interest, clinical-trial registration for trial reports, and data-availability expectations appropriate to each study type. As a society publisher, AACR reinvests publishing revenue into its scientific mission - meetings, grants, and advocacy.