LAUSR

This issue of HLA proposes a new category of articles named Population Reports. These reports are designed to provide rapid publication of population genetic results for HLA, KIR or related polymorphisms for human populations of any geographic area of the world. Population reports are not formally peer reviewed by external reviewers but require editorial assessments to ensure compliance with Population Reports Guidelines and proper English syntax. The recommended length is 2 printed pages including a main text summarising the study, one small geographic map showing the location of the population under study, a single figure reporting both a brief description of the population and the most relevant genetic results and a short bibliography. The complete results are provided as electronic supplementary information. Population Reports Guidelines are based on the HLAnet recommendations and additional advice from the Population Genetics Working Group of the European Federation for Immunogenetics (EFI) Scientific Committee. A brief description of the population includes precise geographic and linguistic information as well as relevant anthropological/ethnological data characterising the studied population (lifestyle, demography, etc.), with a maximum of 6 references. Special care must be taken to avoid obsolete population classifications such as racial categories, which do not reflect human population diversity. The most relevant genetic results (eg, extreme frequencies, gene diversity at each locus) should be extracted from the full list of allele/ haplotype frequencies and summary statistics that are provided in the supplementary information. To conform to the rapid progress of molecular typing technologies, the journal only accepts data based on DNA typing methods and with a minimum 2 field level of resolution for HLA data according to the official HLA nomenclature. An effort must be made to validate the results from a statistical point of view, for example, only allele frequencies in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and haplotypes in linkage disequilibrium are considered meaningful. The genetic results are briefly commented in the main text with reference to other populations or in relation to peculiar environments (eg, prevalence of specific diseases). In order to provide data accessibility to a majority of scientists, authors may deposit their estimated gene frequencies, once published, to the allelefrequencies.net database. They are also encouraged to send their source data (ie, multilocus genotypes) to the HLA Section Editor for inclusion in hla-net. eu Gene[VA] database. Once a substantial amount of new data is included, a collaborative publication in HLA co-signed by all laboratories providing new data may be proposed.