Medical Care Research and Review
Medical Care Research and Review has been a pioneering force in the area of health services research. During its time, the journal has evolved from publishing abstracts to a well-respected journal carrying critical reviews of literature on organizational structure, economics, and the financing of health and medical care systems. Today, the journal's focus has expanded to reflect the growth of the field and the increasing importance of health services research -- while still maintaining the high standards that have kept Medical Care Research and Review at the forefront of health care research for over half a century.
2022 MCRR Article of the Year:
“Public Health and Health Sector Crisis Leadership During Pandemics: A Review of the Medical and Business Literature"
Click here for access
Covering Current Issues in Health Care
Medical Care Research and Review covers timely aspects of health care such as:
- Evaluation of the impact of changes in health policy and practice
- Health insurance markets and the impact of health reform
- Health Information Technology adoption and application in health delivery
- Impact of competition and regulation on health care markets and providers
- Health care disparities in access, treatment, and outcomes
- Patient safety and quality of care
- Health care workforce issues and primary care capacity
- Patient engagement in health care decision-making
- Economics and financial issues in health care delivery
- Organizational structure and behavior of health organizations
- Comparative effectiveness analysis
The journal occasionally complements its broad coverage with supplements on particular topics. For example, an October 2014 supplement focused on informing the next generation of public reporting for consumers.
"Medical Care Research and Review aims to publish the best health services research in the field, especially papers that will inform research and decision-making on ways to improve health care services, including access to services as well as their cost, quality, access, and organization. - Thomas D'Aunno, Ph.D., former Editor-in-Chief, Medical Care Research and Review
This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)
Medical Care Research and Review (formerly Medical Care Review) has been a pioneering force in the area of peer-reviewed health services research. During its time, the journal has evolved from publishing abstracts to a well-respected journal carrying critical reviews of literature on organizational structure, economics, and the financing of health and medical care systems. Today, the journal's focus has expanded to reflect the growth of the field and the increasing importance of health services research -- while still maintaining the high standards that have kept Medical Care Research and Review at the forefront of health care research for over half a century.
| R. Tamara Konetzka, PhD | University of Chicago, USA |
| Kathleen Carey, PhD | Boston University School of Public Health, USA |
| Shoou-Yih Daniel Lee, PhD | Virginia Commonwealth University, USA |
| Thomas A. D'Aunno | New York University, USA |
| Gloria J. Bazzoli | Virginia Commonwealth University, USA |
| Jeffrey Alexander | University of Michigan, USA |
| Thomas H. Rice | University of California, Los Angeles, USA |
| Laurence Baker | Stanford University School of Medicine, USA |
| Joseph Benitez | University of Kentucky, USA |
| Alison Evans Cuellar | George Mason University, USA |
| Heather Davila | Iowa City Veterans Affairs and University of Iowa, USA |
| Kathryn Pitkin Derose | The Rand Corporation, USA |
| Marisa Domino | University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, USA |
| Bryan Dowd | University of Minnesota, USA |
| Marc Elliott | The Rand Corporation, USA |
| Jemima A. Frimpong, PhD | Johns Hopkins University, USA |
| Bianca Frogner | University of Washington, USA |
| Michael Furukawa | Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, DHHS, USA |
| Darrell J. Gaskin | Johns Hopkins University, USA |
| Todd Gilmer | University of California, San Diego, USA |
| Ezra Golberstein | University of Minnesota USA |
| Carol Roan Gresenz | Georgetown University, USA |
| Larry R. Hearld | University of Alabama, Birmingham, USA |
| Vanessa Hurley | Georgetown University, USA |
| Laura Keohane | Vanderbilt University, USA |
| Hyunjee Kim | Oregon Health and Science University, USA |
| Alden Lai | New York University, USA |
| Paula Lantz | University of Michigan, USA |
| Douglas Leslie | Penn State Hershey Medical Center, USA |
| Richard C. Lindrooth | University of Colorado Denver, USA |
| Ann McAlearney | Ohio State University, USA |
| David J. Meyers | Brown University, USA |
