Other manuscript requirements and guidelines
General Standards:
DHM adheres closely to the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (ICMJE, Dec 2015). Authors are encouraged to read these recommendations and other resources on the ICMJE website: www.icmje.org/recommendations.
Study-Specific Guidelines:
Authors should follow appropriate guidelines for their study type (e.g., CONSORT for randomised trials, PRISMA for reviews, STROBE for observational studies). See: www.equator-network.org.
Trial design and reporting:
Before writing their manuscript, authors should review DHM's guidance on trial design, sample size, statistical methods, and results presentation: Trial Design and Analysis PDF
Ethics and consent:
Human studies must comply with the 1975 Helsinki Declaration (rev. 2013).
Interventional human studies: Include a statement of Ethics Committee/IRB approval (with approval number) at the beginning of the Methods section. A copy of the approval must be uploaded. Also, include a statement confirming written informed consent where applicable.
Observational human studies: Almost always require Ethics Committee/IRB approval, documented as above.
Retrospective human studies such as database mining: Typically require Ethics Committee/IRB approval but DHM recognises that some studies in some jurisdictions may be exempt. However, author attestation to that effect must be confirmed by a suitable authority such as an ethics committee chair.
Animal Studies: Must follow NHMRC guidelines or equivalent in the country of research. Include a statement of Ethics Committee/IRB approval (with approval number) at the beginning of the Methods section. Details on animal welfare must not rely on past publications. For guidance, see: The Physiological Society's advice
Clinical trials: All trials started after 2011 must be registered with a recognized registry (e.g., ANZCTR, EudraCT). Registration details must appear in both the manuscript and the Mandatory Submission Form (MSF).
Case reports and series: For individual case reports, written patient consent for anonymous publication (clinical details/images) must be provided. A statement that the patient provided such consent must appear at the start of the case report section of the manuscript. For case series with only anonymous summary data, ethics committee review is likely required. Check with your local ethics committee if unsure.
Authorship:
Only those who made significant contributions should be listed as authors. See DHM’s Authorship Guidelines. More than six authors must be justified. Additional contributors may be mentioned in Acknowledgements.
Mandatory Submission Form (MSF):
All submissions must include a fully completed MSF, signed by the first author and corresponding author (if different). Authors must be listed in publication order. The MSF requires full contact details for the first and corresponding authors. Download the MSF from: Author Instructions
Conflict of interest:
Conflicts must be summarised in the MSF. If the paper is accepted, detailed disclosures must be submitted using the ICMJE form: ICMJE Disclosure, one per author with a conflict. All financial or other conflicts (e.g., consulting, patents, data access limitations, or publication control) must be declared. DHM may request clarification. Conflicts, or a declaration of none, will be published with the article.
Omitting conflicts before peer review may delay or prevent publication.