Submitting to DHM - Types of articles and formatting

Articles types

DHM publishes several categories of articles, each with specific length and formatting requirements.

Original articles, technical reports, consensus reports and large case series should generally not exceed 3,000 words, with a maximum of 30 references. Longer submissions may be considered at the discretion of the Editor. These articles must include a structured abstract of up to 250 words (divided into Introduction, Methods, Results, and Conclusions), followed by the main text organised as Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, References, Acknowledgements, Conflicts of Interest and funding. Captions for tables and figures should be placed at the end of the manuscript.

Review articles should normally not exceed 5,000 words, with a maximum of 50 references. Abstracts must not exceed 300 words. The structure of both the article and the abstract is at the discretion of the author. DHM rarely accepts purely narrative reviews that do not describe a systematic search and filtering strategy with article selection summarised in a PRISMA diagram.

Short communications, small case series, and case reports are limited to 1,500 words and 20 references. Abstracts are usually unstructured, and contain no more than 200 words. There are no rigid criteria defining subject matter for case reports, but manuscripts describing unique, rare or highly interesting observations or cases are most likely to be accepted. Reports describing common clinical scenarios (such as the treatment of an established indication with hyperbaric oxygen) or cases with features that have often been reported previously are very unlikely to be progressed.

Letters to the Editor must not exceed 600 words and may contain a single table or figure, with up to five references.

The journal occasionally publishes “World as it is” articles, which report on matters of general interest to divers, especially where methodology is of insufficient rigour for an original study. These follow the length and reference limits of an original article but may be more flexible in structure. Abstracts are encouraged but not mandatory.

Supplements may be published occasionally for longer works or thematic collections. Proposals for supplements should be discussed with the Editor in advance.