| Ernest Moy | Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, USA |
| Rebecca Myerson | University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA |
| Ingrid Nembhard | University of Pennsylvania, USA |
| David Nerenz | Henry Ford Health System, USA |
| Jeongyoung Park | George Washington University, USA |
| Marcelo Coca Perraillon | University of Colorado-Denver, USA |
| Harold Pollack | University of Chicago, USA |
| Dan Polsky | University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, USA |
| Michael D. Rosko | Widener University, USA |
| Prachi Sanghavi | University of Chicago, USA |
| Dennis Scanlon | Pennsylvania State University, USA |
| Sara Jean Singer | Stanford University, USA |
| Fabrice Smieliauskas | University of Chicago, USA |
| Shawna N. Smith | University of Michigan, USA |
| Joanne Spetz | University of California, San Francisco, USA |
| Sally Stearns | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA |
| Jasmine L. Travers | New York University, USA |
| Erin Trish | University of Southern California, USA |
| Courtney H. Van Houtven | Durham Veterans Administration and Duke University Medical Center, USA |
| Daniel M. Walker | The Ohio State University, USA |
| Teresa Waters | University of Tennessee Health Science Center, USA |
| Rachel M. Werner | University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, USA |
| Christopher Whaley | The Rand Corporation, USA |
| Eric Williams | University of Alabama, USA |
| Herbert Wong | Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, USA |
| Gary Young | Belmont University, USA |
- Article types
- Editorial policies
2.1 Peer review policy
2.2 Authorship
2.3 Acknowledgements
2.4 Funding
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
2.7 Clinical trials
2.8 Reporting guidelines
2.9 Data - Publishing policies
3.1 Publication ethics
3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
3.3 Open access and author archiving
3.4 Permissions - Preparing your manuscript
4.1 Word processing formats
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
4.3 Identifiable information
4.4 Supplemental material
4.5 Journal Layout
4.6 Reference style
4.7 English language editing services - Submitting your manuscript
5.1 ORCID
5.2 How to submit your manuscript
5.3 Information required for completing your submission
5.4 Title, keywords and abstracts
5.5 Corresponding author contact details - On acceptance and publication
6.1 SAGE Production
6.3 Access to your published article
6.2 Online First publication - Further information
Medical Care Research and Review publishes peer-reviewed articles that focus on: (1) syntheses of empirical and theoretical research on health services; (2) empirical health services and health policy research; and (3) data and trends articles that examine new data sources or new measures that inform health services research and health policy audiences. All three categories of articles examine a broad range of health services issues including organization, financing, patient safety and quality of care, access to care, health care disparities, and insurance coverage trends.
The mission of Medical Care Research and Review is to provide essential information about the field of health services to researchers, policymakers, managers, and practitioners. Medical Care Research and Review seeks three kinds of manuscripts:
| Article type | Description | Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Review Articles |
On particular research or policy topics that comprehensively synthesize relevant theoretical and empirical literature across several disciplines. Discussion of a specific conceptual framework that underlies the analysis or is used to synthesize and critique prior research on a given topic. For advice on writing a review article according to MCRR standards, click here. For an example of a well-written review article, read the MCRR 2010 Best Article of the Year Award winner here. |
|
| Empirical Research Articles |
Methodologically rigorous empirical research that significantly advances previous knowledge. Discussion of a specific conceptual framework that underlies the analysis or is used to synthesize and critique prior research on a given topic. |
|
| Data and Trends | Present new data and trends in the health care area or help us better understand how data can be used by the field. |
|
Medical Care Research and Review operates a strictly blinded peer review process in whichthe reviewer’s name is withheld from the author and, the author’s name from the reviewer. Reviewers may at their discretion opt to reveal their names to the author in their review, but our standard policy and practice is for both identities to remain concealed.
