LAUSR

n the beginning (in 2013), there was a request for Iapplications to create a new American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) basic science journal. My previous editorial experience made this an interesting challenge. Jim Goldenring, Becky Wells, and I created an application that expressed our vision of what the journal could be. We anticipated that the primary audience would be similar to those who read basic and translational science in Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and others. This would require that published reports represent exceptional science and qualify for publication in a journal supported by the AGA brand. We noted a large gap between the top journals in our field and the next tier. Given the external forces that were making it harder to publish outstanding basic and translational research in gastroenterology, hepatology, and pancreatology in top tier journals, we concluded that there was a pressing need for a journal that could fill that gap. In addition to publishing outstanding research, we considered fair, ethical, and open interactions with authors to be requisite core principles for the new journal. To guarantee equitable and uniform treatment of submitted manuscripts, regardless of the assigned editor, we decided that regular review meetings would be essential. We also sought to develop a highly efficient, author service–focused review system with rapid turnaround. To ensure transparency within the review process, we resolved to include complete explanations in all decision letters and to make editors available for further discussion. Several other current publishing practices that we deemed in need of change also were identified, including incomplete Methods sections (to save space), references limited to general reviews (instead of the primary literature), and progressive expansion of supplementary materials (often to satisfy reviewers). We therefore created 3 founding principles for the journal: