'Clinical Diabetology' is a journal for practiciing clinicians aiming to increase knowledge and promote research for better management of people with diabetes. Editors are interested in publishing a wide range of articles such as original clinical research, clinical care, case reports, diabetes care related health policies and practices from across the world. The journal also publishes clinically relevant review articles, letters to the editor, and commentaries. Research papers that are not suitable for Clinical Diabetology are basic science research (animal preclinical research) or opinions that merely reflect personal views.

The Journal is committed to prompt evaluation and publication of submitted articles. All manuscripts together with supplementary files (if applicable) should be submitted online via the journal web page. The submission and review process is fully electronic and submissions by e-mail or postal mail will not be accepted. Please follow the manuscript preparation directions presented. Manuscripts submitted for publication in the Journal are evaluated as to whether they present new insights into the announced topic and are likely to contribute to progress in research or to changes in medical practice. Received manuscripts are initially examined by the Journal editors. Manuscripts with insufficient priority for publication are rejected immediately to allow the authors to recognize deficiencies and submit the paper to another journal or resubmit a revised version. Incomplete submissions or manuscripts not prepared in the required style are sent back to the authors without scientific review.

If manuscript is accepted for review, the authors will be notified in the electronic way only with the reference to the article ID number in the electronic system. Articles are evaluated by at least two outside referees who are contacted before being sent a paper and asked to return comments within time period indicated by Editors. All submitted manuscripts are treated as confidential documents, and reviewers are instructed to treat manuscripts as such. The peer review process is also confidential and identities of reviewers are not released. Referees are asked to provide a written review together with recommendation of acceptance, requirement for revision or rejection of the article.

Authors are notified of decisions by e-mail only. Selected papers are edited to improve accuracy and clarity and for length. Criteria for acceptance of manuscripts or review forms are available at the Journal web page. PMP operates with a  “single blind” peer review policy, meaning that names of reviewers are not disclosed. The list of active reviewers cooperating with the Journal is announced once a year. Reviewers are expected to report to Editor in writing any potential conflict of interests, i.e. direct personal relationships (first- and second-degree kinship, legal ties, relationship by marriage), superior/subordinate professional relations or direct scientific cooperation within the two years preceding the review. Papers submitted to ‘CD’ but not accepted for publication may, in some cases, be eligible for publication in other journals of the Publisher. 

Manuscripts authored by Editors or members of Editorial Board are treated no differently to any other manuscript submitted to Palliative Medicine in Practice. All possible measures are undertaken to avoid any potential conflict of interest in handling of such manuscripts at all the stages including allocation of handling Editor, selection of reviewers, decision making and, if required, processing for publication.

Editors or Editorial Board members may submit their own manuscripts for possible publication in 'Clinical Diabetology' occasionally, but they are completely excluded from peer–review process and publication decisions when they are authors or co–authors of a manuscript. Manuscripts authored by a member of a journal’s editorial team (editors, Editorial Board members) are independently peer–reviewed and the peer review process is managed by the alternative members of the Editorial Board.

Reviewers’ criteria for manuscripts qualification:  (x)Title reflects the subject undertaken (x) Assumptions are proper (x)Work of practical nature  (x) Work of educational nature (x) Aims are clearly defined (x) Appropriate methodology (x) Ethical criteria fulfilled* (x) Research-based work* (x) Results are adequately presented* (x) Statistical analysis is reliable* (x) Discussion refers to results* (x) Conclusions based on study findings* (x) Conclusions refer to aims* (x) Suitably chosen, proper number and up to date references (x) Proper length (x) All figures and tables are required (x) Standard of written English acceptable

* criteria exclusively for research papers

All articles published in 'Clinical Diabetology' are available in open access formula immediately after publication and are published under Creative Common Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) allowing to download articles and share them with others as long as they credit the authors and the publisher, but without permission to change them in any way or use them commercially.

Via Medica (Publisher) self-archiving policy establishes that authors can archive only accepted manuscripts including final PDF version and/or  'ahead of print' in any repository. In details, the author may only post their version provided acknowledgment is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Publisher's website. Apart from the link mentioned, the acknowledgment should be provided with the full bibliographic record. 