Papers should only be submitted for consideration once consent is given by all contributing authors. Those submitting papers should carefully check that all those whose work contributed to the paper are acknowledged as contributing authors.
The list of authors should include all those who can legitimately claim authorship. This is all those who:
- Made a substantial contribution to the concept and design, acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data,
- Drafted the article or revised it critically for important intellectual content,
- Approved the version to be published.
Authors should meet the conditions of all of the points above. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content.
When a large, multicenter group has conducted the work, the group should identify the individuals who accept direct responsibility for the manuscript. These individuals should fully meet the criteria for authorship.
Acquisition of funding, collection of data, or general supervision of the research group alone does not constitute authorship, although all contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in the Acknowledgments section.
Please refer to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) authorship guidelines for more information on authorship.
Authorship Changes
If the named authors for a manuscript change at any point between submission and acceptance, an Authorship Change Form must be completed and digitally signed by all authors (including any added or removed). An addition of an author is only permitted following feedback raised during peer review. Completed forms can be uploaded at Revision Submission stage or emailed to the Journal Editorial Office contact. All requests will be moderated by the Editor and/or Sage staff.
Important: Changes to the author by-line by adding or deleting authors are NOT permitted following acceptance of a paper.
Please note that AI chatbots, for example ChatGPT, should not be listed as authors. For more information see the policy on Use of ChatGPT and generative AI tools.
All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an Acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.
Please supply your acknowledgements section separately to the main text to facilitate anonymous peer review.
2.3.1 Writing assistance
Individuals who provided writing assistance, e.g. from a specialist communications company, do not qualify as authors and so should be included in the Acknowledgements section.
Authors must disclose any writing assistance – including the individual’s name, company and level of input – and identify the entity that paid for this assistance”).
It is not necessary to disclose use of language polishing services.
2.3.2. Artificial Intelligence
Use of Large Language Models and generative AI tools in writing your submission
Sage recognizes the value of large language models (LLMs) (e.g. ChatGPT) and generative AI as productivity tools that can help authors in preparing their article for submission; to generate initial ideas for a structure, for example, or when summarizing, paraphrasing, language polishing etc. However, it is important to note that all language models have limitations and are unable to replicate human creative and critical thinking. Human intervention with these tools is essential to ensure that content presented is accurate and appropriate to the reader. Sage therefore requires authors to be aware of the limitations of language models and to consider these in any use of LLMs in their submissions:
- Objectivity: Previously published content that contains racist, sexist or other biases can be present in LLM-generated text, and minority viewpoints may not be represented. Use of LLMs has the potential to perpetuate these biases because the information is decontextualized and harder to detect.
- Accuracy: LLMs can ‘hallucinate’ i.e. generate false content, especially when used outside of their domain or when dealing with complex or ambiguous topics. They can generate content that is linguistically but not scientifically plausible, they can get facts wrong, and they have been shown to generate citations that don’t exist. Some LLMs are only trained on content published before a particular date and therefore present an incomplete picture.
- Contextual understanding: LLMs cannot apply human understanding to the context of a piece of text, especially when dealing with idiomatic expressions, sarcasm, humor, or metaphorical language. This can lead to errors or misinterpretations in the generated content.
- Training data: LLMs require a large amount of high-quality training data to achieve optimal performance. However, in some domains or languages, such data may not be readily available, limiting the usefulness of the model.
Guidance for authors
Authors are required to:
- Clearly indicate the use of language models in the manuscript, including which model was used and for what purpose. Please use the methods or acknowledgements section, as appropriate.
- Verify the accuracy, validity, and appropriateness of the content and any citations generated by language models and correct any errors or inconsistencies.
- Provide a list of sources used to generate content and citations, including those generated by language models. Double-check citations to ensure they are accurate, and are properly referenced.
