Clinical Diabetes Instructions for Authors
Updated on 21 August 2008
How do I submit a paper to the journal?
About the Journal
Editorial Office Contact Info
Manuscript Types
Manuscript Format
Manuscript Style
Requirements
Accepted Manuscripts
HOW DO I SUBMIT A PAPER TO THE JOURNAL?
Please read the complete instructions for authors before submitting your manuscript to Clinical Diabetes. Manuscripts may be submitted via http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com:80/clinical-diabetes.
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
The mission of Clinical Diabetes is to provide primary care providers and all clinicians involved in the care of people with diabetes with information on
advances and state-of-the-art care for people with diabetes. Clinical Diabetes is also a forum for discussing diabetes-related problems in practice, medical-legal issues, case studies, digests of recent
research, and patient education materials.
All submissions to Clinical Diabetes will be reviewed by the editorial team and considered for publication if they contain information that would be helpful to
the journal's readership. All articles, whether invited and submitted, should be written with General Practice, Family Practice
or Internal Practice Physicians in mind as the main audience.
Clinical Diabetes adheres to the recommendations of the Council of Science Editors as they relate to editorial review procedures and policies, publication procedures and policies, and roles, responsibilities, and rights of editors.
Clinical Diabetes subscribes to the requirements stated in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts (URM) Submitted to Biomedical Journals. Please refer to these requirements when submitting your manuscript.
EDITORIAL OFFICE CONTACT INFORMATION
Tom Elasy, MD, MPH, the editor-in-chief of Clinical Diabetes, began his term with the Summer 2006 issue. Manuscripts should be submitted to http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com:80/clinical-diabetes. Please read the following instructions before submitting your manuscript. Once you have submitted your manuscript, the review
process takes between 4 and 6 weeks. Failure to follow the submission instructions may delay the review process.
Tom A. Elasy, MD, MPH
Medical Director, Vanderbilt Eskind Diabetes Clinic
Ann and Roscoe R. Robinson Associate Professor of Clinical Research
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
8210 MCE South Tower
1215 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37232-8148
E-mail:
Jane.dunderman{at}vanderbilt.edu
If you are writing an article that has been invited by a member of the editorial team, the article should be submitted to the inviting editor at one of the following e-mail or mailing addresses. Please note that invited articles are not guaranteed to be accepted for publication. All submissions will undergo the peer-review process.
Associate Editor:
Michael J. Fowler, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism
Department of Medicine
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
8210 MCE South Tower
1215 21st Avenue South
Nashville, TN 37232-8148
Email: michael.fowler{at}Vanderbilt.Edu
Associate Editor:
Martha M. Funnell, MS, RN, CDE
Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Center
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Center for the Study of the
Complications in Diabetes
3D06 300 NIB Box 0489
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0489
Email: mfunnell{at}umich.edu
Associate Editor:
Davida F. Kruger, MSN, APRN-BC, BC-ADM
Henry Ford Medical Center - NCO
Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism
3031 W. Grand Blvd., Suite 800
Detroit, MI 48202-3141
E-mail: dkruger1{at}hfhs.org
Associate Editor:
Michael Pignone, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Medicine
Associate Chief, Division of General Internal Medicine
5039 Old Clinic Building UNC Hospital
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7110
E-mail: pignone{at}med.unc.edu
Associate Editor:
Russell Rothman, MD, MPP
Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine & Pediatrics
Chief, Internal Medicine & Pediatrics Section
Center for Health Services Research
Suite 6000 Medical Center East
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville, TN 37232-8300
E-mail: russell.rothman{at}Vanderbilt.Edu
Associate Editor:
Mark Edward Splaine, M.D., M.S.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
Section of General Internal Medicine
Lebanon, New Hampshire 03756
E-mail: mark.splaine{at}hitchcock.org
MANUSCRIPT TYPES
Clinical Diabetes offers long feature articles, which can present either original research or reviews of the literature on a given topic in
clinical diabetes care. The journal also includes several standing departments, which offer shorter articles focused on well-defined
topic areas. Guidelines for each type of articles are included in separate sections below.
Feature Articles
Feature articles on topics related to diabetes in primary practice are published in each issue of Clinical Diabetes. If the article is an invited feature, members of the editorial team will discuss content with invited authors at the time
the invitation is extended. Each feature article should be 3000-5000 words long, including references. The word count for
articles that contain tables, figures, or other illustrations should be adjusted down by approximately 500 words for every
half-page table, figure, or illustration. (Example: if an author is planning to include two half-page tables, the total word
count on the article text (not counting the tables) should be 2000-4000 to ensure enough room for the tables.)
