International Journal of Pain Management
International Journal of Pain Management publishes peer-reviewed research on pain and its management: the mechanisms that produce and sustain it, the instruments that measure it, the interventions and services that address it, and the function, participation and experience of the people who live with it.
- ISSN
- 2688-5328
- Access
- Open access
- License
- CC BY 4.0, authors retain copyright
- Publisher
- Open Access Pub
What the journal considers
Pain is studied from more than one direction at once, and the journal is built to hold all of them in one record.
The standard of evidence follows the claim. A mechanistic study, a measurement study and a clinical evaluation are each read against what their own design can support.
The questions in scope run from why pain arises and how it is sustained, through how it is measured and how treatments and services are evaluated, to what pain costs in function and participation and how care is delivered and received. Each of those questions carries its own standard of proof.
The subject defines the journal, rather than any one therapeutic approach, discipline or method. Subject fit is therefore settled independently of whether a study demonstrates clinical benefit: a manuscript reporting a mechanism, a measure or a service is in scope on the same footing as one reporting a trial.
Six domains, read as one field
The six are read as one field. Most manuscripts belong to more than one of them, and the order below carries no sense of priority or sequence.
Nociception, sensitization and central processing; neuroimmune, molecular and genetic mechanisms; and the preclinical models through which they are studied.
Validated instruments, patient- and observer-reported measures, diagnostic and classification criteria, and the methodological work that establishes what a measure can carry.
Analgesic pharmacology, dose and equivalence, adjuvant and multimodal regimens, and the safety and stewardship questions that accompany them.
Regional techniques, neuromodulation, image-guided and surgical procedures, and device-based approaches to pain.
Physical and occupational rehabilitation, psychological and behavioral therapy, and complementary approaches, each evaluated against its own evidence.
Care delivery and health-services research, decision support and clinical informatics, access and equity, and accounts of living with pain and of being cared for.
Populations, settings and models
A manuscript is in scope when it makes a substantive contribution to pain or its management — preclinical, theoretical, methodological, review, clinical or lived-experience work alike — rather than using pain as an incidental variable. Whether the evidence presented supports the claims made is a separate judgment, reached in review.
Acute, chronic and recurrent pain; cancer pain and palliative care; neuropathic and headache disorders; orofacial, dental and musculoskeletal pain; pediatric, adult and older-adult populations; and preclinical and veterinary studies where the work informs pain biology or pain care.
Work from medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, psychology, physiotherapy and the social sciences is equally in scope, and interdisciplinary submissions are read by editors drawn from more than one of them.
How fit and evidence are judged separately
Whether pain is the subject of the work is decided first, and independently of how strong the evidence turns out to be.
A preclinical or computational study is read as preclinical or computational work. Conclusions about human pain and human care are expected to rest on evidence gathered in people.
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.
Editorial decisions are independent of fees, services, memberships and roles.
- Editorial BoardWho handles a manuscript, and in what subjects.
- Instructions for AuthorsWhat to prepare, declare and send.
- Submit PaperThe three routes, and how to choose one.