Author Guidelines

Aims and Scope Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations
Submissions Author Licensing
Manuscript Categories and Requirements Publication Process After Acceptance
Digital Enhancements Post Publication
Preparing Your Submission Editorial Office Contact Details

AIMS AND SCOPE

Authors are reminded that Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism is primarily a journal of pharmacology and therapeutics, focused mainly on human research relevant to patient care. Priority is given to manuscripts that relate to therapeutic interventions.

The scope of the journal includes studies of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics; cost-effectiveness; real world evidence of drug utilisation, safety and effectiveness, as well as conventional randomised controlled trials. High-quality meta-analyses and systematic reviews that provide original information on treatment effects and safety are considered as original research papers. 

DOM also welcomes manuscripts which report clinical data relating to novel devices, Apps, glucose sensors and insulin pumps used to improve glycaemic control.

SUBMISSION

Authors should note that submission of a manuscript implies that the content has not been published previously (except in abstract form, e.g as part of conference proceedings), and is not currently under consideration by any other journal.

Once the submission materials have been prepared in accordance with the guidance for authors, manuscripts should be submitted online at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/dom

Transparent Peer Review

Diabetes Obesity and Metabolism is participating in a scheme to improve Peer Review Transparency.  We encourage all authors to opt in to transparent peer review (TPR) at the time of manuscript submission. 

If authors opt into TPR, and their paper is eventually accepted for publication in DOM, the (anonymised) peer review reports, editorial correspondence and author responses during the revision process will be publically accessible via a link to Publons, once the article is published in the journal.

Allowing readers access to the peer review process and pre-acceptance clarifications and revisions adds value and invariably reflects positively on the authors, sponsors and the journal.  It is pleasing that >90% of authors are currently opting into TPR, but if authors have any concerns they are welcome to raise these with the handling editor.

 Data Protection and Privacy

By submitting a manuscript to, or reviewing for, this publication, your name, email address, institutional affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication, including, when necessary, sharing with the publisher (Wiley) and partners for production and publication. The publication and the publisher recognize the importance of protecting the personal information collected from users in the operation of these services, and have practices in place to ensure that steps are taken to maintain the security, integrity, and privacy of the personal data collected and processed. You can learn more at https://authorservices.wiley.com/statements/data-protection-policy.html.

Refer and Transfer Program 

Wiley believes that no valuable research should go unshared. This journal participates in Wiley’s Refer & Transfer program. If your manuscript is not accepted, you may receive a recommendation to transfer your manuscript to another suitable Wiley journal, either through a referral from the journal’s editor or through our Transfer Desk Assistant. 

Preprint Policy

Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism will consider for review articles previously available as preprints. Authors may also post the submitted version of a manuscript to a preprint server at any time. Authors are requested to update any pre-publication versions with a link to the final published article.

MANUSCRIPT CATEGORIES AND REQUIREMENTS

(i) Original Article
Original Article papers should provide substantial new analyses and be structured as follows:

Title page: Author names, affiliations, and a short running title. The number of co-authors should not exceed 15.  The word counts for the abstract and the main body of the text (excluding references and legends) should be clearly stated, along with the number of references, tables and figures. Please conform to the guidance on manuscript size below

Structured abstract: Subheadings - aims, materials and methods, results, and conclusions (maximum 250 words);

Main manuscript: This should be typed double-spaced and structured as follows: introduction; materials and methods (including appropriate subsections, e.g. statistical methods); results; discussion; acknowledgements; references (normally <60); legends to figures; tables; and figures.  It is helpful to include line numbering throughout the document.

Original manuscripts should not exceed 3,500 words (not including references, tables and figures). Manuscripts should include a maximum of 5 Figures and/or tables.

Additional tables or figures and/or extra methodological detail can be included in a separate Supplementary Appendix. The production and handling Editors may relocate large tables or figures into a Supplementary Appendix prior to the production of page proofs if the manuscript exceeds these specifications at the time of final acceptance.

(ii) Research Letters
These are short, focused communications conveying original results from new research which is more limited in scope and depth than what would be expected for an original paper.  Nevertheless, Research Letters undergo full peer review; they are fully searchable and citeable items with their own unique DOI number.

Research Letters are ideal to communicate a focused piece of research, e.g a post-hoc or secondary analysis of a large clinical trial, a limited meta-analysis, or a specific new result from real world evidence.  Originality and clinical relevance are important.

Research Letters do not have an abstract but they should have a title page (as above). 

The main text should be sub-divided into sections, e.g : Background / context, Methods, Results and Conclusions.

The total manuscript length should not exceed 1,200 words, excluding references.

Research Letters can include a maximum of 12 references (+ any number of references to work published in Diab. Obes. Metab.) and 2 figures OR 2 tables (or one of each).

Additional information (e.g text, tables or figures) can be provided as part of a Supplementary Appendix. 

Research Letters have now replaced Brief Reports.

(iii) Review Articles & Commentaries
Diabetes, Obesity & Metabolism publishes a limited number of narrative reviews.  (Systematic reviews and meta-analyses should be formatted and submitted as original articles).

We consider unsolicited review articles on important topics of therapeutics and pharmacology. Good review articles should provide novel insights, informed discussion and a balanced interpretation of the published literature.

Shorter opinion pieces or those communicating novel hypotheses can be submitted as a Commentary (1,500 words maximum; no abstract; maximum of 20 references).

Review articles should not normally exceed 5000 words and 120 references. They require a non-structured (250 word) Abstract and a Title page (as above).  Good quality Figures & Tables enhance the quality and impact of a narrative review.

The sub-structure of a Review Article is left to the discretion of the author.  Additional data (e.g Tables or text) can be provided as part of the Supplementary Appendix.

The handling Editor may relocate tables or figures into a supplementary Appendix if the manuscript exceeds these specifications and/or 10 printed pages.

(iv) Letters to the Editor

The editors welcome correspondence relating to work that has recently been published in the journal, and/or other brief comments or observations that may be of wider interest. 

Letters to the Editor can include limited amounts of new data, especially if there is direct relevance to, e.g confirmation of, data published in a recent manuscript in Diab. Obes. Metab.

Letters to the Editor are peer reviewed.  They do not have an abstract.  Letters should not exceed 1,200 words.  They can include up to 2 small figures OR tables, and a maximum of 12 references (+ any number of references to work published in Diab. Obes. Metab.).  If Letters raise points of discussion about a recent manuscript published in the journal the editor may invite a response from the authors of the article.

We do not publish case reports.

DIGITAL ENHANCEMENTS

Following the acceptance and online publication of an article in Diab Obes. Metab., authors may wish to submit one or more digital enhancements (DE’s), e.g a video abstract, infographic or plain language summary (PLS), to augment the communication. 

Ideally DE’s will be submitted soon after the acceptance of the original manuscript, e.g within 2-3 weeks, in order that DE’s (if accepted) can be incorporated into the production of the article, however it is still possible to submit DE’s for papers that have already been published in an earlier issue of the journal.  (We prefer DE’s to be submitted after final acceptance of articles). 

DE’s are submitted through the journal’s online editorial platform (ScholarOne) as new submissions but flagged as ‘companion papers’ to the main manuscript (quoting the DOM reference number of the original article).  Oversight, authorship and responsibility for DE’s rests with the authors of the original paper, and DE’s should fairly reflect the key results, interpretation and limitations as described in the accepted article.

DE’s are peer reviewed, often by the handling editor and/or peer reviewers who evaluated the original submission.  There is a fee of USD 1,000 per DE.  Further information about specific types of DE’s is provided below:

Video abstracts:

Video abstracts (often produced after the original manuscript has been accepted) will be peer reviewed.  As with all parts of a manuscript submission, the authors are responsible for the content of the visual abstract to ensure that it fairly summarises the agreed wording in the main manuscript.

The authors have the option to purchase an accompanying video abstract version of their article, following the steps below:

  1. Contact [email protected] for further information on digital enhancement.
  2. Once the video abstract has been created, please upload it (as a new submission) as a hyperlink in Scholar One, selecting the article type ‘Digital Enhancement’. Please do not try to upload the video file itself.  During the submission process there is an opportunity to identify the original DOM manuscript reference number as the ‘accompanying article’, thereby ensuring that the video abstract is linked to the original (accepted) article.
  3. The video abstract will be reviewed by the editorial team but may not be peer reviewed by the original article peer reviewers (this facility is only available for video abstracts submitted by corporate sponsors).
  4. If the video abstract is accepted for publication the author will be notified and it will be published alongside the finished article in the online journal.

Plain Language Summaries

These are generally concise word documents which describe in non-technical language the context, purpose of the research, the main results and the clinical relevance and originality of the study.  PLS’s should not exceed 500 words.  In addition they may include 2 simple Figures or an Infographic.  We suggest the following sub-headings for the text of the PLS:

  • What is the context and purpose of this research study ?
  • What was done ?
  • What were the main results ?
  • What is the originality and relevance of this study ?

