Skip to content

When you choose to publish with PLOS, your research makes an impact. Make your work accessible to all, without restrictions, and accelerate scientific discovery with options like preprints and published peer review that make your work more Open.

PLOS BLOGS Speaking of Medicine and Health

Dementia across the lifespan and around the globe—Pathophysiology, prevention, treatment, and societal impact: a Call for Papers

Update: the submission deadline for the Special Issue on Dementia has been extended to October 7.

The PLOS Medicine Editors announce a Special Issue on Dementia to be guest edited by Dr. Carol Brayne and Dr. Bruce Miller. Submissions are now being accepted ahead of the deadline of September 30.

PLOS Medicine, a premier open access medical journal published by PLOS, is now inviting submissions of research papers to be considered for publication in a special issue on the pathophysiology, prevention, treatment, and societal impact of dementia. This special issue, planned for publication in March, 2017, will be guest edited by Dr. Carol Brayne, Director of the Cambridge Institute for Public Health at Cambridge University, and Dr. Bruce Miller, Director of the Aging and Memory Center at the University of California San Francisco, and will also include commissioned Editorials and Perspectives written by leaders in the field.

Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) estimates that in 2015 there were 46.8 million cases of dementia worldwide, with a total cost exceeding US$ 818 billion for the year. Although confirming the specific type of dementia in a given individual is notoriously difficult, Alzheimer’s disease is generally accepted as the leading pathological cause, followed by vascular dementia, Lewy body, and frontotemporal dementia. With an increasing number of adults living to older ages, ADI projects that there will be over 131.5 million people living with dementia by 2050. In addition to this steep increase in cases, a shift in burden from the richest to poorest countries is anticipated; the percentage of people with dementia living in low or middle income countries is expected to increase from 58% in 2015 to 68% in 2050.

For this special issue we are inviting submissions covering a broad range of dementia research, including:

  • Genetic and environmental risk factors for dementia across geographical settings, time, age groups, and unique populations
  • Variation in specific types of dementia with special consideration of age of onset 
  • Evidence for or against interventions to prevent dementia or slow its progression, including pharmaceutical, physiological, psychosocial and multimodal approaches
  • Advances in diagnosis and early detection/screening, including predictive biomarkers, with relevance to clinical care or public health
  • Research on societal implications, potential impact, public policy, and ethics of dementia screening and care around the world

The deadline for submissions is Friday September 30, 2016.

Please submit your manuscript through our submissions site at the following address: http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/s/submit-now

Authors are not required to send a pre-submission inquiry when submitting a manuscript for the Special Issue on Dementia. Please indicate in your covering letter that you would like the full manuscript to be considered for the special issue. Authors of submissions that represent sound science but are not selected for the issue itself may be offered transfer of the manuscript to PLOS ONE, with inclusion in an overall Collection on Dementia that will include papers published in both journals. If you would like to enquire about the suitability of a manuscript for consideration in the special issue, please e-mail plosmedicine@plos.org

Featured image credit: dierk schaefer, Flickr

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Add your ORCID here. (e.g. 0000-0002-7299-680X)

Back to top