The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (journal-of-allergy-and-clinical-immunology)

Journal positioning

The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI) is the flagship journal of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI), publishing clinical and mechanistic/translational research across allergy, asthma, and clinical immunology — atopic and respiratory allergic disease, food and drug allergy, urticaria, eosinophilic disorders, immunodeficiency, and the type 2 and broader immune mechanisms underlying these conditions. It serves allergists/immunologists and translational immunology scientists, and expects work that either changes allergy/asthma practice or delivers a clear, human-relevant immunologic mechanism; purely descriptive case series and bench studies with no allergic-disease anchor are a weak 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 JACI author instructions.

When to trigger

• The author names JACI for an allergy, asthma, or clinical-immunology study and wants a fit/framing check.
• A study must be re-framed around an allergic-disease mechanism or a practice-relevant allergy/asthma question with human relevance.
• The author is choosing between JACI, a general-medicine or respiratory journal, and a basic-immunology venue.
• The author needs the journal's reporting-guideline, registration, and desk-reject expectations for allergy/immunology research.

Scope & topic fit

• Asthma and allergic airway disease: phenotyping/endotyping, biologics, and type 2 inflammation mechanisms and trials.
• Food, drug, and venom allergy: diagnosis, oral immunotherapy and desensitization, and tolerance mechanisms.
• Atopic dermatitis, chronic urticaria, and other allergic skin disease — clinical and immunologic studies.
• Eosinophilic disorders, mast-cell disease, and rhinitis/rhinosinusitis with mechanistic or therapeutic advance.
• Primary and secondary immunodeficiency and immune dysregulation with clinical-immunology relevance.
• Translational immunology of allergic/immune disease (cytokine biology, barrier function, omics, immune cell profiling) anchored to human disease.

Method & evidence bar

• Clinical studies must be adequately powered with prespecified, patient-centered endpoints; biomarker/endotype endpoints need 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 studies.
• Interventional and immunotherapy trials require prospective registration; the registration number and protocol/statistical-analysis plan are expected.
• Mechanistic/translational claims need rigorous controls, adequate replication, and validation in human samples or disease-relevant models, with appropriate immune-assay rigor (gating, isotype controls, quantification).
• Diagnostic and biomarker claims (e.g., allergy tests, endotype markers) require an independent validation cohort and an accepted reference standard.
• Observational and cohort analyses must address confounding, atopic comorbidity, and missing data; causal language must match the design.

Structure & house style

• AAAAI/Elsevier format with a structured abstract and a concise clinical-implication/capsule summary where required; re-check current article types and limits on the live guide.
• The introduction frames a focused allergy/immunology question and its mechanistic or clinical importance; the discussion states the practice or mechanistic implication plainly.
• Figures must include the controls, replication, and quantification supporting each immunologic claim; CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA flow diagrams are expected where applicable.
• Supplements carry the protocol, full immunologic methods and reagent details, and additional cohorts/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 AAAAI anchors, then cite the current JACI page you checked.
• Search the live site for "Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology guide for authors" and follow the current AAAAI/Elsevier version.
• Re-check article types, word/figure limits, structured-abstract and capsule-summary format, and statistical/immune-assay reporting requirements.
• Confirm trial registration, the reporting checklist (CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA/STARD), data-sharing statement, and protocol/SAP submission.
• Re-check IRB/ethics and consent, animal-use approval where relevant, 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 answers a focused allergy/immunology question with a clear mechanistic or practice implication and human relevance.
• Clinical endpoints are prespecified and patient-centered; biomarker/endotype endpoints are validated.
• Mechanistic claims rest on adequately controlled, replicated immune assays, ideally validated in human samples.
• The correct reporting checklist (CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA/STARD) is completed and attached.
• Immunotherapy/interventional trials are prospectively registered with the number in the manuscript; protocol/SAP provided.
• IRB/consent, ICMJE disclosures, and a data-sharing statement are prepared.

Common desk-reject triggers

• Descriptive case series or cohort slices with no mechanistic or practice advance.
• Mechanistic claims from a single model or cell line with no human validation and weak immune-assay controls.
• Biomarker/diagnostic studies without an independent validation cohort or reference standard.
• Missing trial/immunotherapy registration, protocol, or the required reporting checklist.
• Observational analyses with inadequate confounding/comorbidity handling or overstated causal claims.
• Basic immunology with no allergic-disease anchor, better served by a dedicated immunology venue.

Re-routing decision

• Respiratory-medicine emphasis where asthma/airway outcome dominates over allergy mechanism → the-lancet-respiratory-medicine.
• Rheumatology/autoimmune musculoskeletal focus → arthritis-and-rheumatology.
• Practice-changing, broadly significant trial → general medicine (jama / NEJM / The Lancet in the natural-science bundle).
• Pure basic immunology with no allergic-disease translation → a basic-science immunology venue in the natural-science bundle.
• Dermatology-dominant atopic disease with no immune mechanism → a specialty dermatology venue.

Output format

[Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason)
[Target] The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (AAAAI)
[Allergy/immunology tags] <2–3 closest topics, e.g. asthma biologic, food OIT, type 2 inflammation>
[Study design / reporting guideline] <RCT-CONSORT / cohort-STROBE / review-PRISMA / diagnostic-STARD / mechanistic>
[Method/evidence] <power, endpoint/biomarker validity, human validation, registration>
[Top risk] <the single most likely reason for rejection>
[Official items to re-check] <article type / registration / checklist / ethics / disclosures>
[Re-route suggestion] <if not a fit, a better-matched venue>