PLS’s can be uploaded to ScholarOne after manuscript acceptance.  They are uploaded as new submissions but marked as DE’s and as companion papers to the original submission.  They will then be peer reviewed, and may be subject to revision prior to acceptance.  The authorship of the PLS should be the same authorship as the main paper.

 

PREPARING YOUR SUBMISSION

Authorship

Please refer to the journal’s Authorship policy in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section for details on author listing eligibility.

Acknowledgments

Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section. Financial and material support should also be disclosed.

Conflict of Interest Statement

Authors will be asked to provide a conflict of interest statement during the submission process. For details on what to include in this section, see the ‘Conflict of Interest’ section in the Editorial Policies and Ethical Considerations section below. Submitting authors should ensure they liaise with all co-authors to confirm agreement with the final statement.

References

All references should be numbered consecutively in order of appearance and should be as complete as possible. In text citations should cite references in consecutive order using Arabic superscript numerals.

For more information about this reference style, please see the AMA Manual of Style.

Reference examples follow:

Journal article

  1. King VM, Armstrong DM, Apps R, Trott JR. Numerical aspects of pontine, lateral reticular, and inferior olivary projections to two paravermal cortical zones of the cat cerebellum. J Comp Neurol 1998;390:537-551.

Book

  1. Voet D, Voet JG. Biochemistry. New York: John Wiley & Sons; 1990. 1223 p.

Please note that journal title abbreviations should conform to the practices of Chemical Abstracts.

Internet Document

  1. American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2003. http://www.cancer.org/downloads/STT/CAFF2003PWSecured.pdf. Accessed March 3, 2003.

Tables

Tables should be self-contained and complement, not duplicate, information contained in the text. They should be supplied as editable files, not pasted as images. Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the table, legend, and footnotes must be understandable without reference to the text.

All abbreviations must be defined in the footnotes. Footnote symbols: †, ‡, §, ¶, should be used (in that order) and *, **, *** should be reserved for P-values. Statistical measures such as SD or SEM should be identified in the headings.

Figure Legends

Legends should be concise but comprehensive – the figure and its legend must be understandable without reference to the text. Include definitions of any symbols used and define/explain all abbreviations and units of measurement.

Figures

Although authors are encouraged to send the highest-quality figures possible, for peer-review purposes, a wide variety of formats, sizes, and resolutions are accepted. Click here for the basic figure requirements for figures submitted with manuscripts for initial peer review, as well as the more detailed post-acceptance figure requirements.

Figures submitted as a colour original will appear in colour in the Journal's online edition free of charge. 

Additional Files

Appendices

Appendices will be published after the references. For submission they should be supplied as separate files but referred to in the text.

Supporting Information

Supporting information is information that is not essential to the article, but provides greater depth and background. It is hosted online and appears without editing or typesetting. It may include tables, figures, videos, datasets, etc.

Click here for Wiley’s FAQs on supporting information.

Note: if data, scripts, or other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper are available via a publicly available data repository, authors should include a reference to the location of the material within their paper.

Article Preparation Support

Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence.

Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.       

Fast Track Submission

Diabetes Obesity & Metabolism offers a separate fast-track process for important clinical trial papers, usually RCTs of high importance & clinical impact. Authors considering a Fast-Track submission should firstly E-mail the Front page & the Abstract page to the Editorial office ([email protected]). A journal Editor will advise within 48 hours on whether the full manuscript is suitable for Fast-track consideration.

For manuscripts we agree to evaluate under a Fast-Track pathway, a submission fee of US $2,000 (plus VAT in the UK) is payable. Authors will upload the full submission and select ‘fast-track’ as the manuscript type. The Editorial office will expedite full peer-review and a decision will be made. There is no guarantee of final acceptance for papers that are reviewed as 'Fast-Track'.

If a ‘Fast-Track’ manuscript is accepted, usually after revision and re-evaluation, the paper will be prioritised in production with early proofs. The 'Fast-Track' system expedites production and placement into an issue, assuming the paper has been accepted. We aim to publish the final article as an Early View paper (edited, typeset and as corrected final proofs) within 20 to 28 days, and place it into the next monthly issue about one month later.

Authors planning to submit a Fast Track paper are encouraged to contact the Editorial Office in advance of submission, so that peer-review can be planned in advance. An invoice will be issued by Wiley for the submission fee on submission of the manuscript via our “Fast Track” process – please provide full details to whom this invoice should be sent (including an email address).

 
EDITORIAL POLICIES AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Peer Review and Acceptance

The acceptance criteria for all papers is the quality and originality of the research and its significance to our readership. Papers will only be sent to review if the Editor-in-Chief determines that the paper meets the appropriate quality and relevance requirements. Wiley's policy on confidentiality of the review process is available here.