- Be conscious of the potential for plagiarism where the LLM may have reproduced substantial text from other sources. Check the original sources to be sure you are not plagiarizing someone else’s work.
- Acknowledge the limitations of language models in the manuscript, including the potential for bias, errors, and gaps in knowledge.
- Please note that AI bots such as ChatGPT should not be listed as an author on your submission.
We will take appropriate corrective action where we identify published articles with undisclosed use of such tools.
To comply with the guidance for Research Funders, Authors and Publishers issued by the Research Information Network (RIN), Medical Care Research and Review additionally requires all authors to acknowledge their funding in a consistent fashion under a separate heading. Please visit the Funding Acknowledgements page on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway to confirm the format of the acknowledgment text in the event of funding, or state that: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
2.5 Declaration of conflicting interests
It is the policy of Medical Care Research and Review to require a declaration of conflicting interests from all authors enabling a statement to be carried within the paginated pages of all published articles.
Please ensure that a ‘Declaration of Conflicting Interests’ statement is included at the end of your manuscript, after any acknowledgements and prior to the references. If no conflict exists, please state that ‘The Author(s) declare(s) that there is no conflict of interest’.
For guidance on conflict of interest statements, please see the ICMJE recommendations here.
2.6 Research ethics and patient consent
Medical research involving human subjects must be conducted according to the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.
Submitted manuscripts should conform to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, and all papers reporting animal and/or human studies must state in the methods section that the relevant Ethics Committee or Institutional Review Board provided (or waived) approval. Please ensure that you have provided the full name and institution of the review committee, in addition to the approval number.
For research articles, authors are also required to state in the methods section whether participants provided informed consent and whether the consent was written or verbal.
Information on informed consent to report individual cases or case series should be included in the manuscript text. A statement is required regarding whether written informed consent for patient information and images to be published was provided by the patient(s) or a legally authorized representative. Please do not submit the patient’s actual written informed consent with your article, as this in itself breaches the patient’s confidentiality. The Journal requests that you confirm to us, in writing, that you have obtained written informed consent but the written consent itself should be held by the authors/investigators themselves, for example in a patient’s hospital record. The confirmatory letter may be uploaded with your submission as a separate file.
Please also refer to the ICMJE Recommendations for the Protection of Research Participants.
Medical Care Research and Review conforms to the ICMJE requirement that clinical trials are registered in a WHO-approved public trials registry at or before the time of first patient enrolment as a condition of consideration for publication. The trial registry name and URL, and registration number must be included at the end of the abstract.
The relevant EQUATOR Network reporting guidelines should be followed depending on the type of study. For example, all randomized controlled trials submitted for publication should include a completed Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) flow chart as a cited figure, and a completed CONSORT checklist as a supplementary file.
Other resources can be found at NLM’s Research Reporting Guidelines and Initiatives.
At SAGE we are committed to facilitating openness, transparency and reproducibility of research. Medical Care Research and Review expects authors to share their research data in a suitable public repository. This is subject to ethical considerations and in such cases the journal editor may grant an exception and authors should contact the journal editorial office. Authors are also required to include a data accessibility statement in their manuscript file, indicating if data is present or absent, and to follow data citation principles. For more information please visit the SAGE Author Gateway, which includes information about SAGE’s partnership with the data repository Figshare.
SAGE is committed to upholding the integrity of the academic record. We encourage authors to refer to the Committee on Publication Ethics’ International Standards for Authors and view the Publication Ethics page on the SAGE Author Gateway.
3.1.1 Plagiarism
Medical Care Research and Review and SAGE take issues of copyright infringement, plagiarism or other breaches of best practice in publication very seriously. We seek to protect the rights of our authors and we always investigate claims of plagiarism or misuse of articles published in the journal. Equally, we seek to protect the reputation of the journal against malpractice. Submitted articles may be checked using duplication-checking software. Where an article is found to have plagiarized other work or included third-party copyright material without permission or with insufficient acknowledgement, or where authorship of the article is contested, we reserve the right to take action including, but not limited to: publishing an erratum or corrigendum (correction); retracting the article (removing it from the journal); taking up the matter with the head of department or dean of the author’s institution and/or relevant academic bodies or societies; banning the author from publication in the journal or all SAGE journals, or appropriate legal action.