Feature articles should follow the general guidelines set forth in this document. Authors should include a very brief (2-3 sentence) summary of the article, which will appear on the first page of the printed article in lieu of a traditional abstract. Samples articles are available on the journal website.
Guest Editorials
Guest editorials should be opinion articles of approximately 800 words in length. The articles should follow the general guidelines
set forth in this document. Sample articles are available on the journal website.
"Landmark Studies" Articles
Articles written for the "Landmark Studies" department offer summaries and discussions of landmark research studies related
to diabetes care. Each article should be approximately 1600 words long and should follow the general guidelines set forth
in this document. "Landmark Studies" articles should be structured in the following format:
- Title of your article
- Citation for the research study on which you are writing, including all author names, full title of the research article,
journal of publication, volume, page range, and year of publication
- Reviewed by (your name)
- Summary of the research article, including brief descriptions of the study objective, design, subjects, methods, results,
and conclusion
- Discussion of the significance of this research, including its applicability to clinical diabetes care, especially in the
primary practice setting
- References
Sample articles are available on the journal website.
"Practical Pointers" Articles
"Practical Pointers" articles offer a discussion of the basics of some aspect of diabetes care. These articles should be 2400-4000
words long and should follow the general guidelines set forth in this document. When appropriate, these articles are accompanied
by a patient information page (~300-400 words at approx. 4th-6th -grade reading level), written for patients, which our readers
can photocopy and hand out in their practices. Information pages are written either by the article author, journal staff,
or, if time allows, by a free-lance medical and science writer hired by Clinical Diabetes. Sample articles are available on the journal website.
"Case Studies" Articles
Articles written for the "Case Studies" department present real patient cases from the authors' practices illustrating specific
points in the care of diabetes patients. Each article should be 800-1600 words and should follow the general guidelines set
forth in this document. "Case Studies" articles should be structured in the following format:
- Case study title
- Your name
- Brief case presentation, including symptoms at presentation, significant history, physical exam, and lab results
- Questions raised by this case
- Commentary
- Summary of the "clinical pearls" exemplified by this case
- A brief list of references or suggested readings
Sample articles are available on the journal website.
"Bridges to Excellence" Articles
Articles for this department focus on quality improvement initiatives. Submitted articles should provide brief vignettes describing
a clinic's or institution's efforts to improve diabetes care. Any attempts to improve the health or health care of people
with diabetes, regardless of their outcomes, are welcome. Articles should be 800-1,200 words. Sample articles are available
on the journal website.
Title Page
Every manuscript must have an accompanying title page. The title page should include the title; the first name, middle initial,
last name, and the highest academic degree of each author; affiliation (in English) of each author; and name, current address,
telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address of the corresponding author.
All text and tables should be saved in Word document format. Doing so will allow our Editorial Office to verify the word count and our production staff to turn your paper (if accepted) into an article.
Please do not use headers, footers, or endnotes in your paper.
Acknowledgments
The acknowledgments should go after the main text and before the reference list. Acknowledgments should contain brief statements
of assistance, financial support, and prior publication of the study in abstract form, where applicable.
References
The reference list should go at the end of the document, after the main text and acknowledgments (if applicable) and before
the tables. References should be numbered in the order that they are cited in the text.
Reference numbers in the text should be in normal type and in parentheses [e.g., "In the study by Norton et al. (23)..."]. Please do not use the footnote/endnote functions found in some word processing programs.
See below for examples of how to style each reference in the reference list.
Tables
Tables should be double spaced on separate pages and included at the end of the text document, with the table number and title
indicated. Tables should be created using Word and the "Insert Table" command; please do not use tabs and/or spaces to create
tables, columns, or rows. Tables with internal divisions (Tables 1A and B) should be submitted as individual tables, i.e.,
Tables 1 and 2. Symbols for units should be confined to column headings. Abbreviations should be kept to a minimum and defined
in the table legend. For footnotes, use the following symbols consecutively, left to right, top to bottom of table: *, †,
‡, §, ||, ¶, #, **, ††, etc.
If tables are taken from other sources, the author must be able to provide written permission for reproduction obtained from the original publisher and author.
Figures
Clinical Diabetes uses digital publishing methods throughout the journal production process. If your article is accepted, it will be published
both in the printed journal and online. The following sections provide information on how to format your figures to ensure
the best possible reproduction of your images.
