--- name: the-lancet-diabetes-and-endocrinology description: Use when targeting The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology or deciding whether a diabetes, endocrine, or metabolic study fits this venue. Encodes the journal's fit, the major-trial and population-research evidence bar, reporting-guideline and registration requirements, Lancet specialty house style, official-submission re-check, and desk-reject heuristics. Venue-fit aid only, not clinical advice. --- # The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology (the-lancet-diabetes-and-endocrinology) ## Journal positioning The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology is a Lancet specialty journal for high-impact clinical and population research across diabetes, obesity, endocrine, and metabolic medicine — type 1 and type 2 diabetes, obesity and metabolic disease, thyroid, adrenal, pituitary, bone and mineral, and reproductive endocrinology. It favors **major randomized trials, large prospective cohorts, and population/epidemiological analyses with clear international clinical or policy consequence**, with a strong emphasis on rigorous design, hard or patient-important outcomes, and generalizable populations. Small single-center endocrine series, mechanistic/basic-science work without a clinical endpoint, and routine biomarker-association studies are a weak fit and belong in a broad clinical-endocrinology or basic-science venue. This skill is a **fit / venue-selection / re-framing** aid; it is not clinical or regulatory advice and does not replace the journal's current instructions for authors. Before submitting, re-check the live The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology author instructions. ## When to trigger - The author names The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology for a diabetes, endocrine, or metabolic clinical/population study and wants a fit/framing check. - A trial or large cohort must be re-framed around an international, practice-changing diabetes or endocrine question. - The author is choosing between The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Diabetologia, and general medicine. - The author needs the journal's reporting-guideline, registration, and desk-reject expectations for metabolic/endocrine evidence. ## Scope & topic fit - Randomized trials in diabetes pharmacotherapy, glucose-lowering and cardiovascular-/ renal-outcome trials, and obesity/metabolic interventions. - Large prospective cohorts and high-quality observational studies on diabetes/obesity burden, complications, prognosis, or treatment effect at scale. - Endocrine trials and cohorts (thyroid, adrenal, pituitary, bone/mineral, reproductive) with patient-important outcomes. - Population, epidemiological, and health-policy studies on metabolic disease with international or equity relevance. - Pragmatic, implementation, and prevention trials, and well-powered diagnostic studies, in diabetes/endocrinology. - Systematic reviews and meta-analyses resolving a focused, clinically consequential metabolic or endocrine question. ## Method & evidence bar - Trials must be adequately powered with prespecified, patient-important primary outcomes (cardiovascular/renal events, mortality, body-weight or glycaemic endpoints with clinical anchoring); surrogate-only endpoints need strong justification. - The applicable reporting guideline and completed checklist are expected: CONSORT for trials, STROBE for observational studies, PRISMA for systematic reviews, STARD for diagnostic accuracy. - Trials require prospective registration; the registration number, protocol, and statistical-analysis plan are expected. - Observational and Mendelian-randomization claims must address confounding, pleiotropy, selection bias, and missing data; causal language must match the design. - Effect estimates need confidence intervals and absolute as well as relative measures; generalizability across populations and health systems should be argued. - Multi-center, international, and registry/linkage-scale evidence strengthens fit; single-center metabolic series rarely clear the bar. ## Structure & house style - Lancet specialty format with a structured summary and a Research in context / evidence-before-this-study panel; re-check current article types and limits on the live guide. - The introduction frames the international clinical or policy gap in metabolic/endocrine care; the discussion states the practice consequence and limitations plainly. - A CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA flow diagram is expected where applicable; tables/figures follow Lancet statistical-reporting standards. - The role of the funding source statement and a data-sharing statement are expected; appendices carry protocol, full statistical methods, and additional analyses. ## Official-submission checklist - Before giving submission-ready advice, read `../../resources/source-basis.md` and `../../resources/official-source-map.md`; start from the ICMJE/EQUATOR and Lancet anchors, then cite the current The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology page you checked. - Search the live site for "The Lancet Diabetes Endocrinology information for authors" and follow the current version. - Re-check article types, structured-summary and Research in context format, and word/reference/figure limits. - Confirm trial registration, the reporting checklist (CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA/STARD), protocol/SAP, the role-of-funding-source statement, and data-sharing statement. - Re-check IRB/ethics and consent, ICMJE authorship and conflict-of-interest disclosure, funding, and AI-use disclosure. - If the live official instructions conflict with this skill, the official instructions win. ## Pre-submission self-check - [ ] The study answers an international, practice-changing diabetes/endocrine/metabolic question. - [ ] The primary outcome is prespecified and patient-important; the study is adequately powered. - [ ] The correct reporting checklist (CONSORT/STROBE/PRISMA/STARD) is completed and attached. - [ ] Trials are prospectively registered with the number in the manuscript; protocol/SAP provided. - [ ] Confounding, pleiotropy/selection bias, and missing data are addressed; causal language matches the design. - [ ] IRB/consent, ICMJE disclosures, role-of-funding-source, and a data-sharing statement are prepared. ## Common desk-reject triggers - Single-center or underpowered diabetes/endocrine studies with limited generalizability and no practice change. - Mechanistic or basic-metabolism work with no clinical endpoint, better suited to a basic-science venue. - Surrogate-only endpoints (e.g., HbA1c change with no clinical anchoring) presented as definitive. - Routine biomarker- or genetic-association studies without practice-changing consequence. - Missing trial registration, protocol, or the required reporting checklist. - Narrow scope without international clinical or policy relevance. ## Re-routing decision - Broad clinical endocrinology (thyroid/adrenal/pituitary/bone) without practice-changing scale → `journal-of-clinical-endocrinology-and-metabolism` (Endocrine Society, broad clinical). - Diabetes work including basic/translational science → `diabetologia` (EASD, diabetes incl. basic science). - Population/policy framing without a clinical metabolic endpoint → `the-lancet-public-health`. - Endocrine-related respiratory or critical-care comorbidity dominant → `the-lancet-respiratory-medicine`. - Broad, practice-changing significance beyond the specialty → general medicine (`jama` / NEJM / The Lancet in the natural-science bundle). ## Output format ```text [Fit] High / Medium / Low (one-line reason) [Target] The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology [Specialty tags] <2–3 closest diabetes/endocrine/metabolic topics> [Study design / reporting guideline] [Method/evidence] [Top risk] [Official items to re-check]
[Re-route suggestion] ```