Why FRANK exists.
The scientific record has a systematic gap. FRANK is the correction.
Immunotherapy and cell therapy represent the most consequential frontier in oncology. They also represent one of the most resource-intensive — and failure-prone — areas of clinical research. Billions are spent. Thousands of patients are enrolled. And the majority of what is learned is never published.
Not because the science is bad. Because the journals won't take it.
The conventional publication system is structurally biased toward positive results. Negative findings — null trials, failed biomarkers, manufacturing failures, irAE-terminated programs — are rejected, shelved, or simply never submitted. Researchers know the system won't reward them for publishing failure. So they don't.
The consequence is a scientific record that is systematically incomplete. Meta-analyses built on biased literature. Guidelines that overestimate benefit. Patients enrolled in trials already lost. Researchers repeating failures that were never disclosed.
FRANK was founded to close that gap. We publish what the rest of science refuses to.
What we stand for.
Outcome-blind acceptance
Editorial decisions are made solely on the basis of scientific rigour, methodological soundness, and completeness of reporting. The direction of the result — positive, negative, or null — plays no role in acceptance.
The null result is a result
A well-designed trial that finds no effect is as scientifically valid as one that does. FRANK treats null findings as primary contributions to knowledge, not as failures to be hidden.
Radical transparency
All accepted papers must deposit raw de-identified datasets. Reviewer identities may be disclosed at reviewer discretion. Sponsor involvement must be declared in full.
Patient primacy
Every suppressed negative result is a potential patient harmed. FRANK exists because the conventional publication system has failed patients by hiding evidence that should inform clinical decisions.
Open access, always
All findings are published under CC BY 4.0 with no paywall. Science that prevents harm must be freely accessible to every clinician, researcher, and patient advocate on earth.
The scientists behind FRANK.
FRANK was conceived in a fever dream during a workshop session when four brave scientists in a hive mind were reminded of something a wise sage once said (* just now):
"Reality is the dream of a void that forgot it was empty — for without the shadow of nothing, the light of existence has no mirror to prove it shines."
These four scientists, Luise, Joe, Thomas and Cassian, bonded through the trauma of serial failures (and occasional mediocre successes), founded the Journal of FRANK as a productive form of lifelong therapy, for failure is the guardrail on the path of scientific discovery. Or something like that.
"If you have a negative result that belongs in the record, we want to publish it."