ORCID

As part of our commitment to supporting authors at every step of the publishing process, this journal requires the submitting author to provide an ORCID iD when submitting a manuscript, and prefers that all co-authors also have ORCID iD.  This takes around 2 minutes to complete. Find more information. Additionally, the corresponding author is encouraged to use an institutional email address wherever possible.

Data Sharing and Data Accessibility

The journal encourages authors to share the data and other artefacts supporting the results in the paper by archiving it in an appropriate public repository. Authors should include a data accessibility statement, including a link to the repository they have used, in order that this statement can be published alongside their paper.

Human Studies and Subjects

For manuscripts reporting medical studies that involve human participants, a statement identifying the ethics committee that approved the study and confirmation that the study conforms to recognized standards is required, for example: Declaration of Helsinki; US Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects; or European Medicines Agency Guidelines for Good Clinical Practice. It should also state clearly in the text that all persons gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study.

Patient anonymity should be preserved. Photographs need to be cropped sufficiently to prevent human subjects being recognized (or an eye bar should be used). Images and information from individual participants will only be published where the authors have obtained the individual's free prior informed consent. Authors do not need to provide a copy of the consent form to the publisher; however, in signing the author license to publish, authors are required to confirm that consent has been obtained. Wiley has a standard patient consent form available for use.

Clinical Trial Registration

The journal requires that clinical trials are prospectively registered in a publicly accessible database and clinical trial registration numbers should be included in all papers that report their results. Authors are asked to include the name of the trial register and the clinical trial registration number at the end of the abstract. If the trial is not registered, or was registered retrospectively, the reasons for this should be explained.

Research Reporting Guidelines

Accurate and complete reporting enables readers to fully appraise research, replicate it, and use it. Authors are expected to adhere to recognised research reporting standards. The EQUATOR Network collects more than 370 reporting guidelines for many study types, including for:

We also encourage authors to refer to and follow guidelines from:

Species Names

Upon its first use in the title, abstract, and text, the common name of a species should be followed by the scientific name (genus, species, and authority) in parentheses. For well-known species, however, scientific names may be omitted from article titles. If no common name exists in English, only the scientific name should be used.

Genetic Nomenclature

Sequence variants should be described in the text and tables using both DNA and protein designations whenever appropriate. Sequence variant nomenclature must follow the current HGVS guidelines; see http://varnomen.hgvs.org/, where examples of acceptable nomenclature are provided.

Sequence Data

Nucleotide sequence data can be submitted in electronic form to any of the three major collaborative databases: DDBJ, EMBL, or GenBank. It is only necessary to submit to one database as data are exchanged between DDBJ, EMBL, and GenBank on a daily basis. The suggested wording for referring to accession-number information is: ‘These sequence data have been submitted to the DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank databases under accession number U12345’. Addresses are as follows:

Proteins sequence data should be submitted to either of the following repositories:

Conflict of Interest

The journal requires that all authors disclose any potential sources of conflict of interest. Any interest or relationship, financial or otherwise that might be perceived as influencing an author's objectivity is considered a potential source of conflict of interest. These must be disclosed when directly relevant or directly related to the work that the authors describe in their manuscript. Potential sources of conflict of interest include, but are not limited to: patent or stock ownership, membership of a company board of directors, membership of an advisory board or committee for a company, and consultancy for or receipt of speaker's fees from a company. The existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude publication. If the authors have no conflict of interest to declare, they must also state this at submission. It is the responsibility of the corresponding author to review this policy with all authors and collectively to disclose with the submission ALL pertinent commercial and other relationships.

Funding

Authors should list all funding sources in the Acknowledgments section. Authors are responsible for the accuracy of their funder designation. If in doubt, please check the Open Funder Registry for the correct nomenclature: https://www.crossref.org/services/funder-registry/

Authorship

The list of authors should accurately illustrate who contributed to the work and how. All those listed as authors should qualify for authorship according to the following criteria:

  1. Have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data;
  2. Been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content;
  3. Given final approval of the version to be published. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content; and
  4. Agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Contributions from anyone who does not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed, with permission from the contributor, in an Acknowledgments section (for example, to recognize contributions from people who provided technical help, collation of data, writing assistance, acquisition of funding, or a department chairperson who provided general support). Prior to submitting the article all authors should agree on the order in which their names will be listed in the manuscript.