Clinical Diabetology (CD Journal) follows editorial recommendations of International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (available at http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/).\

Publisher strongly recommends that Journal editors, authors and readers adhere to the principles of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), particularly in dealing with ethical misconduct. For more information, please visit the COPE website: http://publicationethics.org/.

Authorship

All collaborators who have made significant and substantial contributions to a study are considered coauthors. The nature and level of contribution of all authors of accepted manuscripts must be indicated, i.e. conception, design, execution and interpretation of the data being published, wrote the paper. An author may list more than one contribution, and more than one author may have contributed to the same aspect of the work. Other contributions to the work, such as providing of reagents or analytic tools, should be listed in the Acknowledgements. Ghostwriting and guest-authorship are forbidden. In case of detecting ghost written manuscripts, actions will be taken involving both the submitting authors and the participants involved.

The corresponding author must have obtained permission from all authors for the submission of each version of the paper and for any change in authorship. Submission of a paper that has not been approved by all authors may result in immediate rejection. To secure release from the responsibilities to the third parties, corresponding author is required to return to the Publisher a singed copy of the ‘Authors' Statement (AS) together with the manuscript All authors must agree to the conditions of publication, however the final responsibility for this information lays on the author submitting the manuscript. The AS form is available in Submission Section of Guide for Authors.  

 Conflict of interest

To meet the responsibility to the public to provide clear and unbiased scientific information, all authors must disclose any association that poses a conflict of interest in connection with the manuscript. Authors must indicate any affiliations, funding sources, or financial holdings that might raise questions about possible causes of bias. This information will not be revealed to the reviewers and will not influence the decision concerning the acceptance of the manuscript. After the article is accepted for publication the Editor will discuss with the authors the manner in which the information concerning the financial sources should be provided to the readers. Reviewers and editors are also required to report any conflict of interest in case of recent collaborations with the author (coauthored a paper or worked together on a grant with the author within the past 24 months). Other examples of possible conflicts include a close personal friendship, past or present association as thesis advisor or thesis student, or a family relationship. Additionally, in case of articles presenting drugs or medical equipment, reviewers and editors should disclose to the Editor-in-Chief any financial relations with the corporations manufacturing described drugs and/or equipment.

Permissions

By sending the manuscript with figures and charts authors declare it has been neither published nor submitted for publication elsewhere (excluding the abstracts of 300 words or less). Figures or tables that have been published elsewhere must be identified, and written permission of the original copyright owner must be provided. Such responsibility lies entirely with the authors and the Publisher will not be liable for violation of anyone’s copyright or other rights by the authors. If the data presented in the article enable identification of persons, their written consent to the publication must be enclosed.

Human and animal participants and clinical trials

All research involving ′human and animal participants and clinical trials′ must have the authors institutional review board/local ethical committee approval. Authors are required to include in the Methods section a brief statement identifying the committee approving the experiments. All experiments involving humans must have been conducted according to the principles stated in the Declaration of Helsinki. Authors are obliged to include a declaration confirming that informed consent was obtained from all participants. For animal experimentation reported in the Journal, it is expected that investigators will have observed the Interdisciplinary Principles and Guidelines for the Use of Animals in Research, Testing and Education issued by the New York Academy of Sciences Ad Hoc Committee on Animal Research. Adherence to these principles should be indicated in the text of manuscript.

Preventing Plagiarism

Articles should be free of fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism (more information at ori.hhs.gov/misconduct/definition_misconduct.shtml).

To exclude, even unintentional, plagiarism CD Journal has introduced Ithenticate software, widely known in the academic community. All papers accepted for publication are now automatically screened within the manuscript system. Additionally, Editors may decide to run a similarity report at any other point during the review process or post-publication. Our Editorial team is aware of recognized limitation of this tool and realize that a high similarity score does not necessarily indicate plagiarized text. Thus, every doubtful report will be delt with individually to determine whether there are any grounds for concern.

Legal Relations

Between the Publisher and author(s) are in accordance with Polish law and with international conventions binding to Poland. The legal bases to acquiring the copyright are article 921 section copyright law and related law as well as the international conventions binding to Poland.

