Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine

Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine: Instructions for authors
(updated June 2024)

We kindly request that you adhere to our detailed "Instructions for authors" when submitting your articles. Following these guidelines is crucial to ensure a smooth review process and to prevent any delays that may result in your submission being suspended. Your cooperation not only helps us maintain an efficient workflow but also enhances the overall quality of our publication. Thank you for your attention to these important details.

Contact Information

Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine (DHM) is the combined journal of the South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society (SPUMS) and the European Underwater and Baromedical Society (EUBS). It seeks to publish papers of high quality on all aspects of diving and hyperbaric medicine of interest to diving medical professionals, physicians of all specialties, scientists, members of the diving and hyperbaric industries, and divers. Manuscripts must be offered exclusively to Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine, unless clearly authenticated copyright exemption accompanies the manuscript. All manuscripts will be subject to peer review. Accepted contributions will also be subject to editing.

Address: The Editor, Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine, Department of Anaesthesiology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand

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Phone (mobile): +64 (0)27 4141 212

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Contributions should be submitted electronically by following the link: http://www.manuscriptmanager.net/dhm

There is on-screen help on the platform to assist authors as they assemble their submission. In order to submit, the corresponding author needs to create an ‘account’ with a username and password (keep a record of these for subsequent use). The process of uploading the files related to the submission is simple and well described in the on-screen help provided the instructions are followed carefully. The submitting author must remain the same throughout the peer review process.

Types of articles

DHM welcomes contributions of the following types:

Original articles, Technical reports and Case series: up to 3,000 words is preferred, and no more than 30 references (excluded from word count). Longer articles may be considered at the editor's discretion. These articles should be subdivided into the following sections: an Abstract (subdivided into Introduction, Methods, Results and Conclusions) of no more than 250 words (excluded from word count), Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusions, References, Acknowledgements, Funding sources and any Conflicts of interest. Legends/captions for illustrations, figures and tables should be placed at the end of the text file.

Review articles: up to 5,000 words is preferred and a maximum of 50 references (excluded from the word count); include an informative Abstract of no more than 300 words (excluded from the total word count); structure of the article and abstract is at the author(s)’ discretion.

Case reports, Short communications and Work in progress reports: maximum 1,500 words, and 20 references (excluded from the word count); include an informative Abstract (structure at author’s discretion) of no more than 200 words (excluded from the word count).

Educational articles, Commentaries and Consensus reports for occasional sections may vary in format and length but should generally be a maximum of 2,000 words and 15 references (excluded from word count); include an informative Abstract of no more than 200 words (excluded from word count).

Letters to the Editor: maximum 600 words, plus one figure or table and five references.

The journal occasionally runs ‘World as it is’ articles; a category into which articles of general interest, perhaps to divers rather than (or in addition to) physicians or scientists, may fall. This is particularly so if the article reports an investigation that is semi-scientific; that is, based on methodology that would not necessarily justify publication as an original study. Such articles should follow the length and reference count recommendations for an original article. The structure of such articles is flexible. The submission of an abstract is encouraged.

Supplements to a particular issue are occasionally published for purposes deemed appropriate by the editor. These may accommodate articles / treatises that are too long for the main journal or collections of articles on thematic areas. There is no open portal for submission of such material and any plans or suggestions for supplements should be discussed with the editor before writing.

Formatting of manuscripts

All submissions must comply with the following requirements. Manuscripts not complying with these instructions will be suspended and returned to the author for correction before consideration. Guidance on structure for the different types of articles is given above.

Title page: Irrespective of article type, it must have a title page that lists the title of the paper, all authors’ names in full and their affiliations and provide full contact details for the first (and corresponding, if different) author(s).

ORCiD requirements: ORCiD An ORCiD is now required for all corresponding authors when submitting to Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine. The ORCiD must be entered into Manuscript Manager when submitting (the site will prompt you to create one if you do not have one). Please add your ORCiD to the title page of your manuscript.

What is an ORCiD? ORCiD provides a persistent digital identifier (an ORCiD iD) that you own and control, and that distinguishes you from every other researcher. You can connect your iD with your professional information – affiliations, grants, publications, peer review, and more. You can use your iD to share your information with other systems, ensuring you get recognition for all your contributions, saving you time and hassle, and reducing the risk of errors. For more information see https://orcid.org/.

Keywords: The title page must also list a maximum of seven keywords best describing the paper. These should be chosen from the list on the journal website DHM Keywords 2023 or on the Manuscript Manager website. New keywords, complementary with the US National Library of Medicine NML MeSH, https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/meshhome.html/ may be used but are at the discretion of the Editor. Do not use keyword terms that already appear in the title of your article.

