journal-of-the-american-society-of-nephrology

Journal positioning

The Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN) is the American Society of Nephrology flagship, publishing high-impact nephrology research across the full evidence spectrum: clinical trials and cohorts in kidney disease, dialysis, and transplantation; translational kidney biomarker and -omics work; and basic renal physiology, cell biology, and disease-mechanism science. Its defining expectation is a mechanistically or clinically significant advance in kidney health and disease, with an emphasis on discovery and disease mechanism alongside rigorous clinical work — not a small single-center series or a descriptive registry slice. With its U.S. society base, JASN often anchors strongly in mechanism, novel biology, and trials that move nephrology practice. This skill is a fit / venue-selection / re-framing aid; it is not clinical or regulatory advice and does not replace the journal's current instructions for authors. Before submitting, re-check the live JASN author instructions.

When to trigger

• The author names JASN for a nephrology clinical, translational, or basic-science study and wants a fit/framing check.
• A kidney study must be re-framed around a disease mechanism or a practice-changing nephrology question rather than a descriptive report.
• The author is choosing between JASN and Kidney International (ISN flagship), or between JASN and general medicine.
• The author needs the journal's reporting-guideline, registration, and basic/animal-study expectations for kidney research.

Scope & topic fit

• Chronic and acute kidney disease: CKD progression, AKI, glomerular and tubulointerstitial disease, and diabetic and hypertensive kidney disease.
• Dialysis and renal replacement: hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, and outcomes/access research.
• Kidney transplantation: immunology, rejection, allograft outcomes, and organ-preservation science.
• Renal physiology and cell biology: tubular transport, podocyte and glomerular biology, fibrosis, and electrolyte/acid-base mechanism.
• Translational nephrology: kidney biomarkers, genetics/genomics, single-cell and -omics atlases with disease relevance.
• Clinical trials and large cohorts with kidney endpoints (eGFR/kidney failure, mortality, cardiovascular outcomes in CKD).

Method & evidence bar

• Clinical studies must be adequately powered with prespecified, patient-centered kidney endpoints; trials require prospective registration and the registration number.
• The applicable reporting guideline and checklist are expected: CONSORT for trials, STROBE for observational work, PRISMA for systematic reviews, ARRIVE for animal studies.
• Basic/translational work needs rigorous controls, biological replication, validated reagents/models, and blinded/randomized animal experiments where applicable.
• Mechanistic claims require perturbation evidence in cells or animals plus anchoring to human kidney tissue, biofluids, or cohorts where feasible.
• Effect estimates need confidence intervals and absolute as well as relative measures; causal language must match the design and model.
• eGFR/biomarker methods, kidney-outcome definitions, and statistical-analysis plans must be explicit.

Structure & house style

• ASN format with a structured abstract and a significance/visual-abstract statement; re-check current article types (Original Article, Basic Research, Clinical Research, etc.) and limits on the live guide.
• The introduction frames the kidney-biology or clinical gap; the discussion states the mechanistic insight or practice implication and bounds overreach.
• A CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA flow diagram is expected for the relevant clinical design; animal work reports ARRIVE-aligned detail.
• Figures show representative data with statistics, N, and replication; a supplement carries full methods, the protocol/SAP, and additional experiments.

Official-submission checklist

• Before giving submission-ready advice, read ../../resources/source-basis.md and ../../resources/official-source-map.md; start from the ICMJE/EQUATOR and ASN anchors, then cite the current JASN page you checked.
• Search the live site for "JASN American Society of Nephrology instructions for authors" and follow the current version.
• Re-check article types, abstract and significance-statement format, and word/figure/reference limits.
• Confirm trial registration, the reporting checklist (CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA/ARRIVE), data/code-availability, and protocol/SAP submission.
• Re-check IRB/ethics and consent, transplant-donor consent where relevant, animal-care/IACUC approval, ICMJE authorship and conflict-of-interest disclosure, funding, and AI-use disclosure.
• If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions win.

Pre-submission self-check

• The study delivers a clear kidney-disease mechanism or a practice-changing nephrology finding.
• Clinical kidney endpoints are prespecified and powered; trials are registered with the number in the manuscript.
• The correct reporting checklist (CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA/ARRIVE) is completed and attached.
• Basic/translational work shows controls, replication, model validation, and human anchoring.
• Mechanistic claims rest on perturbation evidence, not association alone.
• IRB/consent, IACUC (if animal), ICMJE disclosures, and a data-availability statement are prepared.

Common desk-reject triggers

• Single-center descriptive series or registry slice with no mechanism and no practice change.
• Association-only biomarker/-omics studies with no validation cohort or functional follow-up.
• Animal/cell kidney work without human relevance, replication, or ARRIVE-aligned rigor.
• Missing trial registration, protocol, or the required reporting checklist.
• Incremental dialysis/transplant outcome reports with limited generalizability or novelty.

Re-routing decision

• Global-perspective or epidemiology-heavy nephrology with less mechanistic depth → kidney-international.
• Diabetic kidney disease framed primarily around endocrine/metabolic mechanism → diabetologia / journal-of-clinical-endocrinology-and-metabolism.
• Critical-care AKI dominated by ICU organ-support → critical-care-medicine / american-journal-of-respiratory-and-critical-care-medicine.
• Broad practice-changing nephrology trial → general medicine (jama / NEJM / The Lancet in the natural-science bundle).
• Pure renal cell biology with no disease anchor → a basic-science venue in the natural-science bundle.

Output format

[Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason)
[Target] Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (ASN)
[Specialty tags] <CKD / AKI / dialysis / transplant / renal physiology + clinical/translational/basic>
[Study design / reporting guideline] <RCT-CONSORT / cohort-STROBE / review-PRISMA / animal-ARRIVE>
[Method/evidence] <power, mechanism, controls/replication, registration>
[Top risk] <the single most likely reason for rejection>
[Official items to re-check] <article type / registration / checklist / IACUC / consent / disclosures>
[Re-route suggestion] <if not a fit, a better-matched venue>