The Review of Diabetic Studies

About The Review of Diabetic Studies

The Review of Diabetic Studies — Journal Profile

The Review of Diabetic Studies (RDS) is a quarterly journal for original research and reviews in diabetes, published in Duisburg, Germany, by the Society for Biomedical Diabetes Research (SBDR). It carries print ISSN 1613-6071 and online ISSN 1614-0575, and its articles bear the DOI prefix 10.1900. Founded in 2004, the journal made its full texts freely readable online during its society-published era and built an international authorship around a single, sharply defined subject: diabetes in all its forms — its mechanisms, epidemiology, prevention, treatment, complications and public-health consequences. Its content is archived and indexed in the major biomedical services, including PubMed, EMBASE and Scopus. This profile also carries an important verification warning: a website currently presenting itself under this journal's title and ISSNs publishes material that differs radically from the SBDR journal documented here, and authors must check carefully which operation they are dealing with before submitting anything or paying any fee.

Journal at a Glance

The Publisher: Society for Biomedical Diabetes Research

The SBDR is a registered German research society with its head office at Gneisenaustr. 86, 47057 Duisburg, entered at the Duisburg register court under registration number VR 4074. Its masthead describes the society as the owner, provider and maintainer of its web presence, and the journal's copyright for its classic period is held by the society: the masthead states that copyright in all content published in The Review of Diabetic Studies from 2004 to 2019 is held by the SBDR, with requests for reprints addressed to the RDS Editorial Office. Alongside the journal, the society maintained services such as the Diabetes Open Directory, aimed at accelerating the distribution of diabetes-related information among the scientific community, and its own press imprint. This society structure matters for identification: the genuine journal is the one tied to this Duisburg society, to the DOI prefix 10.1900, and to the journal's long-running archive — not to any unrelated operation that adopts the title.

History and Development

The journal began publication in 2004, with volume numbering running one volume per year thereafter; volume 3 corresponds to 2006 and volume 17 to 2021 in the article record. From the outset it positioned itself as a review-led but research-welcoming title: the word "Review" in the name signals its diet of systematic reviews, meta-analyses and state-of-the-art surveys, while its pages also carry original clinical and epidemiological studies, as the tables of contents preserved in indexing services show. A representative late issue of the classic run, volume 18, number 1 (2022) as listed by Medscape's publication service, contains a systematic review and meta-analysis of anthocyanin-rich berries and metabolic syndrome risk; a study of health-related quality of life in people with type 2 diabetes in South India; work on high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, cardiovascular disease and renal dysfunction in Palestinian patients with type 2 diabetes; a study of mortality after endovascular revascularisation in critical limb ischaemia; a systematic review of early time-restricted feeding and glycaemic profile; and a study of foot-at-risk prevalence in a Peruvian public hospital. That spread — reviews and original studies, several continents, complications as well as control — is characteristic of the journal in its documented era.

Indexing records assembled from Scopus data give the journal's Scopus coverage as 2007 to 2022, and SCImago-derived listings classify it in Endocrinology, Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Internal Medicine and general Medicine categories, with best-quartile placements at Q2. Citation indicators reported by bibliometric aggregators fluctuated considerably across the journal's life — Journal Citation Reports-based figures quoted by one aggregator run from below 1.0 in the late 2000s to around 2.0–3.4 in several years of the 2010s and early 2020s, with much lower figures reported for the most recent years. The journal's SCImago h-index is reported in the 50s. Authors citing these numbers in formal documents should re-verify them against the current editions of the underlying services, because listing data for this title have become unusually inconsistent in recent years, for reasons the verification section explains.

Aims, Scope and Subject Coverage

The journal's remit is diabetes research in the round. In scope are original research, reviews and clinical studies across: the basic mechanisms of diabetes, including insulin resistance, beta-cell function and the genetics of the disease; diagnosis and monitoring, including glycaemic markers and screening for complications; treatment and management, from lifestyle intervention and oral therapies to insulin regimens and new drug classes; the microvascular and macrovascular complications of diabetes, including nephropathy, retinopathy, neuropathy, diabetic foot disease and cardiovascular outcomes; epidemiology and public health, including prevalence studies, quality-of-life research and health-services questions in diabetic populations; metabolic syndrome and the interfaces between diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular risk; and technology and prevention, including dietary and feeding-pattern interventions of the kind visible in its recent tables of contents. Gestational diabetes and diabetes in pregnancy also fall within the journal's documented coverage.

