All papers, including those invited by the editor, are subject to peer review. Diabetes & Metabolism Journal (dmj) has adopted a double-blind peer review policy, where the author identities remain anonymous to the reviewers, and vice versa and the identities of the reviewers and authors are visible to (decision-making) editor throughout the peer review process. The Editorial Board selects reviewers based on expertise, publication history, and past reviews. During the peer review process, reviewers can interact directly or exchange information (e.g., via submission systems or email) with only an editor, which is known as “independent review.” An initial decision will normally be made within 2 weeks after the reviewers agree to review a manuscript. No information about the review process or editorial decision process is published on the article page.

All manuscripts from editors, employees, or members of the editorial board are processed in the same way as other unsolicited manuscripts. During the review process, submitters will not engage in the selection of reviewers or the decision process. Editors will not handle their manuscripts even if the manuscripts are commissioned. The conflict of interest declaration should be added as follows.

Conflicts of Interest: OOO has been an editorial board member of Diabetes & Metabolism Journal since OOO but has no role in the decision to publish this article. No other potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.

1) Screening before review

Submitted manuscripts are first reviewed by manuscript editors. Unless they meet submission criteria, they will be sent back to the authors for a resubmission after corrections have been made. Then, the priority of the submitted manuscript to dmj will be initially assessed by the associate editors. Before reviewing, all submitted manuscripts are inspected by Similarity Check powered by iThenticate (https://www.crossref.org/services/similarity-check/), a plagiarism-screening tool. If a too high a degree of similarity score is found, the Editorial Board will do a more profound content screening.

2) Peer review process

Manuscripts deemed suitable will be reviewed by two or more experts in the corresponding field to assess the scientific quality of the paper. This journal uses double-blind review throughout the review process. If changes are needed, the editorial board may request authors to revise and amend the manuscripts. Authors of a revised manuscript must describe on a line-by-line basis how the manuscript was revised according to the instructions of the reviewers. Revisions must be received within 2 months from the date of the letter from the editorial board indicating that a revised manuscript would be considered for publication. If the revised manuscript is not returned within this period, the board will assume that the author has decided not to pursue publication. Based on the review results and revisions, the associate editor finally determines whether manuscripts are acceptable. Statistical editing is also performed if the data requires professional statistical review by a statistician.