Journal Scope

Blood, the flagship journal of the American Society of Hematology, published online and in print, provides an international forum for the publication of original articles describing basic laboratory, translational, and clinical investigations in hematology. Acceptance of manuscripts is based on the originality and importance of the observations or investigations, the quality of the work and validity of the evidence, the clarity of presentation, and the relevance to our readership and field. All articles are expected to be concise, well-organized and clearly written. Authors submit a manuscript with the understanding that the manuscript (or its essential substance) has not been published other than as an abstract in any language or format and is not currently submitted elsewhere for print or electronic publication.

Primary research articles will be published under the following scientific categories: Clinical Trials and Observations; Gene Therapy; Hematopoiesis and Stem Cells; Immunobiology and Immunotherapy; Myeloid Neoplasia; Lymphoid Neoplasia; Phagocytes, Granulocytes and Myelopoiesis; Platelets and Thrombopoiesis; Red Cells, Iron and Erythropoiesis; Thrombosis and Hemostasis; Transfusion Medicine; Transplantation; and Vascular Biology. Papers can be listed under more than one category as appropriate. Authors are invited to submit a presubmission inquiry if they are uncertain whether their work falls within the general scope of the journal.

Blood has formulated more precise scopes for immunobiology and immunotherapy, vascular biology, HIV/HTLV, and clinical trial submissions. The journal is very interested in submissions as reflected in the definitions linked below.

• Immunobiology and Immunotherapy scope
• Vascular Biology scope
• HIV/HTLV scope
• Clinical Trials scope

 

Blood welcomes submission of manuscripts reporting on clinical trials whether phase 1, 2, 3 or 4. Reports should include a full description of the study design, patient population, methodology and conduct, and statistical plan.

Immunobiology and Immunotherapy encompass a wide spectrum of research, but Blood can accommodate only papers that have clear and important implications for hematology. Preference is given to papers focusing on human immunobiology, immunotherapy, and immune pharmacology approaches in the human setting and those with significant implications for understanding of normal or malignant hematologic processes. Papers on tumor immunology, tumor vaccines and cancer immunotherapy development may be appropriate if the target cells or antigens are relevant to hematologic malignancies, but generally Blood cannot accommodate tumor immunology papers focusing solely on non-hematologic tumor types.

Papers investigating autoimmunity and utilizing non-hematologic models are not within the scope of Blood.

Vascular biology papers that focus primarily on atherosclerosis are outside the scope of Blood and instead should be considered for alternative journals.

Papers felt to be outside the scope of Blood will be returned to the author without full peer review.

Scope of clinical trial reporting

Phase 1 studies are welcome in Blood provided the results are sufficiently novel, clinically or scientifically significant and of high impact to merit publication in Blood. Criteria that may determine suitability for publication include the following:

• First-in-class molecules with important mechanistic information emerging from the study.
• Safety information that is novel and important for patient care.
• Important dosing, pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic information.
• Unexpected efficacy for the patient population with a novel agent or a novel combination of agents
• Ground-breaking information about the biology of the disease in question, including biomarker development, or about the mechanistic activity of a particular drug.

In all cases, phase 1 studies should have been completed and should have met the objectives based on the planned study design before they can be considered for publication.

Phase 2 studies are acceptable for publication with the following guidelines:

• Results of a completed phase 2 study with proper design and sample size (as delineated in the statistical section) to answer an important clinical or biological question.
• An interim analysis may be considered provided this is a planned interim analysis according to the design of the study and the results merit publication. This may include an unexpected or high level of efficacy, important safety information that may impact the use of the agent(s) in question, or important biologic information learned from the study at the time the report is being proposed.
• Single-arm, uncontrolled studies can be considered provided the results are significant enough on their own (based on efficacy, safety or translational information). When historical cohorts are used for analysis, the statistical and scientific validity and design of such a comparison should be clearly described.

Phase 3 studies are welcome in Blood with the following guidelines:

• The results are presented after completion of the study as planned according to the statistical design of the protocol.
• Studies that are terminated early are acceptable for publication if a proper justification is provided for the early termination. Such justification may include a decision by a Data Safety Monitoring Board or regulatory authority. In these cases, this information should be added to the submission to support publication.
• Interim analyses are generally only acceptable when planned according to the statistical design of the trial and provided there is important new information generated that warrants release of early data. Proper description and justification of such scenarios needs to be included, and the report cannot represent only a subset analysis.

Phase 4 studies may be accepted for publication in Blood if they meet the following criteria:

• They provide important efficacy and/or safety information and are not merely confirmatory but provide important new insight into the disease and/or the treatment.
• They are properly designed and conducted in a prospective manner.
• Studies that provide important new data pertaining to survivorship are welcome.

Follow-up reports of previously published studies can be submitted to Blood when the follow-up report provides additional new information not previously available. This may include the following:

• Significant additional follow-up on a trial of a novel agent or combination of agents where the additional information is valuable to assess issues such as duration of response, survival, safety, etc. For a follow-up report to be acceptable, there has to be either a significant change in the efficacy or safety information, or it has to include clinically relevant prolonged follow-up information regarding response duration or survival as compared to any prior publication.
• Long-term follow-up data that may provide valuable survivorship information (e.g., late complications, long-term survival, etc) or new insights into the disease or the drug(s).