Our policy is to keep all articles published as final VOR (Version of Record) unaltered and exact. However, if changes in already published VOR articles are necessary, they will be executed after case-by-case analysis by Journal Editors and respective staff of Via Medica and in accordance with the recommendations of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). They will be implemented as a Correction Notice, Expression of Concern, Retraction, or Removal. These will be explained in a post-publication notice, permanently linked to the original work to guarantee full transparency and permanency. If authors find errors in their published articles and there is consensus about that among all co-authors, the corresponding author should formulate a detailed request for changes and submit it using the Support contact e-mail at the Journal’s website.

Correction Notice (CN)

A separate CN will be published if an error to be corrected can impact the interpretation of the article, but the integrity of the article has been preserved. Such CN will provide details of the error and changes made to the VOR article. It will be linked to the article of interest, which will also be corrected. Additionally, a footnote will be added to the article displaying the electronic link to the correction notice.

Retractions

A Retraction Statement will be published in accordance with COPE guidelines in all instances where a major disclosed error undermines or invalidates the presented conclusions or where research misconduct or publication misconduct has occurred (fabricated data, plagiarism, manipulated images, etc.). Issuing a retraction will always be preceded by an investigation by our editorial team and an appropriate Editor. In case of retraction, a statement on this matter will be made available in the online issue of the Journal and will be linked to the retracted article online. Additionally, a ‘retracted’ watermark will be added to the article. If articles are retracted, they are not usually removed from the website. In most cases, the arguments for the retraction are so severe that such manuscripts should not be cited in any other scientific literature.

Expressions of Concern

In cases where serious concerns have been raised about a published article, however, the results of the investigation are not conclusive or have not been completed for an extensive period, an Expression of Concern may be issued and linked to the article. This can be later followed by a Correction Notice or Retraction Statement, which will constitute a permanent part of the published record together with the original article.

Article Removal

A Removal Notice (replacing an online article) is restricted for very rare cases of serious problems that cannot be addressed by a Correction Notice or Retraction Statement (e.g., a defamatory article or an article infringing other legal rights, violating privacy, etc.).

Addenda

An addendum represents a different type of notification aiming to add information to an article and not contradict it. This may be published if authors request updates to their original publication. Addenda in this Journal will usually be subject to review by the Editors and – if accepted – will be electronically linked to the online article to which they relate.

This policy applies to complaints on policies, procedures and actions of CD’s editorial staff and as a rule is regarded as an opportunity for improvement. Complaints will be dealt with by members of the editorial staff, escalating (if required) to editor-in-chief, whose decision is regarded as final. Complaints should be directly emailed to a person indicated as a support contact at the Journal’s contact panel.  All complaints will be acknowledged within three working days and, if possible, a full response will be made within three weeks. If this is not possible an interim response will be given within this timeframe. Further responses will be provided until the issue is resolved.

If authors are convinced that the article they submitted was rejected wrongly, they should send rebuttal letter via CD’s support contact rather than submitting a revised article at this stage. If the editors agree to such appeal, authors may be asked to submit a revised version of the article in question which will enter again into CD’s review process. The rebuttal letter should be detailed and include responses to comments from external reviewers and from Journal’s editors. Only one appeal per article will be considered. An invitation for resubmission after appealing is by itself not a guarantee of acceptance.

To secure release from the responsibilities to the third parties, corresponding author is required to return to the Publisher a singed copy of the ‘Authors' Statement together with the manuscript. The Authors' statement is available via the submission panel.  All authors must agree to the conditions of publication, however the final responsibility for this information lays on the author submitting the manuscript.

'Clinical Diabetology' (CD) will accept advertising for services and products that are of value to readers in their professions. Distinction between advertising and editorial content should be easy. CD does not allow advertising to influence editorial decisions. Online advertising or sponsorship should not impede users’ access to editorial content. Journal accepts advertising from competitors. Advertisements or sponsorship related to tobacco products will not be accepted.

Advertisements and sponsorship must be legal, trusthworthy and comply with the relevant industry codes, laws and regulations.