Diabetes Care Formatting Requirements: Complete Author Guide

Diabetes Care's structured abstract headings are unique and mandatory. They don't follow the standard Background/Methods/Results/Conclusions format.

The ADA headings are specific:

• OBJECTIVE (not "Purpose," "Aim," or "Background")

• RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS (not just "Methods")

• RESULTS

• CONCLUSIONS (not "Conclusion" singular)

Using the wrong headings will result in an administrative return. This is one of the most common formatting errors at Diabetes Care. The headings reflect the journal's emphasis on study design transparency. "Research Design and Methods" forces you to name your study design (randomized controlled trial, prospective cohort, etc.) explicitly.

The 250-word limit with these specific sections means you need to be disciplined. OBJECTIVE should be 1-2 sentences. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS should name the design, setting, sample size, and primary outcome in 2-3 sentences. RESULTS should include the primary endpoint with effect size and confidence interval. CONCLUSIONS should be 1-2 sentences with no speculation beyond the data.

Diabetes Care enforces a combined limit of 4 figures and 3 tables for Original Articles.

Figure requirements:

Table requirements:

• Word table format (not images)

• Every column needs a header

• Horizontal rules only

• No vertical lines

• Standard ADA abbreviations for diabetes-specific terms

• HbA1c values reported as both % and mmol/mol (dual reporting)

• Glucose values in mg/dL with mmol/L in parentheses (or vice versa, depending on primary audience)

Diabetes-specific figure standards:

• HbA1c trajectories should show mean with standard deviation or confidence intervals

• Time-in-range plots for CGM data should follow international consensus standards

• CONSORT flowcharts required for all randomized trials

• Forest plots should follow standard formatting conventions

The dual-reporting requirement for HbA1c and glucose values is critical and specific to ADA journals. You must report HbA1c in both % and mmol/mol. Glucose should be in mg/dL with mmol/L conversion (or the reverse if your primary audience is outside the United States). This applies to figures, tables, and text. Missing the dual reporting will trigger a revision request.

Diabetes Care uses the ADA reference style, which is a numbered Vancouver-based system.

In-text citations: Superscript numbers after punctuation. Multiple references: (1-3) or (1,3,5). Note: Diabetes Care uses parenthetical numbers, not superscript, for some contexts. Check recent published articles for the current style.

Reference list format, worked example:

text
Correct ADA/Vancouver format:
Smith AB, Jones CD, Brown EF. Effect of empagliflozin on cardiovascular outcomes in type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care 2025;48:1234-1242

Wrong APA-style export:
Smith, A. B., Jones, C. D., & Brown, E. F. (2025). Effect of empagliflozin on cardiovascular outcomes in type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care, 48, 1234-1242.

The difference is what trips auto-exported bibliographies: ADA uses author names without internal periods, puts the year directly after the journal abbreviation, and does not use a terminal period at the end of the reference.

Key formatting rules:

• List up to 6 authors; for 7 or more, list the first 3 followed by "et al."
• Abbreviate journal titles using NLM standards.
• Do not add a period after the journal abbreviation.
• Put the year immediately after the journal abbreviation.
• Use volume, colon, and page range, usually without an issue number.
• Do not add a period at the end of the reference.
• Include DOIs when available.

The ADA style has subtle differences from standard Vancouver. If you use a reference manager, search for the dedicated "Diabetes Care" output style rather than a generic Vancouver or APA export.

Diabetes Care hosts supplementary material online through the ADA website.

Common supplementary content:

• Extended methods and statistical analysis plans
• Additional tables with subgroup analyses
• Sensitivity analyses and per-protocol results
• CGM data summaries and ambulatory glucose profiles
• Questionnaires and survey instruments
• Extended demographic and baseline characteristic tables

Formatting:

• Submit supplementary material as separate files through the submission system.
• Label files and callouts as Supplementary Fig. 1, Supplementary Table 1, and so on.
• Include a Supplementary Data section in the manuscript.
• Expect supplementary material to undergo peer review.

For clinical trials, Diabetes Care encourages submission of the full statistical analysis plan as supplementary material. This is increasingly standard in the field and can preempt reviewer questions about post-hoc analyses.

Word is the standard for Diabetes Care. LaTeX submissions are technically possible but uncommon.

Word submissions:

• Times New Roman or Arial, 12-point
• Double-spaced throughout
• Continuous line numbering
• Page numbers on every page
• Figures placed at the end of the manuscript, with tables on separate pages after figures

LaTeX submissions:

• No ADA-specific LaTeX template
• Use a standard article class
• Submit compiled PDF and source files
• Expect conversion to Word during production

There is little benefit to using LaTeX for Diabetes Care. The journal's content is clinical and rarely requires complex equations or mathematical notation.

Diabetes Care has several requirements that set it apart from other diabetes and endocrinology journals.

1. ADA Standards of Care alignment. If your paper relates to a clinical practice topic, reference the relevant section of the ADA Standards of Care in Diabetes. This shows awareness of current practice standards and helps editors assess clinical relevance.

2. Dual reporting of glucose and HbA1c. All glucose and HbA1c values must be reported in both conventional and SI units. This applies to text, tables, and figures.

3. Person-first language. Use "people with diabetes" rather than "diabetics" and "person with obesity" rather than "obese person." This applies throughout the manuscript, including tables and figures.

4. Nomenclature for diabetes types. Use "type 1 diabetes" and "type 2 diabetes" in the title and abstract. Abbreviations such as T1D or T2D are acceptable in the body text after first use.

5. ADA conflict of interest policy. All authors must complete the ADA COI form. Relationships with pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers, and food industry sponsors receive close scrutiny.

6. Clinical trial data sharing. For clinical trials, the data sharing statement must describe what data will be available, to whom, and through what mechanism.

Diabetes Care enforces reporting-standard compliance.

The CGM consensus reporting standards are particularly relevant for Diabetes Care. If you report continuous glucose monitoring data, include time-in-range, time-below-range, coefficient of variation, and other standardized metrics defined by the international consensus.

For manuscripts targeting Diabetes Care, four patterns generate the most consistent desk-rejection outcomes.

Abstract exceeds the 250-word limit or uses wrong structured headings. Diabetes Care requires structured abstracts with specific ADA headings: Objective, Research Design and Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Papers using generic clinical headings or exceeding the word limit are returned before peer review.

Glycemic data not reported using ADA-standard metrics. Diabetes Care reviewers apply the ADA's own glycemic standards: HbA1c for long-term studies, time-in-range for CGM data, and fasting plasma glucose with OGTT in standardized protocols.

CONSORT or STROBE checklist absent for the study design. ADA journals require CONSORT for randomized trials and STROBE for observational studies. Missing checklists can cause administrative return through ScholarOne.

Clinical scope is mechanism only, without patient or population data. Basic mechanistic studies without a patient cohort, clinical correlation, or direct therapeutic relevance to human diabetes are desk-rejected for scope.

In our pre-submission review work, the fix is rarely cosmetic. We check whether the abstract, methods, and results carry a patient-level outcome or a glycemic endpoint reported in dual units, because a mechanistic finding framed for clinical relevance without that human data is a fast route to scope rejection.

A Diabetes Care submission readiness check evaluates manuscript scope, ADA abstract format, and glycemic reporting standards against these desk-rejection patterns before you submit.