Future Home of Dermatology Online Journal

Welcome to the future home of Dermatology Online Journal (DOJ)! This page is currently under construction as we work to bring you an enhanced experience for accessing leading research and insights in dermatology.

In the meantime, you can continue to access the current issue and DOJ’s complete archives by clicking the link below:

https://escholarship.org/uc/doj

About Dermatology Online Journal

Dermatology Online Journal was created to explore the educational potential of distributed hypermedia served via the World Wide Web. The journal serves the dual role of providing relevant information and improving the way scholarly content is shared.

Founded by Arthur C. Huntley, MD, as the first open-access online medical journal, DOJ published its first issue in 1995. What began as a small publication of a few articles 1 to 4 times per year has now expanded into a bimonthly journal that publishes 20 articles or more per month. It has been peer reviewed since inception and has been PubMed indexed for more than 10 years.

DOJ generates significant interest domestically and internationally. It has more than 700 reviewers in its reviewing database including physicians and academics from all over the world.  

Dermatology Online Journal Publication Policies

Peer Review Process

All articles are first reviewed by the managing editor, who assigns them to members of the editorial board for formal review. Editorial judgments are objective, and the process uses single-blind peer review. All manuscripts that undergo review may be accepted, returned for revision, or rejected. The Editors make the final decision on submitted manuscripts. Reviewers must recuse themselves if they have conflicts of interest with their assigned reviews, in which case alternate reviewers will be assigned. The content of all articles is treated confidentially prior to their publication, if accepted, and reviewer identity and reviewer comments are not publicly disclosed. 

When an author serves also as an editor or member of the editorial board, they be will recused from the reviewing process and a nonconflicted reviewer will be selected.

Ethics and Malpractice Statement 

The editors of Dermatology Online Journal pledge to constantly improve the journal and strive to guarantee that quality material is published. The editors value freedom of expression but have respect for academic integrity. The editors vow to not let business needs compromise academic standards and are always willing to entertain corrections, clarifications, retractions, and apologies ad hoc. If applicable, readers will always be informed regarding the source of funding for the research in question. The editors further pledge to confirm that research material conforms to accepted ethical guidelines and the confidentiality of individual information will be given priority. The editorial board's disclosures can be requested from the managing editor. 

The editors will ensure that quality material is published and the decision to accept or reject a manuscript will be solely based on the manuscript’s importance, originality, quality, and relevance to the journal’s readership. The journal abides by a strict peer review process for any submitted manuscript. Decisions on accepted or rejected manuscripts will not be reversed unless serious problems are identified.

The editors ensure that the peer reviewer identities are protected and the journal’s reviewers are aware of their expectations when reviewing a submitted manuscript. The journal ensures that material submitted remains confidential while under review.

Any complaints should be sent to jofskin@gmail.com. The date and nature of complaint should be included in the message. If the issue is not resolved, the matter can be further investigated by the Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE) as outlined here: http://publicationethics.org/files/2008%20Code%20of%20Conduct.pdf.

Legitimate criticisms or constructive comments of published work will always be given consideration for publication unless the editor has a clear and convincing reason not to publish. Authors of material that is criticized will always have the opportunity to publish a rebuttal. Studies that report negative or unfavorable results are not automatically excluded and undergo the same peer review process as studies that report positive or significant results.

The editors have an obligation to report suspected misconduct in both published and submitted manuscripts and will take steps to prevent publication in the first place. The editors will first seek an explanation from the submitting authors. If this does not resolve the matter, the sponsoring institution will be contacted, and the editors will make all efforts to ensure a fair and proper investigation is conducted. If misconduct or fraudulent data is reported, the manuscript will be redacted. Furthermore, if an error or misleading statement is recognized, the editors will promptly publish a correction. Editors will never encourage misconduct or knowingly allow it to occur.

The journal does not tolerate plagiarism.

Misleading advertisements on the journal’s website will be refused or corrected. The journal’s advertisements will not influence the type of manuscripts that are published, and advertisers will not receive any special advantages when submitting work that directly involves the advertised product or service.

Conflicts of interest regarding the editors, reviewers, and authors are always reviewed and included in every submission. Reprints are published as they appear in the journal unless a correction needs to be added.

In the event the journal is no longer published, the journal’s contents will be archived online. The journal has an electronic backup through the Portico archival system.

Policies on human and animal rights and informed consent 

If the work involves the use of human subjects, the author should ensure that the work described has been carried out in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association (Declaration of Helsinki) for experiments involving humans. The manuscript should be in line with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals and aim for the inclusion of representative human populations (sex, age and ethnicity) as per those recommendations. The terms sex and gender should be used correctly.

