CJASN: Turning the Page

I am privileged to have been given the opportunity to serve as the third Editor-in-Chief for the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN), a leading peer-reviewed journal in the field of nephrology. The journal owes its success to the visionary leadership and tireless efforts of the first two Editor-in-Chiefs, Bill Bennett and Gary Curhan. The current standing of the journal is even more remarkable if one considers that CJASN started as a bimonthly journal only 11 years ago and became a monthly publication in 2008. CJASN now receives six times as many original research submissions as it did in 2006, over 80% of which are from outside the United States. As a result, the journal is now one of the most selective publications in the field, with an acceptance rate of only 13%. Under Gary’s leadership, CJASN has strengthened its reputation as a journal that provides a rapid, fair, transparent, and rigorous review of all submissions, which in turn, assures that all of the papers published in the journal meet the highest standards of reporting for clinical research in nephrology. The value provided by CJASN has been further enhanced by the introduction of high-quality series, such as those focused on renal physiology, renal immunology, and glomerular diseases for the clinicians. It is not surprising then to note that CJASN is the most read journal in nephrology, and the content is now available not only in print form and online but also, through mobile applications. In 2015, the CJASN website received 1.3 million unique visits, and the mobile application was accessed over 330,000 times. I know that I speak for Bill Bennett and Gary Curhan in saying that they could not have accomplished as much as they did without the support and hard work of their Deputy Editors (Harold Feldman and Mohammed Sayegh with Bill Bennett and Kirsten Johansen and Paul Palevsky with Gary Curhan), Associate Editors, and Managing Editors (Bonnie O’Brien and Shari Leventhal). My team is fortunate to inherit the journal with strong foundations, and herein, I provide our vision for moving forward.

I am grateful to the group of 17 highly talented individuals who make up the incoming CJASN team. I am delighted to have two nationally recognized physician scientists, Michel Chonchol and Ian de Boer, as Deputy Editors for the journal. Michel Chonchol is Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado and a highly productive investigator with a broad range of expertise, including mineral metabolism, polycystic kidney disease, CKD, and hypertension. Ian de Boer is Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Director of the Kidney Research Institute at the University of Washington and an established investigator with particular interest in diabetic kidney disease and vitamin D metabolism. Each of the ten Associate Editors is also a highly accomplished physician scientist, and their cumulative expertise spans virtually the entire breadth of clinical research in nephrology. They include David Charytan, Harvard University; Richard Formica, Yale University; Orlando Gutierrez, University of Alabama; Manjula Kurella-Tamura, Stanford University; Rulan Parekh, University of Toronto; Charles Pusey, Imperial College; Mahboob Rahman, Case Western Reserve; Stephen Seliger, University of Maryland; Eddie Siew, Vanderbilt University; and Christoph Wanner, University of Wurzburg. We are fortunate to have Ronit Katz and Leila Zelnick, both from the University of Washington, as Statistical Editors to maintain the rigor of the peer review process. The team also includes two Editors-in-Large, Mitchell Rosner at the University of Virginia for Clinical Practice and Barry Straube for Public Policy. They will facilitate CJASN in becoming a platform for ideas on any and every issue that affects the clinical practice of nephrology. We have the support of a large pool of very talented individuals from around the world as members of the Editorial Board, which mirrors the diversity of the membership of the American Society of Nephrology. The smooth operations of the journal are most dependent on the Managing Editor, and we are thankful to have Shari Leventhal continue in that role. Shari has been a part of the Communications Team at the American Society of Nephrology for over a decade and for the last 5 years, has become the public face of CJASN. She has been critical in ensuring a smooth transition, and we anticipate leaning on her considerably for accomplishing our goals for the journal.

Our vision for CJASN is for us to cement the journal as the leading voice in communicating and influencing advances in clinical nephrology. To achieve this vision, we have set three goals: (1) rapidly and effectively communicate the most important advances in clinical and translational research in nephrology, including innovations in research methods and care delivery; (2) put these advances in context for future research directions and patient care; and (3) become an important voice on every issue that potentially affects the clinical practice of nephrology, particularly in the United States.

