When Is Research Ready to Publish? A Veterinary Cardiologist on Genetics, Negative Results, and Peer Review

A lot of researchers quietly struggle with the same question: when is a study truly ready to publish, and how do you write it so someone actually uses it? From the AVMA Convention 2026, we sit down live with Dr. Joshua Stern, a veterinary cardiologist and geneticist whose work bridges cardiovascular disease, genomics, and clinical impact.

We start with Joshua’s path into cardiology, sparked by working with “super athlete” animals like racehorses and sled dogs, then move into what he learned from publishing early in his career, including a genetic screening project in boxer dogs that came back completely negative. The twist: those results still mattered, and they taught him how to frame significance, define impact, and tell the truth clearly without overselling. We also talk about how to decide when to stop collecting “just one more” datapoint and instead share findings that can help patients, clinicians, and other researchers now.

From there, we get practical about scientific writing and peer review. We unpack how to distill complex datasets into an approachable manuscript, when to move tables and niche analyses into supplementary materials, and why a massive supplement can be a sign you’re trying to write two papers. Joshua also shares his go-to mindset for reviewing and responding to reviews, including the simple habit of reading critiques, walking away, and coming back with a clearer lens. We close with a research challenge he hopes the field tackles next: the optimal timing of medical or surgical intervention in dogs and cats as advanced therapies expand.

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Transcript

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Lisa Fortier 0:35

Welcome

Meet Joshua Stern At AVMA Live

Lisa Fortier 0:36

to Epic Award-winning Veterinary Vertex, the AVMA journal podcaster. We delve into behind-the-scene look with manuscript authors. Today we have Jabman AJVR, author of a manuscript, Joshua Stern joining us, and we're broadcasting live from AVMA Convention 2026. Thank you for joining us, Joshua.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's really nice to be here live at the AVMA conference.

Lisa Fortier 0:59

Fantastic. As I said just a second ago, you've already uh published in Jabman AJVR in 2026. Uh tell us a little bit about your experience in the journals.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Yeah, sure. Great. Um so uh I'm Josh Stern. I'm a veterinary cardiologist and geneticist kind of in my research realm. And uh actually I've been um kind of throughout my career publishing in in Javman and AJVR. It's been a really great place for a lot of our work to land that we're hoping to get out there to the first opinion practitioner straight away. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Fantastic.

Why He Chose Cardiology Research

SPEAKER_02 1:35

And how did you come to focus on cardiovascular disease? I know it's the main center point of your research. Find that so fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Yeah. Um so as an undergraduate student attempting to better my resume to get into vet school, I actually um took a job in uh Dr. Ken Hinchcliffe's lab at Ohio State. Um, he's uh equine internist and exercise physiologist. And I got a lot of exposure and experience working with racehorses and sled dogs and endurance horses. And I became really fascinated with the athleticism of these kind of super athletes and their cardiovascular system. And it led me then to kind of dive deeper into cardiology and volunteer in some different cardiology labs. And so I was a bit of an odd case. I actually went to vet school on day one, knowing I wanted to be a veterinary cardiologist at the end of it. Yeah.

Lisa Fortier 2:28

Wow. Yeah, that's very cool.

What Early Publishing Taught Him

Lisa Fortier 2:30

Yeah. You authored a lot. And if you think back to one of your first couple experiences, what did that teach you? And what would you give that advice to other beginning authors?

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Yeah. So um actually I I looked today, it's almost 20 years ago exactly, um, that I started the submission process for one of my first manuscripts. Um, at least one of the first ones that I was significantly involved in putting it together and submitting it. Right. And that was in AJVR, actually. Um, and I learned a ton through that kind of initial process because it was actually a genetic screening study, um, looking at boxer dogs and whether they had genetic mutations in the same genes that humans had. And it was an entirely negative study. So we didn't find a thing of interest there. But the absence of those findings was important. And I learned a lot through that process about um kind of framing your work for the audience in a way that um portrays its impact and uh is is meaningful to the team. And so through that submission and revision and all of that, um, I actually learned a lot about the author that I am today.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Storytelling.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Yes, yep, that's totally what it is. So cardiovascular research can involve a lot of complex data

When Research Is Ready To Publish

SPEAKER_02 3:52

sets. How do you decide what when something's ready to be written up and what's actually worth publishing?