Size. Figures should be produced at the size they are to appear in the printed journal. Please make sure your figures will fit
in one, two, or three columns in width. Multi-paneled figures should be assembled in a layout that leaves the least amount
of blank space.
1 column = 13 picas wide, 2.2 in, 5.6 cm
2 columns = 28 picas wide, 4.6 in, 11.7 cm
3 columns = 41 picas, 6.8 in, 17.3 cm
Font. At 100% size, fonts should be 8-10 points and used consistently throughout all figures.
Text. Information on the axes should be succinct, using abbreviations where possible, and the label on the y-axis should read vertically, not horizontally. Key information should be placed in any available white space within the figure; if space is not available, the information should be placed in the legend. In general, figures with multiple parts should be marked A, B, C, etc., with a description of each panel included in the legend rather than on the figure.
Line and bar graphs. Lines in graphs should be bold enough to be easily read after reduction, as should all symbols used in the figure. Data points
are best marked with the following symbols, again assuring that they will be readily distinguishable after reduction:
In the figure legend, please use words rather than the symbols; e.g., "black circles = group 1; white squares = group 2;
black bars = blood glucose; white bars = C-peptide." Bars should be black or white only, unless more than two datasets are
being presented; additional bars should be drawn with clear bold hatch marks or stripes, not shades of gray.
Line or bar graphs or flow charts with text should be created in black and white, not shades of gray, which are difficult to reproduce in even tones.
Reproductions. If materials (e.g., figures and/or tables) are taken from other sources, the author must be able to provide written permission for reproduction obtained from the original publisher and author. In addition, the source should be cited at the end of the figure legend.
Figure legends. Figure legends should be clearly numbered and included at the very end of your main text document and should not be included on the separate figure/image files. Please use words to describe symbols used in the figure; e.g., "black circles = group 1; white squares = group 2; black bars = blood glucose; white bars = C-peptide."
Formatting digital files for print reproduction. Computer screens, laser printers, and offset presses are significantly different devices. The ability to print your graphics well on a desktop laser printer does not mean the image can be printed successfully, or at all, on an offset press. Use applications capable of creating high-resolution TIFF, EPS, or JPEG files. It is extremely important that the files be saved at the following resolutions.
Halftones include color or grayscale figures containing pictures only, with no text or thin lines, and should be saved at 300 dpi.
Combination halftones include color or grayscale figures in combination with text and/or thin lines and should be saved at 600 dpi.
Line drawings include artwork made of solid black and white, with no tonal (gray) values, and should be saved at 1200 dpi.
Color. Color figures must be created using CMYK color only. Any other format will not be accepted.
Electronic submission of illustrations is encouraged; however, laser-printed, camera-ready artwork may be necessary if submitted
electronic files fail to meet criteria for print publishing. Hard-copy versions of figures for accepted manuscripts should
be computer-generated laser prints on high-quality laser printer paper. Authors may be asked to prepare new figures if those
submitted are not suitable for reproduction. Each figure must have a legend that appears in the text and not on the figure.
MANUSCRIPT STYLE
Terminology and Style
Articles should be written in clear, concise English following the recommendations for scientific writing found in Scientific Style and Format, the Council of Biology Editors (CBE) style manual (6th ed., 1994, Bethesda, MD, Council of Biology Editors). All accepted
manuscripts will be edited according to the CBE style manual and The Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed., 2003, Chicago, IL, The University of Chicago Press) by ADA professional publications staff. The authors are responsible
for all statements made in their articles or editorials, including any editing changes made by staff.
The designations type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes should be used when referring to the two major forms of diabetes. Abbreviations for diabetes, such as T2D for type 2 diabetes, should not be used. The term diabetic should not be used as a noun. Pharmaceutical agents should be listed by generic name.
Abbreviations
Abbreviations should be used only when necessary, e.g., for long chemical names (HEPES), procedures (ELISA), or terms used
throughout the article. Abbreviate units of measure only when used with numbers. Abbreviations may be used in tables and figures.
The CBE style manual contains lists of standard scientific abbreviations.
Units
Clinical laboratory values should be in Système International (SI) form. Kilocalories should be used rather than kilojoules.
Glycated hemoglobin should be expressed as percentage of total and as standard deviation from mean control levels.