Text format: The preferred format is Microsoft Office Word or rich text format (RTF), with 1.5 line spacing, using both upper and lower case throughout. The preferred font is Times New Roman, font size 11 or 12. Please avoid using auto-formatting tools such as automatic spaces before and after paragraphs. Lines must be numbered continuously throughout the manuscript to facilitate the review process.

Section Headings should conform to the current format in DHM

This is:

Section heading (for Introduction, Methods, etc.)

SUBSECTION HEADING 1

Subsection heading 2

Numbering: All pages must be numbered, but no other text should appear in the header and footer space of the document. Do not use underlining. No running title is required.

English spelling will be in accordance with the Concise Oxford Dictionary, 11th edition revised (or later). Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2006.

Measurements will be in SI units (mmHg are acceptable for blood pressure measurements) and normal ranges should be included where appropriate. Authors are referred to the online BIPM brochure, International Bureau of Weights and Measures (2006), The International System of Units (SI), 8th ed, available as a pdf at https://www.bipm.org/en/publications/si-brochure/. Atmospheric and gas partial pressures and blood gas values should be presented in kPa (atmospheres absolute [abbreviated as atm abs]/bar/mmHg may be provided in parenthesis). The ambient pressure should always be given in absolute not gauge values unless there is a particular reason to use gauge pressure and the distinction is made clear. Water depths should be presented in metres of sea (or fresh) water (msw or mfw). Cylinder pressures may be presented as ‘bar’ or megapascals.

Equations: Authors are responsible for the correct formatting of each equation, and, because of potential conversion problems, they must be submitted using the Times New Roman font in a TIFF file. Equations should be camera-ready when they are submitted.

Abbreviations may be used once they have been shown in parenthesis after the complete expression. For example, decompression illness (DCI) can thereafter be referred to as DCI. This applies separately to the abstract and main text. Use generally accepted abbreviations that readers are likely to be familiar with rather than neologisms of your own invention. The overuse of abbreviations is strongly discouraged.

References: References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text, tables or figures where they should appear as superscript numbers, either following the statement referenced,1 or at the end of the sentence, after the full stop.1,2 Do not use references in the Abstract. References appearing in tables or figures or their legends should continue the sequence of reference numbering in the main text of the article in accordance with the position of first citing the table/figure in the text. Use MEDLINE abbreviations for journal names. Journals not indexed in MEDLINE should have the journal name written in full. Please ensure you include doi/PMID/PMCID numbers where available (see example below). Failure to do so will result in your references being sent to the corresponding author to format correctly and hold up the review process.

The Journal reference style is based exactly on that of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals: Sample References (updated June 2024) https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html. Examples of the formats for different types of references (journal articles, books, monographs, electronic material, etc.) are given in detail on this website. Authors MUST consult this in preparing their reference list.

An example of a journal reference in the ICMJE format is:

Wilson CM, Sayer MDJ. Transportation of divers with decompression illness on the west coast of Scotland. Diving Hyperb Med. 2011;41(2):64–69.

If a journal uses continuous pagination throughout a volume (as many do) then the issue number should be omitted and the pagination reduced. Therefore, the shortened ICMJE version used in DHM is:

Wilson CM, Sayer MDJ. Transportation of divers with decompression illness on the west coast of Scotland. Diving Hyperb Med. 2011;41:64–9.

If an article has a unique identifier for the citation (e.g., doi number, PubMed PMID, PubMed Central PMCID) then this must be included at the end of the reference. The format and order for this is: doi: number. PMID: number. PMCID: number. For example:

Doolette DJ, Mitchell SJ. In-water recompression. Diving Hyperb Med. 2018;48:84−95. doi: 10.28920/dhm48.2.84-95. PMID: 29888380. PMCID: PMC6156824.

An example book reference is:

Kindwall EP, Whelan HT, editors. Hyperbaric medicine practice, 3rd ed. Flagstaff (AZ): Best Publishing Company; 2008.

A chapter in a book is referenced similarly, for example:

Moon RE, Gorman DF. Treatment of decompression disorders. In: Brubakk AO, Neuman TS, editors. Bennett and Elliott's physiology and medicine of diving. Edinburgh: Saunders; 2003. p. 600-50.

