We are pleased to share 2 important updates with the July 2025 issue of the Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (JAALAS).
1. New Article Format: What’s Your Diagnosis?
We are introducing a new article format titled What’s Your Diagnosis? This format offers readers the opportunity to engage in intriguing clinical cases in laboratory animal medicine. Unlike the Case Study/Series format, which typically presents unique or unusual clinical findings, What’s Your Diagnosis? guides readers through the clinical background, diagnostic workup, and relevant findings of selected cases—encouraging them to consider differential diagnoses along the way. The primary diagnosis will be revealed toward the end of each article.
The cases featured may not necessarily be rare or novel but are selected for their educational value and relevance to the practice of laboratory animal medicine. Full submission guidelines for this format are available under the Instructions for Authors on the AALAS website (https://www.aalas.org/main/instructions-for-authors). Please note that this new format does not replace the existing Case Study/Series category. Submissions accepted in the What’s Your Diagnosis? format will be published based on available page space in upcoming issues.
2. Updated NIH Public Access Policy Requirements
Effective July 1, 2025, the NIH requires that all articles resulting from NIH-funded research be made immediately available in PubMed Central (PMC) upon publication—removing any previous embargo period.
To ensure compliance with this policy, authors must clearly indicate any NIH support in the funding section of the online manuscript submission form. If NIH support is identified, our publishing partner, KGL, will coordinate the upload of the article to PMC for immediate release upon publication. As this is a newly implemented requirement, JAALAS may make additional process adjustments in the future to maintain full compliance with NIH and other public access mandates.
We thank our authors and readers for their continued support and contributions to JAALAS.