3.2 Contributor’s publishing agreement
Before publication, SAGE requires the author as the rights holder to sign a Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement. SAGE’s Journal Contributor’s Publishing Agreement is an exclusive license agreement which means that the author retains copyright in the work but grants SAGE the sole and exclusive right and license to publish for the full legal term of copyright. Exceptions may exist where an assignment of copyright is required or preferred by a proprietor other than SAGE. In this case copyright in the work will be assigned from the author to the society. For more information please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway.
3.3 Open access and author archiving
Medical Care Research and Review offers optional open access publishing via the Sage Choice programme and Open Access agreements, where authors can publish open access either discounted or free of charge depending on the agreement with Sage. Find out if your institution is participating by visiting Open Access Agreements at Sage. For more information on Open Access publishing options at Sage please visit Sage Open Access. For information on funding body compliance, and depositing your article in repositories, please visit Sage’s Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines and Publishing Policies.
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere. For further information including guidance on fair dealing for criticism and review, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions on the SAGE Journal Author Gateway.
Preferred formats for the text and tables of your manuscript are Word DOC, RTF, XLS. LaTeX files are also accepted. The text should be double-spaced, 12-point type with 1-inch margins. Text should be standard 10 or 12 point. Word and (La)Tex templates are available on the Manuscript Submission Guidelines page of our Author Gateway.
4.2 Artwork, figures and other graphics
For guidance on the preparation of illustrations, pictures and graphs in electronic format,please visit SAGE’s Manuscript Submission Guidelines
Figures supplied in color will appear in color online regardless of whether or not these illustrations are reproduced in color in the printed version. For specifically requested color reproduction in print, you will receive information regarding the costs from SAGE after receipt of your accepted article.
Where a journal uses double-blind peer review, authors are required to submit:
- A version of the manuscript which has had any information that compromises the anonymity of the author(s) removed or anonymized. This version will be sent to the peer reviewers.
- A separate title page which includes any removed or anonymized material. This will not be sent to the peer reviewers.
See https://sagepub.com/Manuscript-preparation-for-double-blind-journal for detailed guidance on making any anonymous submission.
This journal is able to host additional materials online (e.g. datasets, podcasts, videos, images etc.) alongside the full-text of the article. These will be subjected to peer-review alongside the article. For more information please refer to our guidelines on submitting supplemental files, which can be found within our Manuscript Submission Guidelines page.
Authors are encouraged to submit any clarifying information with their manuscripts if they believe it would help in the review process. Examples include previous manuscripts that provide more detail on the data or methods used, copies of survey instruments used, and so forth. The manuscript itself must still contain sufficient information on its methods for reviewers to assess its validity, however.Include an abstract of no more than 150 words. Endnotes and references should follow the text, with tables and figures following on separate pages. To facilitate anonymous review, the name, affiliation, mailing address, phone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of each author should appear in a separate title page that is not included in the main document of a submitted paper. Please also list four to six keywords and any acknowledgments on the title page.
Prepare manuscripts according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edition (APA). Double-space all material, including the abstract, endnotes, references, quotations, appendixes, and tables. Do not use bold or italic type; indicate italics by underlining. Each table and figure should appear at the end of the document file, grouped together after the reference section. Except for size, all figures will appear as submitted; they must be camera-ready. Please do not submit glossies. Written permission must be obtained from the copyright holder for all quotations of more than 500 words from any one academic source, for any tables and/or figures taken from a source in which you do not hold the copyright, and for all quotations of any length from newspapers, radio and television broadcasts, magazines, movies, songs, or poems.
