About Die Dermatologie

Die Dermatologie

Die Dermatologie is a monthly German-language peer-reviewed journal for dermatology, published by Springer Medizin in Berlin as part of Springer Nature. Until May 2022 it appeared under the title Der Hautarzt, which it had carried since its founding in 1950, before being renamed as part of a broad gender-inclusivity initiative by the publisher that replaced titles based on male professional designations with titles based on medical disciplines. The journal is published on behalf of the Deutsche STI-Gesellschaft and the Deutsche Dermatologische Lasergesellschaft and covers the full spectrum of dermatology, allergology, and venerology. With twelve issues a year, a peer-review process, and an international authorship, it is the central German-language scientific journal of its specialty.

Overview

Die Dermatologie is a scientific journal that publishes works from all areas of dermatology, allergology, and venerology. It appears twelve times a year and addresses dermatologists in practice, hospitals, and research, as well as specialists in neighbouring fields. The journal combines original scientific articles with review articles, case reports, and guidelines, and all contributions undergo peer review.

The journal's bibliographic identifiers are ISSN 2731-7005 for the print edition and ISSN 2731-7013 for the online edition, with the CODEN HAUTA carried over from its predecessor title. According to IVW figures from the second quarter of 2022, the sold circulation was 861 copies and the distributed circulation 2,121 copies, reflecting the journal's highly specialized scientific audience. The language of the journal is recorded as multilingual, with German as the primary language and English-language content included.

The editorial leadership is organized as a board of editors-in-chief, with M. Jünger, A. Kapp, R. Kaufmann, J. Krutmann, H.F. Merck, M. Meurer, and Th. Ruzicka named in that capacity. The journal's content is structured around lead-theme issues, recent CME courses, case reports, guidelines, review articles, and original articles, giving readers a mix of scientific depth and certified continuing education.

History

The journal was founded in 1950 as Der Hautarzt and quickly became the leading German-language journal for dermatology. For more than seven decades it served as the central publication organ of German dermatology, accompanying the specialty's development from the post-war era through the molecular revolution in skin research.

In April 2022, Springer Medizin announced the renaming of the journal to Die Dermatologie, effective with the June 2022 issue. The change was part of the publisher's sweeping equality initiative, in which titles based on male professional designations were replaced with titles based on the medical disciplines themselves, following the concept of "Der Facharzt" becoming "Die Fachdisziplin". Der Hautarzt became Die Dermatologie in the same wave that turned Der Anaesthesist into Die Anaesthesiologie, Der Chirurg into Die Chirurgie, Der Internist into Die Innere Medizin, Der Gynäkologe into Die Gynäkologie, Der Onkologe into Die Onkologie, and Der Diabetologe into Die Diabetologie. The renaming preserved the journal's continuity, volume numbering, ISSN lineage, and bibliographic identity.

Recent issues illustrate the journal's thematic range: the February 2026 issue focused on environmental dermatology, covering the influence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances on chronic inflammatory skin diseases, the relevance of micro- and nanoplastics, and personalized sun protection; the January 2026 issue addressed dermatoendocrinology, with topics such as hormones and skin pigmentation and the skin-thyroid connection; and the December 2025 issue covered dermatosurgery, offering a compact overview of current developments and concepts in a field that has been a fixed component of practical and scientific dermatology for decades. These lead-theme issues demonstrate how the journal connects emerging research frontiers, such as the dermatological effects of environmental pollutants, with the established procedural core of the specialty.

The 2022 renaming was part of a larger transformation of the Springer Medizin journal portfolio. The publisher, formed in 2016 from the merger of Springer Medizin Berlin/Heidelberg, Urban and Vogel, the Ärzte Zeitung Verlag, Steinkopff, MED.KOMM., the Springer Gesundheits- und Pharmazieverlag, and BSMO, publishes books, journals, and newspapers across human medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and health policy. The equality initiative that renamed Der Hautarzt to Die Dermatologie applied the same principle across the portfolio, replacing the old "Der Facharzt" concept with the new "Die Fachdisziplin" concept. The journal is listed among Springer Medizin's further journals and newspapers alongside Die Gynäkologie, Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Trauma und Berufskrankheit, and the Ärzte Zeitung.

Coverage and Content

The journal's content spans the full breadth of dermatology, allergology, and venerology. Lead-theme issues take up selected topics in depth: recent examples include environmental dermatology, dermatoendocrinology, and dermatosurgery. Original articles present new research findings, review articles synthesize the state of knowledge on clinical questions, case reports illustrate unusual clinical courses, and guidelines keep readers current with the standards of care.

The CME rubric offers certified continuing education, allowing readers to earn credits by working through the journal's educational content. The journal's aims reflect the dual identity of modern dermatology: a clinical specialty rooted in visual diagnosis and procedural skill, and a scientific discipline engaged with immunology, genetics, and environmental medicine. The inclusion of allergology and venerology in its scope reflects the traditional organization of the specialty in German-speaking countries, where these fields are closely linked to dermatology in training and practice. As a peer-reviewed scientific journal, it holds its contributions to scholarly standards of evidence and referencing, which distinguishes it from purely professional magazines serving the same readership. The environmental dermatology lead theme of early 2026 is a telling example of the journal's responsiveness to new scientific concerns: questions about the skin effects of fluorinated chemicals and microplastics, and about individually adapted sun protection, sit at the intersection of dermatology, toxicology, and public health, and the journal treats them as core dermatological topics rather than peripheral curiosities.

Organization and Ownership

Die Dermatologie is published by Springer Medizin Verlag, the medical publishing division of Springer Nature, headquartered in Berlin. The journal is published on behalf of two professional societies: the Deutsche STI-Gesellschaft (German STI Society) and the Deutsche Dermatologische Lasergesellschaft (DDL, German Dermatological Laser Society). This society mandate gives the journal an official standing within the dermatological community.

The editorial leadership is organized as a collective of editors-in-chief, with M. Jünger, A. Kapp, R. Kaufmann, J. Krutmann, H.F. Merck, M. Meurer, and Th. Ruzicka serving in that role. The journal's peer-review process and its indexing in the scientific literature underpin its status as a scientific journal rather than a purely professional magazine. Its impact factor was recorded at 0.564 in 2014, placing it in the dermatology category of the Journal Citation Reports.

Digital Presence

Die Dermatologie is fully integrated into Springer Medizin's digital ecosystem. The journal's page on the publisher's website presents the current and recent issues, the newest CME courses drawn from the journal, and the standard rubrics of case reports, guidelines, review articles, and original articles. Customer service for subscriptions and website use is handled through the publisher's service centre, and the editorial office can be contacted directly through the platform.

The journal's digital identity lives within the Springer Medizin and Springer Nature Link platforms rather than on a standalone brand site, which is standard for the publisher's specialist journals. The online edition carries its own ISSN, and articles are published digitally with citable identifiers. The platform also invites reader feedback directly to the editorial office, keeping the journal in dialogue with its specialist audience. Whether the journal maintains dedicated social media channels is not publicly confirmed from the sources consulted.