---
name: kidney-international
description: Use when targeting Kidney International or deciding whether a nephrology or hypertension clinical/translational study fits this venue. Encodes the journal's fit with a global ISN perspective, the evidence and mechanistic bar, reporting-guideline and registration requirements, ISN house style, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics. Venue-fit aid only, not clinical advice.
---

# Kidney International (kidney-international)

## Journal positioning

Kidney International is the flagship journal of the International Society of Nephrology
(ISN), publishing high-impact nephrology and hypertension research with an explicitly
**global, international perspective** across clinical and translational science: kidney
disease epidemiology and trials, dialysis and transplantation, and mechanistic kidney
biology with clear human relevance. Its defining expectation is a **clinically or
translationally important advance in kidney health that matters across diverse health
systems and populations**, with strong representation of global-health, epidemiologic,
and outcomes nephrology alongside disease mechanism — not a narrow single-center series
or a basic experiment with no human anchor. Compared with the U.S.-society sibling, KI
leans toward international clinical breadth and translational relevance. 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 Kidney International author instructions.

## When to trigger

- The author names Kidney International for a nephrology, hypertension, or kidney
  translational study and wants a fit/framing check.
- A kidney study must be re-framed around international clinical relevance, outcomes, or
  disease mechanism with human anchoring.
- The author is choosing between Kidney International and the Journal of the American
  Society of Nephrology (ASN flagship), or general medicine.
- The author needs the journal's reporting-guideline, registration, and global-health/
  epidemiology expectations.

## Scope & topic fit

- Clinical nephrology and hypertension: CKD, AKI, glomerular disease, and blood-pressure/
  kidney interactions across diverse populations.
- Kidney-disease epidemiology and global-health nephrology: burden, access, and outcomes
  across health systems and resource settings.
- Dialysis and transplantation: outcomes, modality, access, and organ-preservation
  research with international relevance.
- Translational kidney science: biomarkers, genetics/genomics, and mechanism studies with
  validated human relevance.
- Clinical trials and large multinational cohorts with kidney endpoints.
- Hypertension and cardio-renal research connecting kidney function to systemic outcomes.

## Method & evidence bar

- Clinical studies must be adequately powered with prespecified, patient-centered kidney
  endpoints; trials require prospective registration and the registration number.
- The applicable reporting guideline and checklist are expected: CONSORT for trials,
  STROBE for observational/epidemiologic work, PRISMA for systematic reviews, ARRIVE for
  animal studies.
- Epidemiologic and global-health studies must address representativeness, confounding,
  bias, and generalizability across settings explicitly.
- Translational claims need validated human relevance (tissue, biofluids, or cohorts);
  basic experiments need controls and biological replication.
- Effect estimates need confidence intervals and absolute as well as relative measures;
  causal language must match the design.
- eGFR/biomarker methods, kidney-outcome definitions, and statistical-analysis plans must
  be explicit.

## Structure & house style

- ISN format with a structured abstract and a translational/lay-significance statement;
  re-check current article types (Clinical Investigation, Basic Research, etc.) and limits
  on the live guide.
- The introduction frames the global clinical or biological gap; the discussion states the
  practice implication and bounds generalizability.
- A CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA flow diagram is expected for the relevant clinical design;
  animal work reports ARRIVE-aligned detail.
- Figures show representative data with statistics and N; a supplement carries full methods,
  the protocol/SAP, 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/EQUATOR and ISN anchors,
  then cite the current Kidney International page you checked.
- Search the live site for "Kidney International ISN instructions for authors" and follow
  the current version.
- Re-check article types, abstract and significance-statement format, and word/figure/reference limits.
- Confirm trial registration, the reporting checklist (CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA/ARRIVE),
  data/code-availability, and protocol/SAP submission.
- Re-check IRB/ethics and consent, transplant-donor consent where relevant, animal-care/IACUC
  approval, 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 delivers a clinically/translationally important kidney finding with relevance across settings.
- [ ] Clinical kidney endpoints are prespecified and powered; trials are registered with the number in the manuscript.
- [ ] The correct reporting checklist (CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA/ARRIVE) is completed and attached.
- [ ] Epidemiologic work addresses representativeness, confounding, and generalizability.
- [ ] Translational claims are anchored to validated human relevance; basic work shows controls and replication.
- [ ] IRB/consent, IACUC (if animal), ICMJE disclosures, and a data-availability statement are prepared.

## Common desk-reject triggers

- Single-center descriptive series with limited generalizability and no broader relevance.
- Epidemiologic analyses with inadequate confounding control or overstated causal claims.
- Basic experiments with no human anchor, replication, or ARRIVE-aligned rigor.
- Missing trial registration, protocol, or the required reporting checklist.
- Incremental dialysis/transplant or hypertension outcome reports with limited novelty or scope.

## Re-routing decision

- U.S.-society, mechanism-forward nephrology with deep basic science → `journal-of-the-american-society-of-nephrology`.
- Diabetic kidney disease centered on endocrine/metabolic mechanism → `diabetologia` / `journal-of-clinical-endocrinology-and-metabolism`.
- Critical-care AKI dominated by ICU organ-support → `critical-care-medicine` / `american-journal-of-respiratory-and-critical-care-medicine`.
- Broad practice-changing nephrology trial → general medicine (`jama` / NEJM / The Lancet in the natural-science bundle).
- Pure renal cell biology with no disease/population anchor → a basic-science venue in the natural-science bundle.

## Output format

```text
[Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason)
[Target] Kidney International (ISN)
[Specialty tags] <clinical nephrology / hypertension / epidemiology / transplant + global relevance>
[Study design / reporting guideline] <RCT-CONSORT / cohort-STROBE / review-PRISMA / animal-ARRIVE>
[Method/evidence] <power, generalizability, mechanism/human anchoring, registration>
[Top risk] <the single most likely reason for rejection>
[Official items to re-check] <article type / registration / checklist / consent / ethics / disclosures>
[Re-route suggestion] <if not a fit, a better-matched venue>
```