Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation Launches New Online Journal

New York, New York – The Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation is launching a new open access journal to engage, inform, and catalyze dialogue on state-of-the-art, comprehensive care for the millions of Americans living with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Crohn’s & Colitis 360 is a peer-reviewed, online-only forum for the publication of novel research and insights across key disciplines in IBD care. As an open access (OA) publication, Crohn’s & Colitis 360 is free and allows unrestricted online access to research outputs with no access fees. Manuscript submissions are now open at www.crohnscolitis360.org, with the first issue slated for May.

Crohn’s & Colitis 360 brings together leading experts from a multitude of research areas and across disciplines. By covering all key disciplines involved in caring for IBD patients, the online journal will promote a cross-sectoral and collaborative approach to addressing vital clinical care and patient quality of life issues. Its broad dissemination of ideas among all scientific disciplines will increase the understanding of IBD, and accelerate progress toward treatments that improve patient lives, and cures.

Crohn's & Colitis 360 distinguishes itself from other traditional journals with features including: 

• Open-access format with publication fees paid by submitting authors
• Rapid-turnaround for initial editorial decision 
• Availability of primary datasets from publications after publication
• Blinded review of manuscripts, with publication of reviewers’ names after publication

These features promote transparency in the dissemination of innovations that advance our understanding of IBD.

Articles published in Crohn’s & Colitis 360 will reflect the diversity of the IBD field and include original research, reviews, best practice summaries, care pathways and practice guidelines, care tools, case reports, and multimedia. The journal’s comprehensive approach will also cover related areas, such as mechanisms of disease pathogenesis, qualitative research, models of care delivery, health economics and policy, and education in IBD. Critically, accepted manuscripts will be required to highlight key findings impacting patients and the broader IBD community.

The journal’s Editor-in-Chief, Miguel Regueiro, MD, is Chairman of the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, and a leading care innovator who has published extensively on the prevention and management of IBD. “To prevent ‘siloed’ care, and evolve our healthcare delivery model, we are bringing together providers across the spectrum of care and innovative technologists to write a new ‘healthcare playbook’ for IBD,” he explains. “Throughout, our absolute priority is the most important stakeholder in the community: the patient, and what he or she wants from their care experience.”

Alan Moss, MD, the journal’s deputy editor, is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and leads a translational research group in the Division of Gastroenterology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He and Dr. Regueiro are joined by 13 associate editors of Crohn’s & Colitis 360, representing leading and innovative voices from varied disciplines, and from throughout the US and internationally, including:

• Belen Beltran, MD, Hospital Universitari i Politècnic La Fe de Valencia
• Brigid Boland, MD, University of California San Diego
• Cynthia Cherfane, MD, Washington University in St. Louis
• Kofi Clarke, MD, Penn State Hershey 
• Wael El-Matary, MD, University of Manitoba
• Tolulope Falaiye, MD, Children's Hospital Colorado
• Karen Hanson, APRN, CNP, Mayo Clinic
• Sang Hyoung Park, MD, Asan Medical Center
• Kelly Issokson, MS, RD, Cedars-Sinai
• Paulo Kotze, MD, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná
• Amy Lightner, MD, Mayo Clinic
• Xochitl Morgan, PhD, University of Otago
• Jessica Salwen, PhD. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

“While recognizing the mission and strengths of our existing journal, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Crohn’s & Colitis 360 will extend the reach of the cutting-edge clinical topics and research findings delivered to clinicians and researchers,” said Caren Heller, MD, MBA, chief scientific officer for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation. “An open access journal, Crohn’s & Colitis 360 will have a multidisciplinary, patient-centric focus to advance holistic research and thinking to managing the needs of IBD patients.”