AACE Endocrinology and Diabetes

About AACE Endocrinology and Diabetes

Overview

AACE Endocrinology and Diabetes is an open access, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to clinical and translational research in diabetes and endocrinology. It is the companion journal to Endocrine Practice — the flagship journal of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (AACE) — and is published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of AACE. The journal's electronic ISSN is 3050-9157 (reported by the ChronosHub journal guide with a Directory of Open Access Journals listing; the journal's own 2025 editorial carries the 3050-9157 imprint), and its articles carry DOIs under the prefix 10.1016/j.aed.

The journal was rebranded and relaunched in 2025 from its predecessor title, AACE Clinical Case Reports, which published from 2015 through March 2025. The relaunch deliberately broadened the scope: where the predecessor focused on case reports, AACE Endocrinology and Diabetes welcomes clinical and translational research, epidemiologic studies, systematic and scoping reviews, case reports, visual and video vignettes, commentaries, and letters. AACE's official publications page calls it the premier open-access journal dedicated to advancing clinical and translational research in diabetes and endocrinology.

Published bimonthly, the journal explicitly welcomes hypothesis-generating research, pilot studies, and negative and confirmatory studies — article types that can struggle to find homes in more selective journals — alongside special issues on emerging topics. In its inaugural year of 2025 it published 4 issues comprising 80 manuscripts, and its content was downloaded more than 575,000 times, according to the journal's official inaugural-year editorial.

History

The journal's lineage begins with AACE Clinical Case Reports, launched in 2015 (ISSN 2376-0605) as AACE's open access venue for clinical case reports, visual vignettes, and video vignettes. Published by Elsevier on AACE's behalf, it served the association's clinician membership with case-based educational content for a decade, achieving indexing and a Scopus h-index of 15 (reported by resurchify.com, secondary source).

In 2025, AACE rebranded and relaunched the title as AACE Endocrinology and Diabetes. The relaunch editorial, "AACE Endocrinology and Diabetes: An Exciting New Endocrinology Journal," framed the new journal as accepting original research papers, systematic and narrative reviews, case reports, visual vignettes, commentaries, and letters to the editor, with a scope described as much broader than Endocrine Practice — encompassing obesity medicine, cardiometabolic disease, reproductive endocrinology, and global health alongside core endocrinology. The open access model was chosen to allow more rapid dissemination of authors' work.

The inaugural year exceeded expectations on visibility: the journal's official "successful inaugural year" editorial, published online 26 November 2025, reports 4 issues, 80 manuscripts, and over 575,000 downloads in 2025, with two special issues planned for 2026 — one on hyperparathyroidism and hypoparathyroidism, the other on obesity, the latter tied to AACE's newly released consensus statement on the evaluation and treatment of adults with obesity. The journal is indexed in PubMed, Scopus, and Clarivate Web of Science, as stated on its official masthead.

Editorial Leadership

The journal's official editorial board page names the following leadership:

• Editor-in-Chief: Vin Tangpricha, MD, PhD, MACE — Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Lipids at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia. AACE's awards page notes that he has published over 300 original peer-reviewed manuscripts on transgender medicine, vitamin D, and cystic fibrosis, previously directed Emory's endocrinology fellowship programme for 11 years, and currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of both of AACE's clinical journals, Endocrine Practice and AACE Endocrinology and Diabetes.
• Associate Editors: Elena Castellano, MD (Saint Croce and Carle Hospital Trust, Cuneo, Italy); Kyaw Soe, MD (UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas); Maleeha Zahid, MD (Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas).

The published editorial board includes endocrinologists from major academic centres, among them Basma Abdulhadi (University of Alabama at Birmingham), Krystallenia Alexandraki (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Joseph A. Aloi (Wake Forest University School of Medicine), Sonia Ananthakrishnan (Boston University), Alessandro Antonelli (University of Pisa), Irina Bancos (Mayo Clinic), and Joshua Barzilay (Emory University). Editorial operations are supported by an editorial team acknowledged in the inaugural-year editorial. Researchers interested in serving as peer reviewers are invited to contact the journals office at publications@aace.com with a CV and statement of expertise; outstanding reviewers may be considered for the editorial board.

Aims & Scope

The journal's official aims and scope page describes AACE Endocrinology and Diabetes as the AACE companion journal to Endocrine Practice: an open access journal focused on clinical and translational research, reviews, and case reports related to the care of diabetes and endocrine conditions. It welcomes clinical and translational research, epidemiologic studies (including prospective and retrospective observational studies), systematic and scoping reviews, case reports, visual and video vignettes, commentaries, and letters relating to diabetes and endocrinology.