Additional Authorship Options

Joint first or senior authorship: In the case of joint first authorship, a footnote should be added to the author listing, e.g. ‘X and Y should be considered joint first author’ or ‘X and Y should be considered joint senior author.’

Correction to authorship 

In accordance with Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics and the Committee on Publication Ethics’ guidance, Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism will allow authors to correct authorship on a submitted, accepted, or published article if a valid reason exists to do so. All authors – including those to be added or removed – must agree to any proposed change. To request a change to the author list, please complete the Request for Changes to a Journal Article Author List Form and contact either the journal’s editorial or production office, depending on the status of the article. Authorship changes will not be considered without a fully completed Author Change form. Correcting the authorship is different from changing an author’s name; the relevant policy for that can be found in Wiley’s Best Practice Guidelines under “Author name changes after publication.”

Publication Ethics

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Note this journal uses iThenticate’s CrossCheck software to detect instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. Read Wiley’s Top 10 Publishing Ethics Tips for Authors here. Wiley’s Publication Ethics Guidelines can be found here.

Transparent Peer Review

Diabetes Obesity and Metabolism is participating in a pilot on Peer Review Transparency, where the reviewer reports, author responses, and the editor’s decision letters will be hosted on Publons and linked to from the published article in the case that the article is accepted. Authors have the opportunity to opt out during submission, and reviewers can choose to remain anonymous unless they would like to sign their report.

Artificial Intelligence Generated Content

Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) tools — such as ChatGPT and others based on large language models (LLMs) — cannot be considered capable of initiating an original piece of research without direction by human authors. They also cannot be accountable for a published work or for a research design, which is a generally held requirement of authorship, nor do they have legal standing or the ability to hold or assign copyright. Therefore — in accordance the COPE's position statement on AI tools — these tools cannot fulfil the role of, not be listed as, an author of an article. If an author has used this kind of tool to develop any portion of a manuscript, its use must be described, transparently and in detail, in the Methods or Acknowledgments section. The author is fully responsible for the accuracy of any information provided by the tool and for correctly referencing any supporting work on which that information depends. Tools that are used to improve spelling, grammar and general editing are not included in the scope of these guidelines. The final decision about whether use of an AIGC tool is appropriate or permissible in the circumstances of a submitted manuscript or a published article lies with the journal's editor or other party responsible for the publication's editorial policy.

AUTHOR LICENSING

If a paper is accepted for publication, the author identified as the formal corresponding author will receive an email prompting them to log in to Author Services, where via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS) they will be required to complete a copyright license agreement on behalf of all authors of the paper.

You may choose to publish under the terms of the journal’s standard copyright agreement, or Open Access under the terms of a Creative Commons License.

Standard re-use and licensing rights vary by journal. Note that certain funders mandate a particular type of CC license be used. The default for this journal is CC-BY-NC-ND, but this journal also uses the CC-BY/CC-BY-NC/CC-BY-NC-ND Creative Commons License.

Self-Archiving Definitions and Policies: Note that the journal’s standard copyright agreement allows for self-archiving of different versions of the article under specific conditions.

Open Access fees: If you choose to publish using open access you will be charged a fee. A list of Article Publication Charges for Wiley journals is available here.

Funder Open Access: Please click here for more information on Wiley’s compliance with specific Funder Open Access Policies.

PUBLICATION PROCESS AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Proofs

Once the paper is typeset, the author will receive an email notification with full instructions on how to provide proof corrections.

Please note that the author is responsible for all statements made in their work, including changes made during the editorial process – authors should check proofs carefully. Note that proofs should be returned within 48 hours from receipt of first proof.

POST PUBLICATION

Access and Sharing

When the article is published online:

  • The author receives an email alert (if requested).
    • The link to the published article can be shared through social media.
    • The author will have free access to the paper (after accepting the Terms & Conditions of use, they can view the article).
    • The corresponding author and co-authors can nominate up to ten colleagues to receive a publication alert and free online access to the article.

Print copies of an article can now be ordered (instructions are sent at proofing stage) by emailing [email protected])

Article Promotion Support

Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories to help support your research.

If you would like to produce a video abstract and are being supported by a pharmaceutical or medical device company, you might want to explore the options offered by Wiley's Corporate Solutions team. As well as peer review, the Corporate Solutions team will also organise for a sponsor logo and/or disclaimer to accompany your video abstract.

Measuring the Impact of an Article

Wiley also helps you measure the impact of your research through our specialist partnerships with Kudos and Altmetric.

EDITORIAL OFFICE CONTACT DETAILS

Editorial Office: [email protected]

Author Guidelines updated 18 July 2023