The National Investment Center (NIC) and Mather LifeWays are pleased to announce a call for paper proposals for the Seniors Housing & Care Journal. The 2016 issue of Seniors Housing & Care Journal will address critical issues for the senior living industry, including:

• Quality. How can senior living providers best support quality of life and quality of care? How should quality outcomes be defined and measured?
• Leadership development and talent recruitment/retention. How do we increase young professionals’/graduate students’ interest in senior living? How do we increase numbers of frontline caregivers? How do we develop leadership within the field as the customers/market changes?
• Availability and affordability. How should the industry address over and under supply, awareness (e.g., costs of living at home vs. in communities), and affordability (e.g., meeting the housing and care needs of middle income)?
• Data Transparency. From an investor’s perspective, how do senior living companies compare to hotels and multi-family homes in terms of transparency of assets? How have other property types benefited from transparency in access to and cost of capital?

This year we have a two-step proposal process:
1) Submit your proposal for an article (original research manuscript or commentary). Priority will be given to articles related to the four topic areas listed above, but the editors will also consider papers on regulatory/policy issues and other topics important to the senior living industry.
2) Following a review of proposals, invitations for articles (original research manuscript or commentary) will be issued. Invited authors will be asked to submit a full article for the journal.

To help support applied research and innovative thought on these important topics, the authors of published research articles will receive a $7,500 award and authors of published commentaries will receive a $2,000 award. In addition, editors will select one manuscript for special recognition as the Outstanding Research Paper ($7,500 award). Eligible authors may also apply for the New Investigator Award ($2,500 award).

Please note that the deadline for article proposals is Monday, November 16, 2015. Applicants will receive notification on their proposal status in mid-December, and invited papers will be due Monday, April 4, 2016. All full articles will be blind peer-reviewed prior to editor decisions.

For instructions for authors and more information about Seniors Housing & Care Journal, visit www.matherlifeways.com/shcj.asp.