References
References should be listed according to the following examples and should be numbered in the order that they are cited in
the text. All authors must be listed and inclusive page numbers provided. Journal titles should be abbreviated as in the National
Library of Medicine's List of Journals Indexed for Medline; for unlisted journals, complete journal titles should be provided.
Material that is in press may be cited, but copies of such material may be requested. Authors are responsible for the accuracy
of the references.
Journal articles:
Banting FG, Best C: The internal secretion of the pancreas. J Lab Clin Med 7:251-266, 1922
Abstracts:
Seaborn J: Gastrointestinal side-effects of high-fiber diets in diabetic rats (Abstract). Gut 33:A4304, 1992
Books:
Allen FM: Studies Concerning Glycosuria and Diabetes. Bradley RF, Krall LP, Eds. Cambridge, MA, Harvard Univ. Press, 1913
Chapters in books:
Stauffacher W, Renold AK: Pathophysiology of diabetes mellitus. In Joslin's Diabetes Mellitus. 11th ed. Marble A, White P, Bradley RF, Krall LP, Eds. Philadelphia, Lea & Febiger, 1971, p. 35-98
Government publications:
Fajans SS (Ed.): Diabetes Mellitus. Washington, DC, U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1976 (DHEW publ. no. NIH 76-854)
Proceedings and symposia:
Steel JM: Prepregnancy counseling and the management of the pregnant woman with diabetes. In Proceedings of the 39th Annual Advanced Postgraduate Course, Orlando, FL, 1992. Alexandria, VA, American Diabetes Association, p. 97-98
Online publications:
Beta cell function in type 2 diabetes: glucose metabolism and insulin secretion in the normal pancreas [article online], 1999.
Available from http://www.amaryl.com/TXT/Clinical_Management/Overview/beta_cell_failure_TXT.html. Accessed 4 May 2000
REQUIREMENTS
Copyright Assignment
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) holds the copyright on all material appearing in Clinical Diabetes. All authors must check the appropriate boxes and sign the manuscript submission form, which transfers copyright to the ADA
in accordance with the Copyright Revision Act of 1976.
As of 25 May 2005, ADA's copyright assignment form has been modified to address permission policies related to reuse and post-prints. Please see the revised policy below for the statement of provenance and other conditions:
Reuse. Authors are permitted to reuse portions of their ADA-copyrighted work, including tables and figures, in their own work, and to reuse portions or all of their ADA-copyrighted work for educational purposes, without submitting a request to ADA, provided that the proper citation and copyright information is given.
Post-prints. Authors are permitted to submit the final, accepted version of their manuscript to their funding body, such as NIH, or institution
for inclusion in their funding body or institution's database, archive, or repository, or to post the final, accepted version
on their personal Web site. These manuscripts may be made freely accessible to the public upon acceptance, provided that the
following conditions are observed:
- Post-prints must include the following statement of provenance and, once the final version has been published in the journal,
a link to the final published version of the paper on the journal's Web site:
"This is an author-created, uncopyedited electronic version of an article accepted for publication in Clinical Diabetes. The American Diabetes Association (ADA), publisher of Clinical Diabetes, is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it by third
parties. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online at http://clinical.diabetesjournals.org."
- The version of the manuscript deposited or posted must be identical to the final accepted version, with the exception of the addition of the above statement and any changes necessary to correct errors. Authors may make changes to the posted version to correct mistakes or may issue an erratum at any time. However, the final published version of the manuscript may not be deposited, posted, or later substituted for the post-print.
Duality of Interest
All authors must read the ADA Policy Statement on Duality of Interest provided to them by the editorial team and check the
appropriate box on the manuscript submission form. Any author who has duality of interest to disclose must attach an additional
statement that explains the nature of the duality or conflict of interest. Relevant duality or conflict of interest (or lack
thereof) should also be disclosed in the authors' comments to the editor during the submission process.
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTS
Accepted manuscripts will be scheduled for publication as soon as possible. Correspondence concerning the copyediting and
production of accepted manuscripts should be e-mailed to Debbie Fentress, Managing Editor, Clinical Diabetes, at debbiekendall{at}verizon.net.
Once an article is submitted, it will be substantively reviewed by the editorial team. A member of the editorial team will
contact you if substantive revisions are necessary. Otherwise, your paper will then be forwarded to Clinical Diabetes staff for copyediting for style, grammar, and clarity. The copyedited article will be faxed to you with any final author
queries for your final revision and/or approval of the manuscript. Typesetting and page design occur after your final approval.
Authors do not review galley proofs.