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Yeah, I I I really try to live by this and tell my team that it's all about the patient and the animal and what we're doing. And so for me, I look around at what we're working on, and when I think that there's something there that can make a difference or that needs to get out there that would either help a pet or help a human or help um another researcher working on the same path, that's when I say it's time to get it out there and publish it, can be really tempting. And I see, you know, a lot of folks advise um young researchers, you know, hold on to that and get one more data piece and go for that bigger impact study and send it out there into the world. And and I actually don't live by that because um, you know, ultimately at the end of the day, what we do is is really to benefit our kind of little sector of veterinary medicine and human cardiology sometimes. And as soon as I think we can do that, I I try to get it out.

Lisa Fortier 4:59

Yeah, it's a lot of time better to have a single take-home message too.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Yes, absolutely. Yeah.

Making Complex Data Clinically Useful

Lisa Fortier 5:04

You do a lot of really specialized research as well. How do you sit down and think about distilling that to a clinical take-home?

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Yeah, it is uh it is all often a challenge, particularly in the big data sets that we work with from a genetic perspective. There's usually a few key pieces that I know will have an impact or kind of propel the field forward. And we try really hard to craft our manuscripts around those key pieces of the story. I'm pretty liberal with taking data tables and raw data and extra figures and moving them right to supplement to try and keep a streamlined, approachable manuscript because I think that kind of science communication piece is something that is really important in veterinarian as a whole and to make clinician science attractive to the next generation. Fair. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

I'm gonna ask a new question here because you brought up supplements and we've been talking a lot about supplementary materials at Java and AJVR. So how do you choose what to put in supplementary material without it becoming like 12, 14 tables and figures that are considered supplementary?

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Yeah. I mean, I I think when when it gets to be that much supplement, it's a second paper. Right. And I think it probably is a second paper for a second audience, to be really honest. Usually when things keep getting kicked over to the supplement, I go back to the drawing board and think, where does this really belong? And so sometimes it's it's appropriate to split that off and you know, put the hardcore genetics and genomics piece in a hardcore genetics and genomics journal. Um but there are times when having access to data will make your manuscript more palatable to a broader audience. Yes. And and so I think about that a lot. Like when we publish in in Java, we're really going for what we think is going to impact practitioners. Um But I know that there are my cardiology research colleagues that are also reading that work and are gonna have that pressing question about did you do tissue Doppler? Uh and sometimes it's worth making that a supplementary figure because it'll save me the questions about it uh by email and get that data out where it needs to go. So it's a delicate balance, but um, but I agree with you. I think when the supplement grows wildly large, it's time to really think about whether that should have been something else.

Lisa Fortier 7:34

Yeah, when I open up a manuscript file and it's like 12 supplements, you're like, all right, what's going on here? Yeah.

Peer Review Without Taking It Personally

Lisa Fortier 7:41

Uh Joshua, you also kindly review for us, and I'm sure many other journals. How uh talk a little bit about how you approach a review, both from when you get it as an author, yeah, and then how do you approach review as a reviewer?

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Yeah, it's a great question. Um, you know, peer review is such an important part of the process. And um, you know, I approach it as a reviewer in the way that I would want my manuscript to be reviewed, with a with a trying to make a clear lens that says, how can I make this better um for the sake of the audience and the science without trying to tear down somebody's work that you know often has taken years. And so um I think critical reviews are really important. Um, but I I think how you deal with them as an author is is often a challenge. Um, my advice uh as an author that gets sometimes critical reviews back is um to read it and put it away. Um because I think when you get those back, if you read it, first blush when you read, you know, reviewer one, reviewer two, sometimes reviewer three comments is gosh, these people are attacking my work. Yes. And if you put it away and come back at it one kind of critique or question at a time in the next day or two, it often has a totally different lens. And I find myself saying more often at that point, gosh, that's a really good point. I probably should have conveyed that over here. And so I try to understand where that person is coming from. I think uh, I think uh critical review is not an indication that the work isn't valid, it's an indication that I didn't tell the story in the right way to get my point across. And so I use it as an opportunity to to make that point um and and go from there. Doesn't mean it's not frustrating.