Topics covered, per the official scope statement, include:

• Diabetes, nutrition and obesity, metabolism
• Thyroid disease; bone and parathyroid disease
• Lipid and cardiovascular health
• Pituitary, gonad, adrenal, and neuroendocrine disorders
• Reproductive health and fertility
• Health care delivery, endocrine surgery, quality improvement, and education

The journal expressly welcomes hypothesis-generating research, pilot studies, and negative and confirmatory studies, and runs special issues on emerging topics in endocrinology and diabetes. AACE's guide for authors adds that original articles should report clinical or translational research adding new information on the etiology, treatment, and outcomes of endocrine disorders, restricted to 3,500 words, no more than 50 references, and no more than 10 figures or tables in total, with a cover letter, title page, and abstract required.

Key Facts

Metrics

As a journal relaunched in 2025, AACE Endocrinology and Diabetes is newly indexed in PubMed, Scopus, and Clarivate Web of Science, and no Journal Citation Reports impact factor, CiteScore, or SCImago rank could be confirmed for the current title at the time of research — metrics accrue only after sufficient citation history. Readers should not confuse figures reported for the predecessor title (AACE Clinical Case Reports: Scopus h-index 15 and SJR 0.336 reported by resurchify.com, secondary source) with the relaunched journal.

The most meaningful early performance indicators come from the journal's own official inaugural-year editorial: 80 manuscripts published across 4 issues in 2025, and more than 575,000 downloads in the journal's first year — strong early visibility for a new open access title. Authors and evaluators should watch for the journal's first CiteScore and impact factor releases in subsequent years.

Indexing & Abstracting

The journal's official masthead states that AACE Endocrinology and Diabetes is indexed in PubMed, Scopus, and Clarivate Web of Science. PubMed indexing gives its clinical content direct visibility to practising clinicians and researchers through the US National Library of Medicine's search systems, while Scopus and Web of Science coverage ensures citation tracking from launch. The journal is also listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals under its eISSN 3050-9157 (reported by the ChronosHub journal guide, secondary source).

Peer Review & Publication Process

AACE Endocrinology and Diabetes is a peer-reviewed journal: its inaugural-year editorial publicly thanks its peer reviewers and publishes a ranked list of its top reviewers, and AACE actively recruits volunteer peer reviewers through an open call, asking interested experts to write to publications@aace.com with a CV, area of expertise, and statement of interest. Outstanding reviewers may be considered for editorial board appointments.

The journal publishes bimonthly, and its guide for authors sets clear manuscript limits — for example, original articles are restricted to 3,500 words, 50 references, and 10 figures or tables combined. Submissions are made through the journal's online editorial system, reachable from endocrinologydiabetes.org. While the journal's own pages do not specify single- versus double-blind review, its sibling Endocrine Practice is described by AACE as a double-blind peer-reviewed journal, suggesting a rigorous review culture across the association's titles; authors seeking the exact review model for this journal should consult the current guide for authors.

Open Access & Article Processing Charges

The journal is fully open access: articles are published under the CC BY-NC-ND (Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives) licence, as stated in the copyright footer of its published articles ("© 2025 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the AACE. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license").

Article publishing charges apply. AACE's official publications pages confirm that AACE members receive a 20% savings benefit on article publishing charges for this journal. No exact APC figure for the journal could be confirmed from official sources at the time of research — AACE's guide for authors directs readers to its "Page Charges" section for current fees — so authors should check the live guide for authors before submitting. (AACE separately publishes member pricing for its subscription title Endocrine Practice; those figures do not apply to this journal.)

Publication Ethics

As an Elsevier journal published on behalf of AACE, the title operates under Elsevier's publishing ethics framework, which covers authorship, conflicts of interest, plagiarism screening, data sharing, and corrections. Elsevier is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The journal's guide for authors requires a cover letter, title page, and abstract with submissions, and — consistent with biomedical publishing standards — authors of clinical and translational research should ensure appropriate ethical approvals and patient consent for case reports and visual/video vignettes, which are prominent article types in this journal. Specific requirements are set out in the current guide for authors on endocrinologydiabetes.org.

AACE & Its Journals

The American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (AACE) is a global community of more than 5,700 endocrine-focused clinical members, affiliates, and partners, describing itself as the leading expert community in clinical endocrinology working to improve global health and patient care. The association maintains two journals, both led by Editor-in-Chief Vin Tangpricha: Endocrine Practice, the flagship subscription journal publishing clinical endocrinology research monthly, and AACE Endocrinology and Diabetes, the open access companion title.

The two journals are positioned as complementary rather than competing. AACE's publications material explains the division of labour: Endocrine Practice is the association's established, selective journal for clinical endocrinology, while AACE Endocrinology and Diabetes offers a broader, open access platform — wider in scope (extending into obesity medicine, cardiometabolic disease, reproductive endocrinology, and global health), more inclusive in article types (welcoming pilot, hypothesis-generating, negative, and confirmatory studies), and faster in dissemination. Authors deciding between the titles are advised by AACE's own guidance to weigh selectivity against speed and openness; the association even publishes video discussions in which the editors explain which journal best fits particular kinds of research.