Authors should include a statement in the manuscript that informed consent was obtained for experimentation with human subjects. The privacy rights of human subjects must always be observed.

All studies involving human subjects, Protected Health Information, or animal subjects must have received approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) or ethics committee, or the authors must provide a statement confirming that their study is IRB-exempt. In the IRB process, these protections are considered at the study site, and authors must ensure compliance with ethical standards.

All animal experiments should comply with the ARRIVE guidelines and should be carried out in accordance with the U.K. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, 1986 and associated guidelines, EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments, or the National Research Council's Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and the authors should clearly indicate in the manuscript that such guidelines have been followed. The sex of animals must be indicated, and where appropriate, the influence (or association) of sex on the results of the study.

Studies on patients or volunteers require ethics committee approval and informed consent, which should be documented in the paper. Appropriate consents, permissions, and releases must be obtained where an author wishes to include case details or other personal information or images of patients and any other individuals in Dermatology Online Journal. Written consents must be retained by the author, but copies should not be provided to the journal. Only if specifically requested by the journal in exceptional circumstances (for example, if a legal issue arises), the author must provide copies of the consents or evidence that such consents have been obtained.

Appropriate consents, permissions, and releases must be obtained where authors wish to include case details or other personal information or images of patients and any other individuals in Dermatology Online Journal in order to comply with all applicable laws and regulations concerning the privacy and/or security of personal information, including, but not limited to, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 ("HIPAA") and other U.S. federal and state laws relating to privacy and security of personally identifiable information, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679 and member state implementing legislation, Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, India's Information Technology Act and related Privacy Rules, (together "Data Protection and Privacy Laws").

Unless you have written permission from the patient (or, where applicable, the next of kin), the personal details of any patient included in any part of the article and in any supplementary materials (including all illustrations and videos) must be removed before submission.

Data Sharing policy

Dermatology Online Journal expects that data supporting the results in the paper will be archived in an appropriate public repository. Authors are required to provide a data availability statement to describe the availability or the absence of shared data. When data have been shared, authors are required to include in their data availability statement a link to the repository they have used, and to cite the data they have shared. Whenever possible, the scripts and other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper should also be publicly archived. If sharing data compromises ethical standards or legal requirements, then authors are not expected to share it.

Advertising policy

Advertisers in Dermatology Online Journal warrant and represent that publication of advertisements submitted to Dermatology Online Journal:

• will not breach or infringe any copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or obligation of confidentiality or privacy, any law of defamation or obscenity, or any relevant law or regulation concerning advertising or promotions, including any medical advertising laws, industry codes or regulations;
• the Customer has the right to grant the license to NSCM to use the Advertising as contemplated by these Terms;
• the Advertising is accurate, truthful, and nondeceptive and does not violate any laws regarding false advertising;
• the Advertising does not violate any other applicable law, statute, ordinance, or regulation, including without limitation any laws and regulations governing export control;
• the Advertising is not and does not contain content that is lewd, pornographic or obscene, excessively profane, racist, ethnically offensive, threatening, infringing, excessively violent, libelous, gambling-related, or promote any discriminatory activity, promote illegal drugs or arms trafficking, create a risk to a person's safety or health, compromise national security or interfere with an investigation by law enforcement officials or is offensive, misleading, deceptive or destructive, and does not promote, advocate or facilitate terrorism, terrorist-related activities or violence;
• Online Advertising does not create, facilitate the creation of or exploit any security vulnerabilities in a user's computer, promote programs that compensate or provide incentives to users for clicking ads or offers, performing searches, surfing websites or reading emails that contain viruses, trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancelbots or other harmful or deleterious programming routines whether similar or dissimilar to the foregoing; and
• Customer has obtained written consent to display the name or image of any living person in any Advertising.

About Dermsquared

Dermsquared is the leading solutions platform for dermatology professionals by dermatology professionals for providing education, information and services including live conferences, virtual programs, publications, curriculum, digital products, in-office tools and practice management. Through this growing suite of solutions powered by the most esteemed experts in dermatology, Dermsquared empowers dermatologists to reach their full potential and elevate patient care.

Dermsquared is also the publisher of SKIN: The Journal of Cutaneous Medicine, a bimonthly, peer-reviewed, open-access medical journal committed to advancing dermatologic knowledge across all areas of cutaneous disease.

The journal adheres to the highest standards of scientific publishing, including a rigorous blind peer-review process, clear declarations of competing interests and funding, stringent requirements for patient consent and ethical approval, and detailed statements of guarantorship, contributorship, and article provenance.