The title's identity is that of a specialist journal: unlike general medical titles that publish diabetes papers among everything else, RDS exists so that a reader interested in diabetes can find reviews consolidating a sub-field and primary studies speaking directly to it. The review emphasis is a practical point for authors — a well-constructed systematic review or meta-analysis on a defined diabetes question is squarely the journal's core content, and narrative reviews by groups with genuine command of a topic have historically formed a large share of its most-cited material. One of its widely cited review articles, for example, examined genes, diet and type 2 diabetes and the respective roles of insulin resistance and beta-cell failure, synthesising management approaches from diet and exercise through combination drug therapy — the template of a successful RDS review.

Access Model, Copyright and Archiving

During its SBDR era the journal operated as a free-to-read title: the society's masthead refers to issues and scientific material "made available free of charge" in print and online, and the journal's articles from that period are preserved in PubMed Central, the open archive of biomedical literature, where they remain readable today. Copyright in that era was held by the society rather than transferred for open licensing: the masthead states that no material could be reprinted or reproduced, in whole or in part, without the publisher's written permission, and that authors republishing or reusing their articles had to cite the SBDR as publisher of the original. Authors should note that this older society-copyright model differs from the Creative Commons licensing language used by the website currently presenting itself under the journal's name (which claims a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence); the discrepancy is one of several identity markers discussed below. For readers, the practical position is simple: the classic archive — the version of record for citation — is the one reached through PubMed Central, the DOI prefix 10.1900, and the society's own site.

Peer Review and Submitting to the Journal

The journal presents itself as peer-reviewed, and its documented content pattern — structured reviews with defined methods (for instance, PRISMA-style systematic reviews) and original studies with standard reporting — is consistent with conventional editorial screening in clinical medicine. Detailed author instructions, turnaround statistics and any fee schedule for the genuine SBDR journal are not published in the society sources consulted for this profile, so this profile does not invent them: authors considering the title should obtain the current instructions from the society directly and confirm the journal's present publication arrangements in writing before submitting. That caution is not a formality. Because the journal's recent history includes an apparent change of web presence and a flood of off-scope material under its name (see below), due diligence — verifying the editorial office's identity, the DOI prefix under which accepted papers will be published, and the archive in which they will be deposited — is the price of using this title safely.

Verification Warning: Identity of the Current Website

Researchers should be aware that the website now found at diabeticstudies.org, which presents itself as The Review of Diabetic Studies using ISSN 1613-6071 and e-ISSN 1614-0575, displays features that diverge sharply from the SBDR journal documented in this profile. Its current-issue listings for 2024–2026 are dominated by supplement-style issues (numbered S1, S2 and so on) filled with papers on general nursing practice, paramedicine, dentistry and hospital administration — subjects outside this journal's diabetes scope — frequently with very long author lists, and its stated volume sequence and licensing terms differ from the society record. Its listed contact is an editorial office address on its own domain, with no visible connection to the Duisburg society. Whether this represents a relaunch, a transfer, or an impostor operation is not something this profile can determine from public sources; what can be said is that the material there does not match the journal whose archive sits in PubMed Central under DOI prefix 10.1900. Authors invited to submit — especially anyone asked for rapid publication or payment — should verify the journal through the SBDR's own site (soc-bdr.org), through the ISSN Portal, and by checking that recent genuine articles resolve under the 10.1900 prefix, and should not rely on the look of any single website.

Is The Review of Diabetic Studies Right for Your Paper?

For the journal in its documented form, the fit question is straightforward. A systematic review, meta-analysis or focused clinical or epidemiological study on diabetes — its prevention, treatment, complications, epidemiology or care delivery — written in English and reporting methods transparently, is exactly the journal's content. Work on adjacent metabolic topics fits when the diabetes connection is central rather than decorative. Papers outside diabetes, however worthy, do not fit, and the presence of such papers on a website using the title is itself a warning sign about that website. Given the identity complications described above, this profile's advice is conservative: value the journal's genuine archive and indexing record, but treat any new submission decision as requiring direct confirmation from the SBDR that the journal is accepting manuscripts, under what editorial office, and under what terms. Researchers who need certainty of indexing and archiving for promotion or funder compliance should document that confirmation before submitting, or choose a diabetes title whose current operation is unambiguous.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who publishes the journal? The Society for Biomedical Diabetes Research (SBDR), a registered society headquartered at Gneisenaustr. 86, 47057 Duisburg, Germany.