AACE members receive tangible publishing benefits across the journals: free subscription access to Endocrine Practice as a membership benefit, and reduced publishing charges — including the 20% APC savings on this journal — making membership financially relevant to publishing authors.

The 2025 Relaunch in Detail

The transformation of AACE Clinical Case Reports into AACE Endocrinology and Diabetes was more than a title change. The predecessor's identity was case-based clinical education; the relaunched journal kept case reports and visual/video vignettes but added original research papers, systematic and narrative reviews, commentaries, and letters — becoming a full-spectrum clinical journal. The scope statement was rewritten around clinical and translational research rather than cases alone, and the journal began commissioning special issues on emerging topics.

Continuity was preserved where it mattered: the Elsevier publishing partnership, the open access model, the AACE ownership, and much of the editorial community carried over, and the journal retained indexing momentum — PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science coverage stated on the masthead from the relaunch. The new eISSN 3050-9157 and DOI prefix 10.1016/j.aed mark the bibliographic break, while citations to the predecessor title (ISSN 2376-0605) remain valid for its 2015–2025 archive. Librarians and indexers should note both identifiers when managing holdings.

Article Types in Depth

The journal's guide for authors defines a wider menu of article types than most clinical journals, reflecting its educational as well as scientific mission:

• Original articles: clinical or translational research adding new information on the etiology, treatment, and outcomes of endocrine disorders — capped at 3,500 words, 50 references, and 10 figures or tables.
• Review articles: systematic, scoping, and narrative reviews synthesising evidence across the journal's topic range.
• Case reports: the journal's heritage format — instructive individual cases with clinical teaching value.
• Visual vignettes and video vignettes: image- and video-led educational pieces, a signature of the predecessor title, suited to striking clinical findings.
• Commentaries and editorials: expert perspectives on current issues in endocrinology and diabetes care.
• Letters: correspondence relating to published content and the field.

Templates for case reports and visual vignettes are provided for download with the guide for authors, lowering the preparation barrier for clinician-authors. The explicit welcome for hypothesis-generating studies, pilot research, and negative and confirmatory studies is a deliberate editorial policy: the journal aims to publish sound science that advances care even when results are preliminary or negative, countering publication bias toward positive findings.

Why Publish Here

For endocrinology researchers and clinicians, the journal offers a distinct value proposition. First, speed and openness: as a fully open access, bimonthly journal, accepted work reaches the global clinical community quickly and without paywalls — important for findings that affect patient care. Second, scope inclusivity: the explicit welcome for pilot studies, hypothesis-generating research, and negative and confirmatory studies means sound work need not be squeezed into a narrative of breakthrough results. Third, clinical readership: with AACE's 5,700+ member community and PubMed indexing, articles reach practising endocrinologists, not only researchers.

The trade-off is prestige: as a 2025 relaunch, the journal has no impact factor yet, and authors for whom citation metrics drive career decisions may prefer the established Endocrine Practice — while noting that AACE positions the two titles for different kinds of work rather than as a strict hierarchy. Early-career researchers, clinician-authors with instructive cases, and teams with pilot or confirmatory data will find this the more natural home.

Special Issues & Calls for Papers

Special issues are a deliberate part of the journal's strategy for shaping the field. For 2026 the journal announced two: one on the management of hyperparathyroidism and hypoparathyroidism, and one on obesity tied to AACE's newly released consensus statement on the evaluation and treatment of adults with obesity. Calls for papers are published on the journal's homepage, and prospective authors working in these areas should watch the announcements for submission deadlines.

The special-issue programme serves both readers and the association: readers get concentrated, timely coverage of fast-moving topics, while AACE uses the issues to amplify its own clinical guidance — the obesity issue, for example, directly supports dissemination of the association's consensus statement. This integration of journal and society missions is characteristic of association-owned titles and is one of the journal's strengths as a clinical publication.

Submission Guidance

Prospective authors should:

• Confirm fit with the journal's broadened scope: clinical and translational endocrinology and diabetes research, epidemiologic studies, systematic/scoping reviews, case reports, and visual/video vignettes are all in scope; purely basic-science studies without clinical or translational relevance belong elsewhere.
• Respect the manuscript limits in the guide for authors (e.g., 3,500 words / 50 references / 10 figures or tables for original articles) and include the required cover letter, title page, and abstract.
• Check the current "Page Charges" section of the guide for authors for APCs, and note the 20% AACE member discount.
• Consider the journal's stated openness to hypothesis-generating, pilot, negative, and confirmatory studies when deciding between this title and the more selective Endocrine Practice.
• Watch for calls for papers for the 2026 special issues on hyperparathyroidism/hypoparathyroidism and on obesity.

AACE itself is a global community of more than 5,700 endocrine-focused clinical members, affiliates, and partners, giving the journal a built-in clinical readership for work that directly affects patient care.