Lisa Fortier 9:40

Do you think reviewing makes you a better author?

SPEAKER_01 9:42

It makes me absolutely a better author. I I think, you know, one of my kind of biggest pieces of advice is advice to my trainees is say yes to the reviews in areas that you're interested in because you're gonna be reviewing alongside other subject matter experts. You're gonna see their take, and then you're gonna see author rebuttals. And it's a huge part of what's made me the author I am today is is participating in that process as an editor or associate editor, as a reviewer, as an author. All of that is really, really helpful. So absolutely.

Lisa Fortier 10:14

Yeah, we also see, like you said, sometimes there's two or three reviewers. Yeah. Because as an associate editor, you might have a look at it and say, Oh, this one's too brief. Yep. Right. And then you can follow those reviewers who are just too brief and they get better and better because they're reading all the other reviews too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Yeah. It is, I mean, writing a review is interesting. I think you go through phases in your career of being a reviewer where in the beginning, you know, you want to change grammar and syntax and make it your words along with all of your major and minor um critiques. In this stage in my career, you know, I recognize that it's not my work. Uh, and I really try to distill down really important ideas that I think will better the manuscript and that the authors will, after a day or two, appreciate it. Fair. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

So as an author, what do you do though, if you feel like a reviewer has genuinely misunderstood your work?

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Yeah. I I think that happens. And usually when that has happened to me, um, I found that it can be kind of a little bit on both sides. Um, and so I try really hard in that scenario to go to those comments and figure out where I've kind of missed the mark on my take. Yeah. And if there are opportunities to kind of repackage that. I think finding a trusted colleague or mentor, um, depending on what stage you're at, um, that can also read your work and help you frame a response to a comment can be really, really helpful. Um, because sometimes, you know, you can sit there and and bang your head against the desk and say, you know, they just didn't get it. But if I walk down the hallway and my trusted colleague says, I also don't get it, um, I feel a lot better at that. And that happens so often when you're so close to work. Yeah, you know, you've been kind of giving birth to this project for a long time and and you neglect to understand that there are pieces of it that are um very niche focus. And even though they're subject matter experts, they're it's unlikely they're doing exactly the same work as you do. I know.

Lisa Fortier 12:33

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Yeah.

Mentoring Writers And Student Editors

Lisa Fortier 12:35

What uh in your time as an author, when was there a mind shift change? Like was there a time when you went from this is really difficult and I kind of have to do this to like I really love this and I want other people to enjoy this. Or maybe that hasn't happened yet. No, I think I think it has.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

I think I think for me the shift came kind of on the heels of finishing up my PhD, where um I got the opportunity to put together kind of a series of my work in, you know, one thesis. And each of those little pieces we had submitted for publications along the way, and they had their own struggles along the way, like all manuscript submissions do. Um, but once I got to that point where I saw that I could kind of take a research question through an entire journey and that it wasn't just about that one piece of work and that one fight, it was more about this collective experience. I think I did really have a mind shift on on how that goes and how exciting it is to me. And I really love storytelling and writing and answering those questions and being part of research teams. And I do my level best to make sure that my team members kind of find that passion in the writing piece too.

Lisa Fortier 13:57

Do you think you can do it without that body of collective work that, as you said, you do either in a master's or a PhD? Because that also is a time to really learn critical thinking.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

Yeah.

Lisa Fortier 14:10

Versus trying to write on the fly while you're on clinics and during your residency.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Yeah. I I think there's extreme value to having that time period to really focus on research and the, you know, the research process like you get in a master's and PhD. But I look around at a lot of the work of my colleagues and my fellow clinician scientists, and many of them are doing really monumental work in a very kind of focused way and making that same journey. And so I think you can certainly get there. You know, might it take a little longer because you're a lot busier in the clinic in between, for sure. Um, but I I certainly think it's possible. And I'm always impressed by the work that comes out at North Carolina right now. I look around at our clinicians and say, gosh, they published that this month and that this month, and where are they finding that time? It's really impressive. Yeah, NC State's a powerhouse.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

Oh, yes, yes. So because you mentioned inspiring your team members, to be remiss if we didn't talk about one of your team members that we have on our team, also Victor Rivas. Oh, yeah. One of our student associate editors, yes. So, how has working with Victor been clinically? And also, like, can you speak a little bit to his student associate editor experience, even though he's not here with us today?

