Novel Communications in Diabetes: Another Small but Significant Step for Diabetes Care

In my commentary “Diabetes Care: ‘State of the Union’” that appeared in the January 2013 issue of Diabetes Care, I gave a comprehensive listing of the progress made to date for the first year for our current editorial team (1). At that time, and also at the beginning of our term over a year ago, I continued to stress that our goal as an editorial team was to adhere to “a strategy to continue the momentum and make changes only as required to allow the journal to thrive” (1,2). With this commentary, I wanted to inform our readers, authors, and reviewers that we have taken yet another small but significant step toward that goal. In brief, these steps involve the elimination of one manuscript category (Brief Report), the introduction of a new category for author consideration and submission (Novel Communications in Diabetes), and the addition of a former manuscript interest area (Emerging Technologies and Therapeutics).

To understand why we are implementing these changes, one has to look no further than what has happened to the diabetes landscape over the last few years. There is no question that there are tremendous advancements in clinical care, clinical research, and translation of findings. We have and will continue to readily review and publish the top articles in these areas and, in many cases, actively seek and request submission of the truly unique manuscripts to our journal. Clearly, the incredible changes occurring in technology cannot be overstated. It is truly amazing how things have changed in the way we now obtain information from scientific journals in general, and this has been particularly impressive the way we view, interact, and receive information for journals as part of the American Diabetes Association (rev. in 3). However, the changes we propose for Diabetes Care specifically relate to finding a way to publish and disseminate new advances to the field (e.g., technical, therapeutic, or clinical care advances), and to do so at an early stage in development. So, our changes are designed to specifically address and respond to the new developments in the field and to provide a high-level forum for dissemination of these innovative findings.

The biggest change for Diabetes Care that will be noted by our authors is the elimination of the Brief Report and replacement of this manuscript category with a new initiative called “Novel Communications in Diabetes.” On the surface, the actual formatting and structure of the two categories are not that different. However, the purpose, focus, and goal of the new category (Novel Communications in Diabetes) are totally different from the prior focus and intent of the Brief Report. It is important for those who submit to Diabetes Care to recognize the distinction between the two and to appreciate the desired intent for this new initiative. Essentially, our proposed new direction for the journal is one that could be argued to reflect a paradigm shift in the way we, as an editorial team, view contributions as brief communications.

The Brief Report has been a part of Diabetes Care for many years. After years of not being a part of the journal, it was reintroduced in 2003 during the editorship of Dr. Mayer Davidson and continued under the tenure of Dr. Vivian Fonseca (2007–2011). Overall, the Brief Report has served Diabetes Care well as it allowed publication of very concise and important findings, generally as part of an independent study, or a relevant finding as part of a substudy of a major trial. However, thought on changing the Brief Report began over a year ago. It became very clear to me that there were many submissions for consideration as a Brief Report that were based on large-scale randomized trials, epidemiological studies, or large retrospective data searches. Brief Reports were never intended to be short reports on studies that were not powered for larger trials or to simply confirm findings from other studies. I felt that the format for which many manuscripts were submitted was not appropriate as a Brief Report given the approach to the study and the extensive scope of work. Specifically, with such a concise format, it was felt that the details and depth of discussion needed to carefully review or understand the study were not provided. As such, the details needed for methods, results, and discussion of a comprehensive study were outside of what could be accomplished with the limited word count of a Brief Report. In this regard, the concise format of a Brief Report did not work in many cases, and we have asked the authors of those submissions to revise as an Original Article.

On the basis of the reasons provided above, and after many months of discussion among the Associate Editors and the editorial team, we are now ready to usher in this new initiative. So, why this change? The Novel Communications in Diabetes report is designed to provide new and exciting findings in clinical research or clinical care related to a feasibility study, a proof-of-concept experiment, or other demonstration of new idea. With the ongoing improvements in the artificial pancreas, glucose monitoring, and diagnostic testing, it is natural that developments in these areas might qualify for a Novel Communications in Diabetes report. Also, evaluation of a new therapy in “first in man” or other early-phase human studies would be very much in line with the intent. Studies defining a novel molecular target would similarly be of great interest. A Novel Communications in Diabetes report would be appropriate for new ideas that challenge current thinking for clinical management or would test a different behavioral approach. These are just a few examples suggesting the novelty we are seeking as an editorial team for this initiative. We welcome submissions and other ideas from our authors, reviewers, and readers. Given the high priority now needed for consideration in Diabetes Care in general, we feel that an acceptance in Diabetes Care for a Novel Communications in Diabetes report would be considered a real achievement.

The other issue we are addressing in Diabetes Care is that we are adding another category for manuscript classification in each published issue. As authors and readers you are aware that we currently publish Original Articles on human studies in the following areas: 1) Clinical Care/Education/Nutrition/Psychosocial Research, 2) Epidemiology/Health Services Research, 3) Pathophysiology/Complications, and 4) Cardiovascular and Metabolic Risk. We propose to add a fifth category—Emerging Technologies and Therapeutics (formerly Emerging Treatments and Technologies, which was a popular category in the past). It is hoped that this category will attract submissions for Original Articles reporting more extensive findings for technical advances or data from larger-scale trials evaluating new pharmaceutical agents, nutritional advances, or other clinical advances.

With these small but significant steps being taken for Diabetes Care, I am hopeful this will accomplish our intent to continue to take the journal to the next level. We hope to now present a forum for dissemination of the truly novel findings in technology, clinical therapeutics, and clinical care. In essence, we realize in many cases these reports submitted as Novel Communications in Diabetes will be based on “high-risk, high-yield” research efforts. We recognize the findings may not always be positive, but what we hope is that small steps taken with this initiative will ultimately result in “giant steps” for the field by providing the high-level, highly visible forum that is required for the dissemination of the unique idea, proof-of-concept principle, or feasibility of approach to a study. In now implementing this next step for Diabetes Care, I am reminded of my first editor’s commentary that appeared in the January 2012 issue. At that time, I stated, “The saying that ‘the only constant is change’ applies very well to Diabetes Care for the next 5 years” (2). It would appear that even I underestimated the reality and significance of that statement.