Medical Care Research and Review adheres to the APA reference style. Click here to review the guidelines on APA to ensure your manuscript conforms to this reference style.
4.7 English language editing services
Authors seeking assistance with English language editing, translation, or figure and manuscript formatting to fit the journal’s specifications should consider using SAGE Language Services. Visit SAGE Language Services on our Journal Author Gateway for further information.
As part of our commitment to ensuring an ethical, transparent and fair peer review process SAGE is a supporting member of ORCID, the Open Researcher and Contributor ID. ORCID provides a unique and persistent digital identifier that distinguishes researchers from every other researcher, even those who share the same name, and, through integration in key research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supports automated linkages between researchers and their professional activities, ensuring that their work is recognized.
The collection of ORCID IDs from corresponding authors is now part of the submission process of this journal. If you already have an ORCID ID you will be asked to associate that to your submission during the online submission process. We also strongly encourage all co- authors to link their ORCID ID to their accounts in our online peer review platforms. It takes seconds to do: click the link when prompted, sign into your ORCID account and our systems are automatically updated. Your ORCID ID will become part of your accepted publication’s metadata, making your work attributable to you and only you. Your ORCID ID is published with your article so that fellow researchers reading your work can link to your ORCID profile and from there link to your other publications.
If you do not already have an ORCID ID please follow this link to create one or visit our ORCID homepage to learn more.
5.2 How to submit your manuscript
Medical Care Research and Review is hosted on SAGE Track, a web based online submission and peer review system powered by ScholarOne™ Manuscripts. Visit https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/mcrr to login and submit your article online.
IMPORTANT: Please check whether you already have an account in the system before trying to create a new one. If you have reviewed or authored for the journal in the past year it is likely that you will have had an account created. For further guidance on submitting your manuscript online please visit ScholarOne Online Help.
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
5.3 Information required for completing your submission
You will be asked to provide contact details and academic affiliations for all co-authors via the submission system and identify who is to be the corresponding author. These details must match what appears on your manuscript. The affiliation listed in the manuscript should be the institution where the research was conducted. If an author has moved to a new institution since completing the research, the new affiliation can be included in a manuscript note at the end of the paper. At this stage please ensure you have included all the required statements and declarations and uploaded any additional supplementary files (including reporting guidelines where relevant).
5.4 Title, keywords and abstracts
Please supply a title, short title, an abstract and keywords to accompany your article. The title, keywords and abstract are key to ensuring readers find your article online through online search engines such as Google. Please refer to the information and guidance on how best to title your article, write your abstract and select your keywords by visiting the SAGE Journal Author Gateway for guidelines on How to Help Readers Find Your Article Online.
5.5 Corresponding author contact details
Provide full contact details for the corresponding author including email, mailing address and telephone numbers. Academic affiliations are required for all co-authors. These details should be presented separately to the main text of the article to facilitate anonymous peer review.
6. On acceptance and publication
Your SAGE Production Editor will keep you informed as to your article’s progress throughout the production process. Proofs will be made available to the corresponding author via our editing portal SAGE Edit or by email, and corrections should be made directly or notified to us promptly. Authors are reminded to check their proofs carefully to confirm that all author information, including names, affiliations, sequence and contact details are correct, and that Funding and Conflict of Interest statements, if any, are accurate.
6.2 Access to your published article
SAGE provides authors with online access to their final article.
Online First allows final revision articles (completed articles in queue for assignment to an upcoming issue) to be published online prior to their inclusion in a final journal issue which significantly reduces the lead time between submission and publication. For more information please visit our Online First Fact Sheet.
Any correspondence, queries or additional requests for information on the manuscript submission process should be sent to the Medical Care Research and Review editorial office as follows:
R. Tamara Konetzka, PhD
Editor-in-Chief, Medical Care Research and Review
konetzka@uchicago.edu (773) 834-2202
Last updated December 28, 2018