SPEAKER_01 15:32

Absolutely. Yeah, Victor is uh one of my PhD students. He's in the combined DVM PhD program. He's actually now finished his PhD. And and when the associate editor position came open, um, it was one of the times that we had those chats. And I said, this is really a great opportunity because you learn so much by seeing kind of behind the curtain of handling manuscripts and seeing reviews. I think being an associate editor and being a uh grant reviewer for one of the foundations are two of the kind of things that have solidified my ability to um get my work published and get my grants funded. And so um it was a great opportunity for Victor, for sure. I know he really loves uh being a part of that team and seeing that kind of next level of science come in and getting to help shape what gets out there in the in the world. So really exciting. And I think the uh student associate editor positions are super cool and an amazing idea. I'm actually an associate editor for the Journal about Internal Medicine. And at our board meeting this year, I was like, I don't know why we don't have student associate editors yet. This is crazy. It's such a good thing. So are they going to? Um,

How He Actually Writes A Manuscript

SPEAKER_01 16:45

we're talking about how we can do it right now in mentoring. So we're going through some transitions at at JVIM right now. So I hope hope to see that come by soon. It's so rewarding. Yeah, it's very cool.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

Yeah, it's we received like over 30 applicants this year. Oh, that's pre-positions. It was yeah.

Lisa Fortier 17:01

That's really amazing.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

Yeah, they're all very top caliber. It's going to be uh quite the process to select that one share.

Lisa Fortier 17:06

It's gonna be tough. Yeah, that's amazing. When you sit down to write a manuscript, uh, do you start with methods? Do you go to results then? What's the order that you think of doing it?

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Yeah, I am I'm one of those people that actually took that um advice that you hear people give all the time about write a little bit every day. And so I am that guy. Um, and so when I sit down to look at a project, I actually am starting to write my introduction kind of straight away. Um, usually it's kind of taking what the grant looked like and starting that process. Yeah. And then as we're getting results, I tend to organize my manuscript around figures because I think they're really what tells the best part of the story. Um, and so um my main writing of the kind of bulk of the manuscript is organized around kind of key pieces of the data set.

Lisa Fortier 18:04

I think it's uh I like that you brought up uh taking a lot of the stuff out of the grant because you've already done that work. That's right. And we often say to authors too, like, don't forget the figure that you made in the grant, right? Exactly. Copyrighted to yourself. Yep. F absolutely. I think the other thing we forget sometimes is, you know, as a subject matter expert, you've probably presented on it. And so therefore you probably have an abstract. Like just add three more sentences to each part and you're off and running.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Yeah, it's amazing. You know, writing, if if you sit down to write a manuscript, it's super daunting. But if you sit down to write a paragraph or to take something you've already written and massage it into a new form, it's a lot easier and more surmountable. And so um I I found that to work really well for me. And I try to instill that in my trainees so that they don't hate writing. I I don't ever want somebody to hate writing.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

Yeah. No, for sure.

Big Research Gap: Timing Treatment

SPEAKER_02 18:56

So for budding cardiovascular researchers out there, are there any topics that you think they should be investigating or looking at?

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Oh, yeah. I mean, I there are there are big knowledge gaps out there. I think for me, um, probably the the biggest area that I would love to see somebody working and making impact is on timing of intervention. In veterinary cardiology, in both dogs and cats, we're now to the point where we have lots of options and we can go kind of all out on advanced therapies. But when we pull that trigger is a question that we don't have a very good answer to. And I would love to see some work focused around optimal timing for medical or surgical intervention in veterinary cardiology. I think it would be very cool and super meaningful.

Lisa Fortier 19:42

Well, we look forward to reading those manuscripts in Javman AJVR then.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

For sure. Uh well, Joshua, thank you so much for joining us today. It was a pleasure chatting with you and just sharing your expertise with our listeners. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 19:57

And for our listeners and viewers, I'm Sarah Wright here with Lisa Fordier, again, live from AB May Convention. Thank you for tuning in, and you can catch us again next week.