---
name: jama-pediatrics
description: Use when targeting JAMA Pediatrics or deciding whether a child- or adolescent-health study fits this venue. Encodes the journal's fit, the pediatric clinical and population-research evidence bar, pediatric design and ethics requirements, reporting-guideline and trial-registration expectations, JAMA Network house style, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics. Venue-fit aid only, not clinical advice.
---

# JAMA Pediatrics (jama-pediatrics)

## Journal positioning

JAMA Pediatrics is a JAMA Network specialty journal for clinical and population
research on the health of infants, children, and adolescents. It favors rigorous,
practice- and policy-relevant work — randomized pediatric trials, large child-health
cohorts and population studies, prevention and developmental research, and health-
services analyses — with JAMA's emphasis on age-appropriate outcomes, adequate power,
and direct relevance to child and adolescent care. Studies that simply extrapolate
adult findings, small descriptive series, and work using adult-derived outcomes
without pediatric validation 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 JAMA
Pediatrics author instructions.

## When to trigger

- The author names JAMA Pediatrics for a child- or adolescent-health clinical,
  developmental, or population study and wants a fit/framing check.
- A pediatric study must be re-framed around an age-appropriate, developmentally valid
  outcome for a child-health readership.
- The author is choosing between JAMA Pediatrics, JAMA, and a pediatric-subspecialty
  journal.
- The author needs the journal's pediatric-specific design, ethics (assent/parental
  consent), reporting-guideline, registration, and desk-reject expectations.

## Scope & topic fit

- Randomized pediatric trials (therapeutic, behavioral, preventive, or vaccine) with
  age-appropriate primary outcomes, including pragmatic designs.
- Large child- and adolescent-health cohorts, birth cohorts, and population/registry
  studies with rigorous confounding control.
- Developmental, neurodevelopmental, growth, nutrition, and early-life-exposure studies
  with validated pediatric measures.
- Adolescent health, mental-health, injury-prevention, and child-maltreatment research
  with appropriate sensitivity and ethics.
- Pediatric health-services, quality, vaccine-policy, and disparities research.
- Systematic reviews and meta-analyses answering a focused child-health question.

## Method & evidence bar

- Trials and studies must use age- and developmentally appropriate, validated outcome
  measures and be adequately powered; adult-derived endpoints need pediatric validation.
- The applicable reporting guideline and checklist are required: CONSORT for trials,
  STROBE for observational studies, PRISMA for systematic reviews; report stratification
  by age/developmental stage where relevant.
- Trials require prospective registration; registration number, protocol, and
  statistical-analysis plan are expected.
- Pediatric ethics must be explicit: IRB approval, parental/guardian permission, child
  assent appropriate to age, and protections for vulnerable populations (neonates,
  adolescents, maltreatment).
- Observational and exposure claims must address confounding, family clustering, and
  missing data; causal language must match the design.
- Long-term developmental outcomes need adequate follow-up and handling of attrition.

## Structure & house style

- JAMA Network format with a structured abstract and a Key Points box; re-check current
  article types (Original Investigation, Brief Report, Research Letter, etc.) and limits
  on the live guide.
- The introduction frames a focused, child-health-relevant question; the discussion
  states the clinical, developmental, or policy implication plainly.
- Tables/figures follow JAMA Network statistical-reporting standards; CONSORT/STROBE
  flow diagrams and age-stratified results are expected where applicable.
- Supplements carry the protocol, SAP, consent/assent documentation summary, and
  additional analyses.

## Official-submission checklist

- Before giving submission-ready advice, read `../../resources/source-basis.md` and
  `../../resources/official-source-map.md`; start from the ICMJE and JAMA Network
  anchors, then cite the current JAMA Pediatrics page you checked.
- Search the live site for "JAMA Pediatrics instructions for authors" and follow the
  current version.
- Re-check article types and word/reference/table limits, structured-abstract and Key
  Points format, and the JAMA Network statistical-reporting requirements.
- Confirm trial registration, the reporting checklist (CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA), the
  data-sharing statement, and protocol/SAP submission.
- Re-check IRB/ethics, parental consent and child assent, vulnerable-population
  protections, ICMJE disclosures, 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 child-/adolescent-health question with age-appropriate, validated outcomes.
- [ ] The primary outcome is prespecified and developmentally valid; the study is adequately powered, stratified by age where relevant.
- [ ] The correct reporting checklist (CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA) is completed and attached.
- [ ] Trials are prospectively registered with the number in the manuscript; protocol/SAP provided.
- [ ] Pediatric ethics are explicit: IRB, parental consent, child assent, and vulnerable-population protections.
- [ ] ICMJE disclosures and a data-sharing statement are prepared; confounding and attrition are addressed.

## Common desk-reject triggers

- Adult findings extrapolated to children, or adult-derived outcomes used without pediatric validation.
- Small descriptive pediatric series with no clear practice, developmental, or policy implication.
- Missing or inadequate assent/parental-consent and vulnerable-population protections.
- Observational analyses with unaddressed confounding/family clustering or overstated causal claims.
- Missing trial registration, protocol, or the required reporting checklist.
- Narrow pediatric-subspecialty interest better served by a subspecialty journal.

## Re-routing decision

- Broadly practice-changing, top-tier pediatric trial → general medicine (`jama` / NEJM / The Lancet in the natural-science bundle).
- Adult internal-medicine relevance over pediatrics → `jama-internal-medicine`.
- Child/adolescent mental-health primary focus → `jama-psychiatry` / `the-lancet-psychiatry`.
- Pediatric neurological/developmental-neurology focus → `jama-neurology` / `brain`.
- Pediatric surgical or perioperative focus → `jama-surgery`.

## Output format

```text
[Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason)
[Target] JAMA Pediatrics
[Specialty tags] <2–3 closest child-/adolescent-health topics>
[Study design / reporting guideline] <RCT-CONSORT / cohort-STROBE / review-PRISMA>
[Method/evidence] <does power, age-appropriate outcome, registration, and pediatric ethics clear the bar?>
[Top risk] <the single most likely reason for rejection>
[Official items to re-check] <article type / registration / checklist / assent-consent / ethics / disclosures>
[Re-route suggestion] <if not a fit, a better-matched venue>
```