Examples of many other types of references are to be found on the National Library of Medicine site (see link above)

When citing workshop/conference proceedings or technical reports, authors are requested to investigate their availability online and provide an online source for the reference if available. The date that the reference was cited (year/month/day) from the source should be noted. For example:

Mitchell SJ, Doolette DJ, Wacholz CJ, Vann R, editors. Management of mild or marginal decompression illness in remote locations workshop proceedings. Durham (NC): Divers Alert Network; 2005. [cited 2022 May 5]. Available from: https://world.dan.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/remotewrkshpfinal05-1.pdf.

Additional notes regarding referencing in DHM are:

If using EndNote or another reference manager to prepare the references in the document see EndNote website for advice. Once accepted, the final version of the submitted text should have all field codes removed.
Verifying the accuracy of references against the original documents is the responsibility of authors.
Personal communications should appear as such in the text and not be included in the reference list (e.g., Smith AN, personal communication, year).
Abstracts from meeting proceedings should not be used as references unless absolutely essential, as these are generally not peer-reviewed material.
Please avoid using auto-formatting functions like numbering, indentations, and spaces before and after paragraphs in compiling your reference list.
Please list six authors if using et al. not three – this is our preference.

Tables must not be embedded in the main manuscript document. They are to be uploaded as separate Word documents (one document per table) in Manuscript Manager (use the ‘other’ category when asked to select a description of the document being uploaded). Name the document with the first author’s name and table number as appropriate. Tables need to be labelled at the top of the page with first author name and the Table number.

Tables should be presented using MS Word table format with cells framed. Please do not use bolded lines or shading in the table. The editorial team will format the table in the journal style provided the preceding simple instructions are followed. Please avoid complicated, large tables whenever possible. Very large tables (full page or more) may not be incorporated into the final article but, rather, displayed in the journal website as additional material at the Editor’s discretion.

The title of the table and caption are not to be included in the table. These appear in the ‘legends and captions’ section at the end of the manuscript document. Captions generally contain fewer than 40 words and should be thorough enough to be understood independently of the main text. Any abbreviations or acronyms used in the table should be defined (in alphabetical order) at the end of the caption.

The table must be mentioned within the text of the article, e.g., “Differences in rates of decompression illness were not significant (Table 1)”, etc. The approximate positions of tables and figures should also be identified in the manuscript text.

Figures (including photos, graphs, diagrams, illustrations and radiographs) must not be embedded in the main manuscript document. They are to be uploaded as separate electronic files in high resolution preferably TIF but DHM accepts JPEG format in Manuscript Manager. Name the document with the first author’s name and figure number as appropriate. Figures should be uploaded to Manuscript Manager in their numbered order, which results in them being compiled in the review document in correct order.

The title of the figure and caption are not to be included in the figure. These appear in the ‘legends and captions’ section at the end of the manuscript document. Captions should generally contain fewer than 40 words and should be thorough enough to be understood independently of the main text. Any abbreviations or acronyms used in the table should be defined (in alphabetical order) at the end of the caption. Magnification should be indicated in the captions for photomicrographs, and consideration given to the positioning of labels on diagnostic material as this can greatly influence the size of reproduction that can be achieved in the published article.

Graphs may be submitted either in colour or grey-scale, with no unnecessary shading, grid lines or box lines. Please choose the simplest graphical format that displays the data effectively. 3-D graphs are discouraged unless they are necessary to display 3-D data. Both markers and lines should be unique to facilitate easy discrimination of the data being presented. Special attention should be given to ensuring that font sizes within a diagram are sufficiently large to be legible should the diagram be sized for single-column presentation. The preferred font in diagrams and graphs is Times New Roman. Graph symbol keys should appear within the white space of the figure (not outside the axes) if possible or be included in the caption. Please ensure that axes are labelled using sentence case and the same data formatting conventions presented below.

Any graphs or histograms created in Excel should be sent within their original Excel file, including the data table(s) from which they were produced. This allows the journal office to edit figures for maximum legibility when printed. Upload the spreadsheet to Manuscript Manager with the other manuscript documents and select the designator ‘other’ and the option ‘hide from reviewers’ so that the spreadsheet is not incorporated in the review document.

Any photograph or radiograph of a patient must be de-identified. Patient details must be removed, and photographs made unrecognisable. Colour photos are acceptable.

If any figures, images or tables are to be reproduced from previous publications, it is the responsibility of the author(s) to obtain the necessary permissions. This permission should be acknowledged in the figure caption using the format “Reproduced with permission of …..” or, if necessary, another format specified by the copyright holder granting permission.

The figure must be mentioned within the text of the article. The approximate positions of tables and figures should also be identified in the manuscript text.

