GENERAL

Deutsches Ärzteblatt publishes material relating to health and social policy (health and social policy department, see 1) on all aspects of medical activity and health care, as well as reviews, original research, case reports, Clinical Practice Guidelines (S3 level), and editorials on clinical medicine and medical science, including health services research (medical scientific department, see 2). Any material submit-ted for potential publication in Deutsches Ärzteblatt must be submitted exclusively to Deutsches Ärzteblatt, and may not have been previous-ly published, either in Germany or abroad. With the exception of statements made by the publisher, Deutsches Ärzteblatt does not publish statements by other institutions such as specialist societies or working groups (see 4). 1. SUBMISSIONS FOR THE HEALTH AND SOCIAL POLICY SECTION Submissions for the health and social policy section of the journal must be no more than 14 000 characters (including spaces). We ad-vise that you use the maximum length only exception ally and after dis-cussion with the editorial team. Articles for the health and social policy section do not require a structured, IMRAD (introduction, methods, results, and discussion) format, such as that required for the medical scientific section. Please observe the referencing style outlined in 2.2. The health and social policy department reserves the right to publish references on the web only, independently of length. The regulations described in sections 3 and 4 of this document refer to all articles submitted to Deutsches Ärzteblatt. The number of authors should not exceed three. 2. SUBMISSIONS FOR THE MEDICAL SCIENTIFIC SECTION The medical scientific section is aimed at all doctors of all specialties, whether office-based or hospital-based. We particularly welcome original research articles. Articles should be clinically relevant, and written in a clear and accessible style. All articles, including commis-sioned work, will be sent out for external peer review, usually to two reviewers. Our regulations follow the Uniform Requirements for Manuscript