Data Collection from ADA Authors and Reviewers

The journals of the American Diabetes Association (ADA)—Diabetes, Diabetes Care, Clinical Diabetes, and Diabetes Spectrum—ask authors and reviewers to provide personal information to facilitate the review of submitted manuscripts. This information includes name, contact information, including one’s professional position and affiliation, and potential financial conflict of interest disclosures. This information, as well as the manuscript files and various metadata associated with each manuscript, is stored in the ScholarOne Manuscripts database.

ADA considers your submission and the information contained in your manuscript and cover letter to be confidential information and will treat it as such. We do send manuscript submissions, including all author names, to external peer reviewers, but we request that they keep the information confidential. You may request withdrawal of your manuscript at any time by emailing EditorialOffice@diabetes.org.

ADA asks authors and reviewers to voluntarily report information related to race, ethnicity, sex, and gender when they create or update their accounts in the ScholarOne Manuscripts database. This request is part of ADA’s efforts to monitor representation gaps among our journals’ authors, reviewers, and editors, with the aim of promoting a diverse community of scholars and professionals dedicated to diabetes treatment, research, and education. Users’ demographic data are kept confidential and can only be accessed by ADA staff administrators of the ScholarOne Manuscripts database. These data are only shared in the aggregate, with no specific information linked to a specific user, and solely for the purpose of accurately measuring how authors, reviewers, and editors are represented in ADA journals. These data are not linked to submitted manuscripts and have no influence whatsoever on the peer-review processes associated with ADA journals.

How We Use the Data

For peer review and publication:

We use the data to perform internal editorial review and external peer review of your manuscript. If we publish your manuscript, your name, institutional affiliation, and much of the material you submit with the manuscript will be made public. This includes disclosure forms, data sharing statements, and the research protocol and statistical analysis plans for clinical trials.

We may contact you and your individual coauthors with questions about your submitted manuscript.

For transferring manuscripts:

If your manuscript is rejected for publication by Diabetes, Diabetes Care, Clinical Diabetes, or Diabetes Spectrum and you elect to have ADA transfer your manuscript to another journal, we will transfer your submitted manuscript and related files (including external peer reviewer comments for authors), your and your coauthors’ names and contact information, and a copy of the rejection letter you received from ADA journal editors. You may ask us to change the election of transfer at any time while your manuscript is being reviewed by ADA journal editors by emailing EditorialOffice@diabetes.org. If you have elected transfer to another journal, the material will be automatically transferred once a decision is made by the ADA journal editors to reject the manuscript. If you wish to withdraw your manuscript at that time, you will need to contact the destination journal. Neither the American Diabetes Association nor its journal editorial teams are liable in any way for any material transferred to another journal.

For reviewers:

We will provide the words in the “Comments for Authors” box to the author upon making a decision on the manuscript. If the author asks us to transfer the manuscript to another journal if rejected by the journal, we will transfer only the “Comments for Authors.” Your name and confidential comments to the editors will remain in the ScholarOne Manuscripts database for the journal and will not be shared with anyone.

For announcements:

We will periodically share email addresses included in our author and reviewer database with our marketing department to issue calls for papers, requests for editorial applications, updates related to the journals’ editorial teams, and notifications related to newly published content. The information is not shared to promote any products, subscriptions, or revenue-generating initiatives. If you wish to opt out of these emails, you should click the unsubscribe link provided in the communication or contact our customer service department at membership@diabetes.org.

For monitoring demographic representation:

As mentioned above, ADA asks authors and reviewers to voluntarily report information related to race, ethnicity, sex, and gender when they create or update their accounts in the ScholarOne Manuscripts database. This request is part of ADA’s efforts to monitor representation gaps among our journals’ authors, reviewers, and editors, with the aim of promoting a diverse community of scholars and professionals dedicated to diabetes treatment, research, and education. Users’ demographic data are kept confidential and can only be accessed by ADA staff administrators of the ScholarOne Manuscripts database. These data are only shared in the aggregate, with no specific information linked to a specific user, and solely for the purpose of accurately measuring how authors, reviewers, and editors are represented in ADA journals. The provision of this information is optional, and users may update this information at any time. Please contact EditorialOffice@diabetes.org if you have any questions.

Removing Account Information

Please note that you may delete your account at any time by logging into your account on the ScholarOne Manuscripts database and choosing the “delete my account” link on the User ID/Password page.

For additional information on how the American Diabetes Association uses personal information, please review the ADA’s Privacy Policy.

Reviewed August 2022