Deutsches Ärzteblatt Devotes More Space to Original Research and CME

Introducing a New Article Type: Research Letter

In this issue, we are launching Research Letter, a new article type dedicated to original research that will be published at irregular intervals. Research letters have long been popular among the scientific community, providing authors with the opportunity to present their study results in concise form, in our case on two pages in Deutsches Ärzteblatt. We hope that our readers will benefit from this new and very focused format.

Submissions of research letters should be no more than 750 words long and should contain no more than two tables or figures. The reference list must also be of limited size, with no more than five references allowed.

Our introduction of Research Letters as a new type of article comes, not least, in response to the growing number of scientific studies that are being submitted to us. In recent years, the Medical-Scientific Editorial Office has had to reject a large number of studies because, even though we attach great importance to original articles, we wish to maintain the nature of Deutsches Ärzteblatt as a journal that also devotes much space to educational overviews.

Review articles—either in the form of an officially designated CME article or as a review of the classic type—will continue to appear in Deutsches Ärzteblatt.

More Continuing Medical Education Opportunities

As the opportunities for live continuing medical education have vastly diminished in the present coronavirus crisis, we have expanded our CME portfolio, starting with the issues of the past two weeks, by making each new CME unit accessible for an entire year.

Additionally, three CME points can now be earned from regular review articles as well, at least for the time being; the questions can be found at www.cme.aerzteblatt.de. The selected reviews are designated cmeplus+.

All articles, be they reviews, CME articles, study reports of the classic type, or research letters, undergo peer review, appear in full text in both German and English, and are listed in the main international databases.

Effective immediately, authors can upload their research letters to our manuscript system (www.editorialmanager.com/daeb). And for all readers who are curious to read the new rubric, the first research letter is now available.

Christopher Baethge

Redaktion Deutsches Ärzteblatt
Dieselstr. 2, 50859 Cologne, Germany