What are the journal's ISSNs? Print ISSN 1613-6071 and online ISSN 1614-0575, per the publisher's masthead. (Some article-level metadata services also carry a third number, 1613-0575, as an e-ISSN; the society's own masthead lists only the two ISSNs above.)

When was it founded and how often does it appear? It began in 2004 and is published quarterly, per the publisher's masthead.

Is it open access? In its SBDR era, issues and articles were made available free of charge online and are archived in PubMed Central, while copyright was held by the society. A website currently using the title claims Creative Commons licensing instead; see the verification warning.

Where is it indexed? Documented indexing includes PubMed/MEDLINE services, EMBASE and Scopus (Scopus coverage reported as 2007–2022 in SCImago-derived listings).

What subjects does it cover? Diabetes research broadly: mechanisms, diagnosis, treatment, complications, epidemiology, prevention, technology and public health, in the form of reviews and original studies.

Does it charge authors? No fee schedule is published in the society sources consulted. Do not pay any charge demanded by a website using this title without first verifying the operation's identity through the SBDR.

How can I check a website claiming to be this journal is genuine? Cross-check through soc-bdr.org, confirm recent articles carry DOIs under the prefix 10.1900, and confirm the archive in PubMed Central matches the site that is soliciting your manuscript.

Representative Content from the Journal's Documented Run

Three examples, all traceable in indexing and archive records, show the range of the genuine journal. In 2006 the journal published a Brazilian multi-centre study of 2,233 outpatients with type 2 diabetes across eight cities, evaluating how far daily clinical practice achieved guideline targets for care: fewer than 30 per cent of patients reached the systolic and diastolic blood-pressure targets, under a quarter reached the body-mass-index goal, about a fifth reached the LDL-cholesterol goal, and only 46 per cent reached the HbA1c goal, with only 0.2 per cent achieving all targets together — the authors concluded that the quality of diabetes care, in particular for women, was poor and needed review. In 2007 it published the review "Genes, Diet and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus", synthesising the respective roles of insulin resistance and beta-cell dysfunction, the genetic component of the disease, and management from lifestyle strategies through combination drug therapy. In 2014 it published a meta-analysis of observational studies on the relationship between HbA1c and all-cause mortality in type 2 diabetes, reporting the J-shaped association that clinicians continue to cite in debates about glycaemic targets (volume 11, pages 138–152). Alongside these sit the systematic reviews and complication studies listed earlier from its 2022 volume. The common thread is work a diabetologist, endocrinologist or diabetes researcher can use: consolidated evidence on defined questions, or primary data on how diabetes presents, is treated and complicates real populations. Content of any other character appearing under this journal's name should be read against that record — and, where it does not match, treated as a prompt to run the verification checks described in this profile before citing or submitting.

How to Verify an RDS Citation or Offer

Because this title's identity has become complicated, a short verification routine protects both readers and authors. First, resolve the DOI: genuine articles from the journal's documented run carry the prefix 10.1900 and resolve to the article's archive copy; a DOI with a different prefix, or none, is not the version of record described here. Second, search the title in PubMed: the journal's classic articles are indexed there with their abstracts, journal abbreviation (Rev Diabet Stud), year, volume and pages, and the absence of a claimed recent article from that record is meaningful evidence about its provenance. Third, check the publisher: the SBDR's own domain is soc-bdr.org, its office is in Duisburg, and its masthead gives the society's registration and contact details; correspondence that cannot be connected to that record should be treated as unverified. Fourth, check Scopus or SCImago for the title's coverage years before assuming that a new article will be indexed — the documented Scopus coverage ends in 2022 in the listings consulted. Finally, keep records: save the masthead details, the DOI resolution and any correspondence with the society, so that an institution or funder asking later how a publication in this title was verified can be shown the working. Five minutes of checking is a small price against the cost — financial and reputational — of placing a manuscript with the wrong operation.

Sources and Verification

This profile is based on the Society for Biomedical Diabetes Research's own masthead and copyright page (publisher address, registration, ISSNs, quarterly frequency, 2004–2019 copyright line, free-of-charge availability), tables of contents for the journal preserved by Medscape's publication service (volume 18, number 1, 2022), article records in OpenAIRE and PubMed Central-linked sources (DOI pattern 10.1900/rds and early article content), and SCImago- and Scopus-based listings for coverage years, subject categories, quartiles and citation indicators, together with a direct reading of the website currently presenting itself under the journal's title for the verification warning. Where sources disagreed — notably on ISSN variants and recent metric values — the profile follows the publisher's own masthead and says so.