New policy regarding use of unpublished information in the AALAS journals.

Beginning with the May issue of JAALAS and the June issue of Comparative Medicine, the AALAS journals will no longer accept citations of unpublished information or materials (for example, personal communications, unpublished data) in a reference list or parenthetically in the text. Only information that is published or is already accepted for publication (that is, “in press”) will be considered as appropriate supporting documentation for statements made in the journals. Manuscripts that are still in the process of undergoing peer review cannot be cited. Implementation of this policy strengthens the expectation that factual or attributive statements made in a published scientific article should be readily verifiable, as unpublished materials are not. This policy, which is held by many other biomedical science journals, will move the AALAS journals further in the direction of high standards for scholarship.