--- name: hepatology description: Use when targeting Hepatology or deciding whether a liver-biology or liver-disease study fits this venue. Encodes the journal's fit, the AASLD clinical-and-basic/translational evidence bar, reporting-guideline and registration requirements, AASLD/Wiley house style, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics. Venue-fit aid only, not clinical advice. --- # Hepatology (hepatology) ## Journal positioning Hepatology is the flagship journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), publishing original research spanning liver biology and disease — from molecular and cellular hepatobiliary science through translational and clinical studies in viral, metabolic (MASLD/MASH), alcohol-related, autoimmune and cholestatic liver disease, cirrhosis and portal hypertension, liver cancer, and transplantation. It serves a North-American-anchored but international hepatology and hepatobiliary-science readership and the AASLD practice-guideline community, with a notable strength in mechanistic and basic/translational liver biology alongside practice-relevant clinical research. Confirmatory or descriptive work without a clear mechanistic or clinical advance, and studies with weak biological grounding, are a poor fit. 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 Hepatology author instructions. ## When to trigger - The author names Hepatology for a basic, translational, or clinical liver study and wants a fit/framing check. - A liver study must be re-framed around a mechanistic advance in liver biology or an AASLD-relevant clinical finding for a North-American/international readership. - The author is choosing between Hepatology (AASLD), Journal of Hepatology (EASL), and a general GI or general-medicine venue. - The author needs the journal's reporting-guideline, registration, and desk-reject expectations for hepatology. ## Scope & topic fit - Cellular and molecular hepatobiliary biology: hepatocyte/cholangiocyte and stellate-cell biology, liver immunology, fibrogenesis, regeneration, and metabolism. - Metabolic and steatotic liver disease (MASLD/MASH) and alcohol-related liver disease — mechanisms, models, biomarkers, and trials. - Viral hepatitis (HBV, HCV, HDV) virology, host response, and clinical/therapeutic studies. - Cirrhosis, portal hypertension, decompensation, and acute/acute-on-chronic liver failure — pathophysiology and outcomes. - Liver cancer (HCC, cholangiocarcinoma) tumor biology, microenvironment, and clinically anchored studies; autoimmune/cholestatic disease (AIH, PBC, PSC). - Liver transplantation biology and outcomes, including ischemia-reperfusion, rejection, and immunosuppression science. ## Method & evidence bar - Basic/translational studies need rigorous controls, adequate biological replication, and validation across complementary models with disease relevance; single-cell-line claims are insufficient. - Clinical studies must be adequately powered with prespecified, clinically meaningful endpoints; surrogate/biomarker endpoints (fibrosis stage, viral markers) require validation and justification. - The applicable reporting guideline must be followed and its checklist supplied: CONSORT for trials, STROBE for observational studies, PRISMA for systematic reviews, STARD for diagnostic accuracy; ARRIVE-aligned animal-study reporting where relevant. - Interventional trials require prospective registration with the registration number and protocol/statistical-analysis plan. - Mechanistic claims must be supported by direct, manipulative evidence (gain/loss of function), not correlation alone; human-sample validation strengthens fit. - Observational and registry analyses must address confounding, selection, and competing risks; causal language must match the design. ## Structure & house style - AASLD/Wiley format with a structured abstract; re-check current article types (Original Article, etc.), graphical-abstract requirements, and limits on the live guide. - The introduction frames a focused biological or clinical question and its significance; the discussion states the mechanistic interpretation and, where relevant, the clinical/guideline implication, using current AASLD nomenclature (MASLD/MASH). - Figures must include the controls, replication, and quantification supporting each mechanistic claim; CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA flow diagrams are expected where applicable. - Supplements carry full methods, antibody/reagent and model details, the protocol, and extended analyses. ## 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 AASLD anchors, then cite the current Hepatology page you checked. - Search the live site for "Hepatology AASLD author guidelines" and follow the current AASLD/Wiley version. - Re-check article types, word/figure limits, structured- and graphical-abstract format, and statistical/reagent-reporting requirements. - Confirm trial registration, the reporting checklist (CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA/STARD), data/code-sharing statement, and protocol/SAP submission. - Re-check IRB/ethics and consent, animal-use approval and ARRIVE-aligned reporting, 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 mechanistic advance in liver biology or an AASLD-relevant clinical finding. - [ ] Mechanistic claims rest on manipulative evidence with adequate controls and replication, ideally with human-sample validation. - [ ] Clinical endpoints are prespecified and meaningful; surrogate/biomarker endpoints are validated. - [ ] The correct reporting checklist (CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA/STARD) and, for animal work, ARRIVE-aligned reporting are completed. - [ ] Trials are prospectively registered with the number in the manuscript; protocol/SAP provided. - [ ] IRB/animal ethics and consent, ICMJE disclosures, and a data-sharing statement are prepared; nomenclature follows current AASLD terms. ## Common desk-reject triggers - Mechanistic claims from a single model or cell line with correlative-only data and no functional manipulation. - Descriptive clinical series with no mechanistic or practice advance and limited generalizability. - Biomarker/non-invasive-test studies without an independent validation cohort or reference standard. - Missing trial registration, protocol, animal-ethics approval, or the required reporting checklist; outdated steatotic-liver-disease nomenclature. - Observational analyses with inadequate confounding/competing-risk handling or overstated causal claims. - Topic with narrow local interest better served by a subspecialty GI, transplant, or general-medicine venue. ## Re-routing decision - European/EASL audience emphasis or EASL-guideline framing → `journal-of-hepatology`. - Luminal-GI, endoscopy, or broad practice-relevant GI/hepatology with a US clinical readership → `american-journal-of-gastroenterology`. - Liver-cancer study dominated by a systemic-oncology endpoint → `jama-oncology` / `annals-of-oncology`. - Practice-changing, broadly significant trial → general medicine (`jama` / NEJM / The Lancet in the natural-science bundle). - Pure cell/molecular hepatobiliary mechanism with no disease translation → a basic-science venue in the natural-science bundle. ## Output format ```text [Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason) [Target] Hepatology (AASLD) [Hepatology tags] <2–3 closest topics, e.g. fibrogenesis mechanism, MASH model, HBV virology> [Study design / reporting guideline] [Method/evidence] [Top risk] [Official items to re-check]
[Re-route suggestion] ```