CJASN will continue to place the highest priority and the greatest effort in publishing the findings of the most impactful clinical and translational research in nephrology. The overarching measure of the importance of an original research article is if it meaningfully changes how we care for patients with a given disease or it tangibly advances our understanding of the condition and is a stepping stone for research in the field. To ensure that the highest quality work that meets these benchmarks is submitted to CJASN, we will continue to provide a quick, rigorous, fair, smooth, and transparent review process and editorial review to ensure methodologic rigor, giving greater certainty to the internal and external validity of the reported findings. In addition, we hope to further streamline and standardize reporting of different types of research studies. To facilitate this goal, we have adapted the CONSORT, STROBE, and PRISMA checklists and made them available through the author resources on the CJASN website. We encourage the authors to use these checklists, and the editorial team will use them to ensure consistency and the highest standards in reporting randomized, controlled trials, cohort studies, and meta-analysis. Finally, the articles will be tagged into categories that reflect our understanding of the clinical spectrum of kidney diseases rather than the research methodology. It is our hope that this will enhance ease of access of content published in CJASN for clinicians and researchers alike.

Putting research advances in context of our current understanding is important for both practicing physicians and researchers. CJASN has a robust menu of features that already accomplishes this goal effectively and includes editorials, commentaries, and reviews. This has been complemented by highly regarded series, three of which have been completed (Renal Physiology, Renal Immunology, and Role of the Medical Director). Gary’s team has completed invitations on a comprehensive series on Glomerular Disease for the Clinician led by Carla Nester and Ron Falk, which is expected to run through early 2018. His team has also laid the foundation for Evidence-Based Nephrology led by Bryan Kestenbaum and Stephen Seliger, which will continue as a quarterly feature. Our team will continue these innovative features, each serving the goal of putting research advances in context. Starting in the middle of 2017, CJASN will start an umbrella category of Kidney Case Conference, a compilation of existing (Attending Rounds, Nephrology Quiz and Questionnaire, and Clinico-Pathologic Conference) and new (How Do I Treat) features. Each of the four components that makes up Kidney Case Conference is case-based discussion by experts applying our current understanding of the condition at the bedside.

CJASN plans to expand the scope of communication to become an influential voice on all aspects that affect the clinical practice of nephrology. These include but are not limited to (1) facilitating research prioritization for patient-oriented research; (2) introducing new research methods for clinical research to nephrology; (3) providing funding agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health, Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, or Veterans Administration, a platform to share their vision of research in our field; (4) helping researchers and the Food and Drug Administration understand various perspectives for barriers and burdens for regulatory approval; (5) partnering with the Centers for Disease Control to improve the health of patients with kidney diseases; (6) creating a platform to debate issues relating to credentialing of nephrologists, influence regulations, novel reimbursement models, and measurements of quality of care; (7) educating nephrologists about population health; and (8) addressing and offering solutions to reduce physician burnout. These articles will be primarily opinion or informational pieces and grouped under a new category called Perspectives that we plan to launch in mid-2017. We are fortunate to have Mitch Rosner and Barry Straube as Editors-at-Large to help with this new feature.

Ensuring quality and range of reporting is but one aspect of effective communication. It is imperative that the field of biomedical research adapts and leverages the rapidly increasing number of platforms available for communication in our society. This is important to not only widen the reach of what is published in scientific journals but also, keep pace with how millennials and the generations that follow them consume information. The editorial team at CJASN is mindful of this reality and hopes to implement a few early changes/enhancements in this spirit. We will emphasize brevity of communication for our invited features, and it is our hope that many such articles will be bite sized to be readily consumed on mobile platforms or through social media. We will soon launch podcasts for some original research articles as well as periodic podcasts from members of the editorial team. It is our intent to explore avenues for engagement with the American Society of Nephrology’s newly formed communities and enhance our presence on social media.

Our ability to sustain the trajectory of success for the journal will be determined by periodic assessment of our reach and effect through a robust culture of learning. It is our hope to build on the existing infrastructure of the culture of learning at CJASN by expanding the range of metrics and data that we will receive and critically review to ensure fidelity to our vision for the journal as a leading voice in communicating advances in clinical research in nephrology.

I want to close by thanking the American Society of Nephrology for entrusting this prestigious journal to our hands. I know that I speak for my very talented team that we are excited about building and expanding on the work already done to take CJASN to new heights.