Updates to Policies and Procedures Related to Potential Scientific and Academic Misconduct in the Journals of the American Diabetes Association

Abstract

On behalf of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), we are indebted to the departing editorial teams of Diabetes and Diabetes Care , led by Peter C. Butler, MD, and Vivian A. Fonseca, MD, respectively. Over the last five years, both editorial teams have not only taken great efforts to cement the status of Diabetes and Diabetes Care as the premier journals devoted to diabetes research, but they have also diligently worked to ensure that research published in ADA journals adheres to international standards and requirements for biomedical publications. Based on the input of Drs. Butler and Fonseca and their editorial teams, as well as the recommendations of various publications policy advisory groups (most notably the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and the World Association of Medical Editors), the Association's Publications Policy Committee (PPC) has recently completed a comprehensive review of the publication policies and procedures for Diabetes and Diabetes Care . As part of the review process, ADA has made important updates to its policies and procedures related to potential academic and scientific misconduct in manuscripts submitted to its journals. We highly encourage all authors to review both the publication policies (1,2) and the instructions for authors (3,4) for Diabetes and Diabetes Care . The following are three important updates that authors should be aware of before submitting their work to the journals. First, to help protect against the publication of plagiarized and previously published work, Diabetes and Diabetes Care adopted a widely used plagiarism detection system (5) in 2009. The system scans the text of submitted papers and compares it to a comprehensive and growing database of full-text scholarly and …