Clinical Research & Practice with AC&R Editor-in-Chief Dr. Kelli Allen

Arthritis Care & Research (AC&R), a peer-reviewed journal published monthly, comprises original research, review articles and editorials that “move clinical research and practice forward in a meaningful way,” according to AC&R Editor-in-Chief Kelli D. Allen, PhD. That includes research on evidence-based practice; clinical problems; practice guidelines; educational, social, and public health issues; health economics and healthcare policy; and future trends in rheumatology practice.

That covers a lot of ground, and it should because rheumatology is an expansive and complex area of medical expertise. The journal’s readers comprise a wide range of medical and research professionals, says Dr. Allen, a professor of medicine in the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and research health scientist at Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, North Carolina.

AC&R is an official journal of the ACR and the ARP. “In contrast to Arthritis & Rheumatology and Arthritis Open Rheumatology, which are the other two official journals published by the ACR, our focus at AC&R is only on clinical research and not on basic research,” says Dr. Allen.

“At AC&R, we’re interested in an array of topics related to rheumatic diseases, particularly those topics that have clinical application, and are relevant to our audience, which includes any rheumatology health professional, such as rheumatologists, rheumatology advanced practice providers, physical therapists, occupational therapists and psychologists who have an emphasis in rheumatic diseases,” she says. “In other words, we publish manuscripts that appeal to clinicians broadly, but also to researchers doing work that has clinical application.”

Dr. Allen has now been editor in chief of AC&R since 2021 and will continue in that role through 2026. In the coming years, she looks forward to building on its contributions to the field via several avenues, by:

• Encouraging submissions of high-quality research;
• Highlighting key trends in rheumatology through articles and editorials;
• Using social media to disseminate findings and draw readers to the journal articles; and
• Putting an added emphasis on review articles to help busy healthcare professionals stay up to date on the latest information.

Bring on the Research

“AC&R has been around for a long time and has a reputation as a very well-respected journal in the field of rheumatology, but we certainly don’t take that reputation for granted,” she remarks.

Dr. Allen

“We try to make sure we are giving not only a good product to readers, but also a good experience to our authors. That means publishing rigorously peer-reviewed, high-quality and clinically relevant research. At the same time, we want to provide a good author experience, which means keeping our review times as short as possible, while giving thoughtful and constructive feedback to authors.”