Publication Guide
The American Urological Association (AUA) is the definitive US professional society for urology, founded in 1902 and headquartered in Linthicum, Maryland, with more than 23,000 members worldwide. Unlike the large commercial houses, the AUA publishes a deliberately small portfolio: three peer-reviewed journals that together cover the full arc of urologic science and practice. The Journal of Urology, established in 1917, is the society's flagship and one of the most-cited journals in the field; Urology Practice focuses on the business, policy, and quality side of running a urology practice; and JU Open Plus, launched in 2023, is the society's fully open-access research venue.
Since 2023 the AUA journals have been published in partnership with Wolters Kluwer on the Lippincott platform, following an earlier partnership with Elsevier. That matters practically: article pages, licensing, and open-access payment now run through Lippincott systems, so older author instructions that reference Elsevier workflows are out of date.
Which AUA journal fits your paper?
| You're most likely to... | Choose this journal |
|---|---|
| Report clinical or translational urology research with broad impact | The Journal of Urology - the flagship, established 1917; selective, subscription-based with a hybrid OA option; Impact Factor 6.8 (2024 JCR). |
| Study practice management, health policy, quality improvement, or workforce issues in urology | Urology Practice - MEDLINE-indexed and focused on the how of delivering urologic care rather than bench or trial science. |
| Need Gold open access, or have sound work that sits outside the flagship's selectivity bar | JU Open Plus - the AUA's fully open-access journal (launched 2023, CC BY); publishes across the full scope of urology. |
What the AUA publishes
3 peer-reviewed journals, all official publications of the American Urological Association:
- The Journal of Urology - original clinical and basic research, reviews, and guideline-linked content across all of urology: oncology, endourology, stone disease, pediatric urology, reconstruction, and more. Indexed in MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, and Science Citation Index Expanded.
- Urology Practice - peer-reviewed articles on practice management, health policy, quality and safety, coding and reimbursement, and the patient-care delivery side of urology. Indexed in MEDLINE.
- JU Open Plus - a monthly, fully open-access journal (eISSN 2771-554X) launched in 2023 under the Wolters Kluwer partnership, covering urologic diseases and research across the specialty.
The AUA also produces clinical guidelines, AUANews, and educational content, but those are not peer-reviewed research venues.
Open access and APCs
The AUA offers the standard three routes:
- Gold OA - JU Open Plus is fully open access with a CC BY license; every accepted article is immediately free to read.
- Hybrid OA - The Journal of Urology and Urology Practice are subscription journals that offer a paid open-access option on accepted articles through Lippincott's hybrid program.
- Green OA - self-archiving of the accepted manuscript is permitted under the journal's Lippincott copyright terms; check the per-journal embargo before depositing.
| Journal | Model | Cost to author |
|---|---|---|
| The Journal of Urology | Subscription + hybrid OA option | No fee for the subscription route; hybrid OA APC from ~$3,000 - see the current Lippincott price list |
| Urology Practice | Subscription + hybrid OA option | No fee for the subscription route; hybrid OA APC on the Lippincott price list |
| JU Open Plus | Gold OA (CC BY) | APC from ~$3,000; confirm the current fee on the journal's submission page |
APCs on the Lippincott platform are revised periodically, and institutional Read & Publish agreements through Wolters Kluwer may cover the fee for affiliated authors - check with your library before paying out of pocket.
Peer review
AUA journals use single-anonymized peer review: reviewers know the authors' identities, but authors do not learn the reviewers'. The Journal of Urology is selective, reflecting its flagship status; JU Open Plus reviews for soundness across a broader scope. The AUA does not formally publish turnaround statistics, so check the individual journal page or recent-issue submission-to-acceptance dates if speed matters for your timeline.
How to submit
- Pick the journal. Match your manuscript type against the table above - clinical research to The Journal of Urology, practice/policy work to Urology Practice, Gold OA or broader-scope work to JU Open Plus.
- Read the author guidelines. Each journal maintains its own instructions on auajournals.org and the Lippincott journal site.
- Format the manuscript. AUA journals use AMA-style numbered citations. SciSpace templates for AUA journals handle the formatting automatically.
- Submit via Editorial Manager. The AUA journals use the Editorial Manager submission system; the journal's author-instructions page links to the correct portal.
- Choose your OA route at acceptance. Hybrid OA and JU Open Plus APCs are handled through the Lippincott/Wolters Kluwer payment workflow.
Ethics and integrity
The AUA is a COPE member, and its journals follow COPE guidance on authorship, conflicts of interest, corrections, and retractions. Clinical research must document IRB approval and informed consent, and trials should be prospectively registered. Standard disclosure of funding and industry relationships applies across all three titles - urology has significant device and pharma involvement, and the journals scrutinize conflicts accordingly.