Appendices and Supplementary material (these are placed on DHM’s website and linked in the text): These are submitted as per our Table or Figure formatting e.g., if you are submitting a figure as a supplement/appendix, please submit as a JPG formatted image. If you are submitting a table, please use a Word document format. We also accept PDFs as appendices or supplementary material, these can be uploaded with your submission documents and labelled clearly Appendix 1, 2 or Supplement 1, 2, etc. Ensure that they have a caption at the top of the document and highlighted where in the manuscript text your appendix is referenced.

Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine (DHM) policy re: use of Generative Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) tools—such as ChatGPT and other similar platforms cannot be used for articles published in DHM without explicit approval from the Editor of DHM, and such use must be acknowledged in detail in the Methods and/ or Acknowledgements section(s) of the manuscript.

Miscellaneous data formatting conventions: Please follow the following recommendations when presenting data in text, figures or graphs.

Standard deviations and standard errors should be expressed as mean (SD), not mean ± SD.

Composite units of measurement should be expressed as (for example) g·L^-1 or mL·kg^-1·min^‑1, not g/L or mL/kg/min

Please use a space between symbols like <, >, ≤, ≥. Thus (for example) > 25, not >25.

Please use decimal points and not commas in decimals. For example: 2.5, not 2,5.

Numbers greater than 999 should contain commas. For example: 1,000 or 25,300,000.

Please leave a space between a number and unit of measurement. For example: 25 msw

Please italicise n when used to indicate number and P when used to indicate P-values

Please leave spaces in expressions like n = 25 or P < 0.05 (not n=25 or P<0.05).

For number ranges please use an en dash without spaces. For example: 17−420. This also applies to page ranges when citing references.

Percent signs should immediately follow a number without a space. For example: 51% not 51 %.

Other manuscript requirements and guidelines

DHM follows as much as possible the Recommendations for the conduct, reporting, editing and publication of scholarly work in medical journals. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors; December 2015.

Available from: http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/. Authors are strongly encouraged to read this and other documents on the ICMJE website in preparing their submission. Authors should also consult guidelines for specific types of study (e.g., the CONSORT guidelines for the reporting of randomised controlled trials); see http://www.equator-network.org/.

Trial design, analysis and presentation. Before preparing their manuscript, authors must read the summary advice on the journal website on the reporting of trial design, sample size calculation, statistical methods and results. http://www.dhmjournal.com/images/Docs/Trial-design-analysis-and-presentation.pdf.

Consent and ethical approval. Studies on human subjects must comply with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, revised October 2013 (see https://www.dhmjournal.com/index.php/author-instructions for a copy).

Studies using animals must comply with National Health and Medical Research Council Guidelines or their equivalent in the country in which the work was conducted. It is insufficient to refer to previous publications for details of animal welfare and procedural care. The Physiological Society provides detailed advice regarding animal experimentation and its reporting in research publications and this link is provided with their kind permission: https://physoc.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1113/jphysiol.2010.192278

A statement affirming Ethics Committee (Institutional Review Board) approval (and the approval number) should be included in the text at the beginning of the methods section. A copy of that approval should be uploaded with the submission. Similarly, a statement affirming the securing of written informed consent from subjects should be included in the methods where this was part of the methodology.

Clinical trials commenced after 2011 must have been registered at a recognised trial registry site such as the Australia and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry http://www.anzctr.org.au/ or EudraCT in Europe https://eudract.ema.europa.eu/. Details of the registration must be provided in the accompanying MSF, and should also be mentioned in the methods section.

For individual case reports, evidence of informed patient consent to anonymous publication of their clinical details and/or images, etc. must be provided. Case series, where only limited anonymous summary data are reported do not require patient consent, but must have been assessed by an ethics committee and, if indicated, have ethics approval. Consult your local ethics committee if you are unsure.

Authorship: Authors must have contributed significantly to the study (see guideline to authorship at:

https://www.dhmjournal.com/images/Docs/Guideline_to_authorship_in_DHM_journal-2015.pdf.

Inclusion of more than six authors in any one manuscript requires strong justification. Other contributors may be listed in the Acknowledgements section.

Mandatory submission form (MSF): A fully completed MSF must be signed by the first author and the corresponding author (if different) and must be uploaded with other manuscript documents in Manuscript Manager with all submissions, irrespective of type. Authors should be listed with the principal author first. Authors should be listed on the MSF in the order intended for the published paper. The form requires the full postal address, phone number and email address supplied for the first author; if the corresponding author is not the first author, then full contact details for both are required. The MSF is available for download on the DHM website.

https://www.dhmjournal.com/index.php/author-instructions

Conflict of interest form: All conflicts of interest by any author must be reported in summary in the Mandatory Submission Form. If your paper is accepted and any conflicts have been listed here, then more detailed information will be required using the ICMJE form available on the ICMJE website at: http://www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf. A form for each author for whom a potential conflict was listed must be submitted.

All potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise (e.g., consultancies, equity interests, patent-licensing arrangements, lack of access to data, or lack of control of the decision to publish) by any author must be declared. DHM reserves the right to seek further clarification as necessary. All conflicts or a declaration of no conflicts will appear at the end of the published article. Failure to report potential conflicts of interest prior to peer review may result in publication delays or rejection of the manuscript.

Authors should consult the WAME website http://www.wame.org/about/conflict-of-interest-in-peer-reviewed-medical if they need further clarification.

Peer review and publication process. All submitted manuscripts will be subject to open peer review usually by a member of the Editorial Board and/or external reviewers. Reviewer comments will be provided to authors with any recommendations for improvement before acceptance for publication, or if the article is rejected. DHM believes that a transparent review process is indicated in such a small specialty; reviewers are often able to identify the origin of manuscripts and, in the interests of fairness, the authors are, therefore, generally provided the names of their reviewers. The review process typically takes about eight weeks but can be longer. If additional reviews are needed, this will prolong the process. Papers are generally scheduled for publication in order of final acceptance. The Editor retains the right to delay or expedite publication in the interests of the Journal.

If the submission requires revision and resubmission before it can be accepted for publication (and the majority of papers do), then the revised files must be submitted by logging on again at http://www.manuscriptmanager.net/dhm with the same username and password created for the original submission, then the article can be resubmitted by clicking the resubmit link NOT the new submission link. Do NOT create a new account.

Proofs of articles to be published will be sent to corresponding authors in pdf format by email close to the time of publication. You will require Adobe Reader to access this, which may be downloaded from https://get.adobe.com/reader/. Authors are expected to read the proofs very carefully and inform the editorial office within the time specified of any minor corrections they require. Corrections should be listed in an email sent to the journal address This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or annotated electronically within the pdf file and returned to the same address. It is expected that the corresponding author will have obtained the approval of all authors for this final version.

English as a second language. Adequate English usage and grammar are prerequisites for acceptance of a paper. However, some editorial assistance may be provided to authors for whom English is not their native language. English language services can be accessed through the European Association of Science Editors (EASE) website http://www.ease.org.uk/. Alternatively, the journal office may be able to put you in touch with a commercial scientific writer.

Copyright. Manuscripts must be offered exclusively to Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine unless clearly authenticated copyright exemption accompanies the manuscript. Authors must agree to accept the standard conditions of publication. These grant DHM a non-exclusive license to publish the article in digital (electronic) form in Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine; also granting the right to sublicense third parties to exercise all or any of these rights. Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine agrees that in publishing the article(s) and exercising this non-exclusive publishing sub-license, the author(s) will always be acknowledged as the copyright owner(s) of the article.

Articles are embargoed for one year from the date of publication, after which they will be free to access on the DHM website. If authors wish their article to be free to access immediately upon publication, then a fee (determined by the publishers, EUBS and SPUMS) will be charged for its release. Authors may place their publication on their own institutional website using the ‘restricted distribution’, water-marked pdf provided but not elsewhere during the first year following publication. Thereafter, the non-watermarked pdf may be used ad-lib.

Author fees. No fees are charged for publication in DHM. However, articles for publication in DHM are embargoed for 12 months. If immediate release is requested by authors then there is a charge for this, set by the publishers.

PDF. Following publication, two electronic PDFs of articles will be forwarded to the corresponding author. One of these, password protected “restricted use” may be placed on the author’s institutional website during the one-year embargo following publication. Thereafter, the non-protected pdf may be used ad-lib.

These Instructions for authors are available as a pdf file on the DHM website at:

https://www.dhmjournal.com/index.php/author-instructions and on the web platform http://www.manuscriptmanager.net/dhm. They are also available on the EUBS and SPUMS websites.

Summary of files to be uploaded in Manuscript Manager when submitting an article

Mandatory submission form
Ethics approval letter where relevant, and/or signed patient consent
Manuscript document
Tables where relevant (each table as a separate Word document)
Figures where relevant, uploaded in the order in which they should appear in the manuscript (each Figure as a separate high-resolution TIFF or JPEG file)
Appendix or supplementary material.
Excel spreadsheet with data and graphs if graphs have been generated in Excel.
Submission letter; authors can use this to communicate any particular considerations or issues they wish the editor to be aware of in relation to their manuscript. The letter should state that the paper is being submitted exclusively to DHM.