About Die Rheumatologie

Die Rheumatologie

Die Rheumatologie is the German-language specialist journal for rheumatology, published by Springer Medizin in Berlin. It serves the continuing education of rheumatologists working in private practice and in hospitals, covering every aspect of clinical rheumatology, the treatment of rheumatic diseases and basic research in the field. Until mid-2022 the journal appeared under the name Zeitschrift für Rheumatologie; in June 2022 Springer Medizin renamed it Die Rheumatologie as part of a program to give its German medical journals clearer, more contemporary titles. With its mix of comprehensive review articles, freely submitted original papers, case reports and certified continuing medical education, it is the central scientific periodical of the rheumatology community in the German-speaking world.

Overview

Die Rheumatologie is aimed at physicians who treat patients with inflammatory and degenerative rheumatic diseases, both in their own practices and in hospital departments. The journal describes itself as an internationally respected publication organ, and its program is built around evidence-based information on diagnostics and therapy with high relevance for daily work. Each issue carries comprehensive review articles on a current focus topic that form the core of the issue, presenting consolidated knowledge with concrete recommendations for action.

The audience includes internists with a specialization in rheumatology, orthopaedic specialists with a rheumatological focus, and physicians in related disciplines who encounter rheumatic diseases in their work. The journal's language is German, with English-language abstracts and an English aims-and-scope statement that addresses an international readership. Articles appear in print and online through Springer Medizin's portal springermedizin.de and through Springer Nature's link.springer.com platform, where individual papers are published with digital object identifiers. The print ISSN is 0340-1855.

The journal is embedded in the professional life of the German rheumatology community. Springer Medizin cooperates closely with the German Society for Rheumatology (DGRH), and the journal's pages reflect the themes of the society's annual congresses, its guidelines and its working groups. For practicing rheumatologists the journal functions as a continuing-education instrument: the rubric of certified continuing medical education allows readers to check their acquired knowledge after reading and to earn CME points online, aligned with the specialty's continuing-education regulations.

History

The journal's history reaches back to the Zeitschrift für Rheumatologie, which for decades was the established German-language periodical of the field. Under this title it built its reputation as the scientific home of German rheumatology, publishing clinical studies, reviews and case reports and serving as the platform for the specialty's professional debates. The title was carried through successive generations of editors and through the transformation of rheumatology from a largely descriptive discipline into an immunologically driven specialty at the forefront of inflammation medicine.

In April 2022 Springer Medizin announced that several of its German medical journals would receive new titles, and the Zeitschrift für Rheumatologie was renamed Die Rheumatologie with effect from the June 2022 issue. The renaming followed the same pattern as the sister journals Der Hautarzt, which became Die Dermatologie, and was presented as a modernization of the journal portfolio. The continuity of the publication was preserved: volume numbering, editorial structures and the cooperation with the professional community continued unchanged under the new name.

A distinctive tradition of the journal is the Julius Springer Prize for Rheumatology, awarded by Springer Medizin for the best continuing-education contribution of the year. In 2018, for example, the prize, endowed with 2,500 euros, went to PD Dr. Anne-Kathrin Tausche, senior physician at Dresden University Hospital, for her contribution on gout, presented at the evening event of the German Society for Rheumatology and Springer Medizin during the 46th DGRH congress in Mannheim. The editor-in-chief named in connection with the journal is Prof. Dr. Ulf Müller-Ladner, with a managing editor overseeing the journal's operations.

In recent years the journal has accompanied the specialty through a period of rapid scientific change. A series of short articles marking eighty years of rheumatology, published in 2021, traced the discipline's development from an era in which neither glucocorticoids nor any targeted therapy was known to today's landscape of biologics and cellular therapies, and noted how rheumatology's close bond with immunology has made it a spearhead of inflammation medicine. The journal's coverage of the DGRH congresses, such as the meeting in Leipzig, continues to mirror the field's current scientific priorities, from the interaction of innate and acquired immunity to rheumatic diseases in old age.

Content and Sections

The editorial architecture of Die Rheumatologie rests on several fixed rubrics. Comprehensive review articles on a current main topic are the centerpiece of every issue. They concentrate on consolidated knowledge about diagnostics and therapy and give the reader concrete recommendations for everyday clinical work. These reviews are commissioned from recognized experts and reflect the state of the art in their respective subfields.

Freely submitted original papers allow the presentation of important clinical studies and serve scientific exchange within the specialty. Case reports present interesting cases and unusual courses of disease or treatment, aiming to optimize diagnostic and therapeutic strategies through the discussion of real patient histories. The rubric of CME-certified continuing education presents verified results of scientific research and makes medical experience usable for daily practice; after reading, readers can test their knowledge online and earn CME points.

Beyond these core rubrics the journal publishes congress reports, news from the professional societies and contributions on health-policy topics affecting rheumatological care. Recent issues have addressed themes such as the pathogenesis of rheumatic diseases across the lifespan, new therapeutic approaches including cellular therapies for autoimmune diseases, the care situation for rheumatology patients in Germany, and the organization of rheumatology in neighboring countries such as Austria. The journal thus combines the functions of a scientific archive, a teaching instrument and a forum for the specialty's self-reflection.

Publisher and Organization

The publisher is Springer Medizin, the medical publishing arm of Springer Nature, based in Berlin. Springer Medizin publishes a large portfolio of German-language medical journals and operates the portal springermedizin.de, through which the journals are distributed in print and digital form. The journal's editorial leadership is headed by editor-in-chief Prof. Dr. Ulf Müller-Ladner, supported by a managing editor in the Springer Medizin journals organization.

The journal works in close cooperation with the German Society for Rheumatology (DGRH), whose congresses and professional activities are regularly covered in its pages. This cooperation gives the journal a quasi-official character within the specialty, similar to the relationship between other Springer Medizin journals and their respective professional societies. The editorial process follows the standards of the publisher's medical journals, with peer review of submitted manuscripts and an editorial board drawn from the academic and clinical leadership of German rheumatology.

The Julius Springer Prize for Rheumatology, awarded by the publisher, underlines the journal's role in promoting high-quality continuing education. The prize honors the best CME training contribution of the year and is presented in the festive setting of the DGRH congress, linking the journal's educational mission to the professional community's annual gathering.

Digital Presence

Die Rheumatologie is fully integrated into Springer Medizin's digital infrastructure. The journal has its own presence on springermedizin.de, where subscribers can access the current issues, the archive and the online CME modules. Individual articles are published on link.springer.com with full bibliographic metadata, abstracts in German and English, and references, making the journal's content discoverable in international databases and search engines.

The digital edition supports the journal's continuing-education function: readers can complete the CME questionnaires online and collect their points directly through the portal. Springer Medizin's platform also offers e-mail alerts, topic collections and personalized reading lists, embedding the journal in the daily digital workflow of its readers. Through the publisher's licensing agreements, the journal is available in the electronic holdings of university and hospital libraries across the German-speaking countries, so that its reviews and original papers reach researchers as well as clinicians. The combination of a traditional print journal, a modern online platform and an active CME program makes Die Rheumatologie a hybrid publication that serves both the scientific documentation and the practical training needs of its specialty.