Publication Guide
The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is the definitive professional society in clinical oncology, founded in 1964 and now counting nearly 45,000 members worldwide. Its publishing arm, ASCO Publications, produces a tightly focused portfolio: six peer-reviewed journals plus the annual ASCO Educational Book, all hosted at ascopubs.org. The flagship, Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO, est. 1983), is one of the most-cited journals in oncology and a primary venue for practice-changing clinical trial results. Publishing services for some newer titles are provided in partnership with Wolters Kluwer (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins).
Unlike the mega-publishers, ASCO's portfolio is small and specialty-deep. Every title serves a distinct slice of cancer research and care, so choosing the right journal is mostly a question of matching your paper's scope - not its prestige tier.
Which ASCO journal fits your paper?
| You're most likely to... | Choose this journal |
|---|---|
| Report a practice-changing clinical trial or major clinical research | Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) - the flagship; highly selective, highest impact in the family |
| Study care delivery, quality, policy, or the business of oncology practice | JCO Oncology Practice (formerly Journal of Oncology Practice, est. 2005) |
| Publish biomarker-driven or genomics-guided treatment research | JCO Precision Oncology |
| Report research from or relevant to resource-constrained settings | JCO Global Oncology (fully open access; est. 2015 as Journal of Global Oncology) |
| Work on clinical informatics, real-world data, or AI in cancer care | JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics |
| Publish emerging, innovative, or early-stage work with fast, broad access | JCO Oncology Advances (fully open access; launched 2024) |
What ASCO actually publishes
- Journal of Clinical Oncology - original clinical research, phase III trial reports, guidelines, and editorials across all cancer types. Indexed in MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, with one of the highest impact factors in oncology.
- JCO Oncology Practice - health services research, care delivery, and oncology practice management.
- JCO Precision Oncology - molecularly driven trials, biomarker studies, and case reports in genomically guided care.
- JCO Global Oncology - open-access research on cancer care in low- and middle-income settings.
- JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics - clinical informatics, real-world evidence, and computational approaches in oncology.
- JCO Oncology Advances - the newest fully open-access title, launched in 2024 with Wolters Kluwer, for innovative and cross-cutting oncology research.
- ASCO Educational Book - peer-reviewed articles tied to the ASCO Annual Meeting's education program.
Open access and APCs
ASCO runs a mixed access model. There are no submission fees anywhere in the JCO family, and the standard (non-OA) publication route in JCO and most siblings is free to authors.
| Route | How it works | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Gold OA - JCO Global Oncology | Fully open access; CC BY or CC BY-NC-ND | Up to ~$2,472, tiered by corresponding author's country; waivers available |
| Gold OA - JCO Oncology Advances | Fully open access; CC BY or CC BY-NC-ND | Up to ~$3,800, tiered by author country; waivers available |
| Hybrid OA option | Optional OA upgrade on subscription titles, arranged after acceptance | Priced per journal - ASCO does not publish one flat OA sticker price; check the journal's OA terms |
| Delayed / Green OA | JCO research articles become free to read after an embargo (about 12 months); accepted-manuscript self-archiving and PubMed Central deposit for funded work are permitted | $0 |
APC pricing for the fully-OA titles is set by the corresponding author's country at submission, and ASCO offers waivers for authors in low- and lower-middle-income countries - always confirm the current figure on the journal's open-access terms page before submitting.
Peer review
ASCO journals use single-anonymized peer review: reviewers know author identities, authors do not know reviewers. JCO is highly selective - editorial fit and clinical significance matter more than any fee - while the specialty titles offer more scope-matched homes for solid work. Decision times vary by journal and article type; the journal pages give current expectations.
How to submit
- Pick the journal using the scope table above; each title's information page at ascopubs.org details article types.
- Format your manuscript to the journal's author guidelines - AMA-style numbered references (the JCO variant), structured abstracts for research articles. SciSpace templates for ASCO journals handle the formatting automatically.
- Submit online through the journal's manuscript submission system (Editorial Manager for the JCO family; the exact portal is linked from each journal's ascopubs.org page). There is no submission fee.
- Respond to review - revisions and decisions are handled in the same system.
- Choose your access route after acceptance: standard publication (free), or the OA option where offered.
Ethics and integrity
ASCO journals follow COPE guidance on authorship, corrections, and retractions, and require ICMJE-style disclosure of conflicts of interest - particularly strict given the journals' role in reporting industry-sponsored trials. Clinical trials must be prospectively registered, and reporting guidelines (CONSORT, STROBE, PRISMA) apply by study type. Data-sharing statements are expected for clinical research.
Templates and formatting on SciSpace
SciSpace hosts formatting templates for ASCO journals, so you can write once and export a submission-ready manuscript with AMA-numbered citations matched to JCO-family requirements. Combined with the journal pages linked above, that covers scope-checking, formatting, and citation style in one place.
