About the Journal

Aims and Scope

Digestive Diseases publishes original reports and review articles that describe the most recent advances in diagnostic methods and treatment options for diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and the hepatopancreatobiliary system. The journal also covers related topics such as microbiota, nutrition and probiotics, endoscopy, and imaging. Providing information about the latest clinical evidence and their application in patient care, Digestive Diseases is an invaluable source of information for clinicians, specialists, and physicians in training.

Journal Sections

Esophagus
Functional Gastrointestinal Diseases
Stomach and Duodenum
Small and Large Bowel
Liver
Pancreas
Microbiota
Endoscopy and Imaging
Nutrition and Probiotics
Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics

Endoscopy and Imaging

Manuscript should describe a novel endoscopy or imaging technique and be supported by a video (max. 5 Gb) or high quality images that demonstrate the endoscopic procedure.
The manuscript should include the rationale for the procedure and a detailed description of the procedure including the equipment used.
Manuscript length should be maximum 1,500 words excluding a maximum of 15 references. Videos larger than 20 Mb must be sent to the editorial office (editorialoffice_ddi@karger.com) via a large file sharing service.
The videos should contain a title and a legend that describes the different steps of the endoscopic procedure.
If the videos and images have previously been presented at a scientific congress or workshop, the authors should describe in the cover letter the context of the presentation. Brand and congress names or logos should not be present on the video. The authors should strictly disclose their conflicts of interest as well as the financial support that the congress or workshop has received.

Article Types

Research Article

Research Articles report on primary research. They must describe significant and original observations. Consideration for publication is based on the article’s originality, novelty, and scientific soundness, and the appropriateness of its analysis.
Research Articles are reports of original work. Authors are asked to follow the EQUATOR Network for Research Articles.
Prior approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or an Ethics Review Committee is required for all investigations involving human subjects.

A downloadable template is available below.

Documents

Research Article (DOCX, 39 KB)

Research articles should not exceed 4,000 words, excluding up to 6 tables or figures and up to 60 references.

Abstracts have a word limit of 250 and should be structured as follows: Introduction, Methods, Results, and Conclusion.

Basic science articles should provide a strong translational aspect and, ideally, include original human data. The journal does not encourage the submission of manuscripts presenting in vitro or in silico research only.

Review Article

Review Articles are considered reviews of research or summary articles. They are state-of-the-art papers covering a current topic by experts in the field. They should give evidence on and provide answers to a well-defined aspect or question in a particular area. Review Articles must include a critical discussion of the reported data and give a clear conclusion with potential impacts on the standard of care.

A downloadable template is available below.

Documents

Review Article (DOCX, 32 KB)

The maximum length of a Review article should be 3,500 words including abstract and discussion, excluding figure legends and references. 

Abstracts have a word limit of 200 and should be structured as follows: Background, Summary, Key Messages.

Systematic Review

Systematic Reviews are literature reviews focused on a research question that synthesizes all high-quality research evidence relevant to that question. Systematic Reviews should be presented in the Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion format. The subject must be clearly defined. The objective of a Systematic Review should be to arrive at an evidence-based conclusion. The Methods section should give a clear indication of the literature search strategy, data extraction procedure, grading of evidence, and kind of analysis used. We strongly encourage authors to comply with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.

A downloadable template is available below.

Documents

Systematic Review (DOCX, 37 KB)

Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses should not exceed 4,000 words, excluding up to 6 tables or figures and up to 100 references.

Brief Report

Brief Reports are short and/or rapid announcements of research results. They must contain data derived from cutting-edge research and be of potential interest to a large proportion of the readership. They are independent, concise reports representing a significant contribution to the field. Such communications should represent complete, original studies and should be arranged in the same way as full-length manuscripts with subheadings.

A downloadable template is available below.

Documents

Brief Report (DOCX, 36 KB)

Commentary

Commentaries draw attention to a jointly published article, discussing the context or implications of the article and highlighting points of wider relevance to the field. Commentaries are presented from the author’s perspective and do not include original data. Commentaries are invited by the Editors and relate to an article in the same issue.

A downloadable template is available below. 
Documents

Commentary (DOCX, 33 KB)

Commentaries should be no more than 1000 words in length and contain no more than 5 references.

Editorial

Editorials provide a viewpoint on specific articles or on general subjects directly relevant to the journal. Editorials are written by an editor or other member of the journal.

A downloadable template is available below. 

Documents

Editorial (DOCX, 34 KB)

The maximum length of an Editorial should be 500 words.

Letter

Letters may explore subjects related to matters discussed in the journal, providing the author’s perspective on a subject. Letters may discuss a recently published article and may lend support or constructively critique the article in line with the author’s experience. The editors reserve the right to share such letters to the authors of the article concerned prior to publication in order to permit response, ideally in the same issue of the journal. Letters should not include original data.

A downloadable template is available below. 

Documents

Letter (DOCX, 33 KB)

Letters must not exceed 2000 words and have a maximum of 15 references and one figure or table.

Guidelines

Guidelines are statements intended to guide clinical care. They should describe the clinical problem to be addressed, the mechanism by which the statement was generated, a review of the evidence for the statement and the statement on practice itself.

A downloadable template is available below.

Documents

Guidelines (DOCX, 33 KB)

Contact Information

Should you have any problems with your submission, please contact the editorial office:

Editorial Office Digestive Diseases
S. Karger AG
P.O. Box
CH-4009 Basel