hepatology

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

[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] <basic-ARRIVE / RCT-CONSORT / cohort-STROBE / review-PRISMA / diagnostic-STARD>
[Method/evidence] <controls/replication, human validation, power, registration>
[Top risk] <the single most likely reason for rejection>
[Official items to re-check] <article type / registration / checklist / animal ethics / disclosures>
[Re-route suggestion] <if not a fit, a better-matched venue>