INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS
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1.Author Guidelines
The Journal of Disability and Oral Health is the official
journal of the British Association of Disability and Oral Health,
the Irish Association of Disability and Oral Health and the International
Association of Disability and Oral Health. The Journal of Disability
and Oral Health (JDOH) is published quarterly and has international
scope with comprehensive coverage of disability and oral health
in the wider context of dentistry. The Journal is available on line
at www.jdohonline.org
Types of Manuscript
The Journal seeks to publish original peer-reviewed articles relating
to all aspects relevant to the comprehensive oral care of disabled
people and to the dental public health aspects of disability. The
Journal publishes Editorials, Original Scientific Articles, Reviews,
Commentaries, and Clinical articles on novel techniques, Case Series
and a limited number of Case Reports. Editorials and Reviews may
be commissioned and authors are encouraged to contact the Editor
to discuss potential topics. Authorship
The Journal of Disability and Oral Health adheres to the
definition of authorship set up by The International Committee of
Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and is included in the ICMJE list.
All authors submitting work to the Journal of Disability and Oral
Health must have read and must meet the requirements for authorship
and on publication ethics set out in the policy of the International
Committee of Medical Journal Editors on Uniform Requirements for
Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing
for Biomedical Publication as laid out in: www.icmje.org/urm_full.pdf
Specific statements are detailed later.
ICMJE states that authorship criteria should be based on 1) substantial
contributions to conception and design of, or acquisition of data
or analysis and interpretation of data 2) drafting the article or
revising it critically for important intellectual content and 3)
final approval of the version to be published. Authors should meet
conditions 1, 2 and 3.
The Journal of Disability and Oral Health is a member of
the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and supports and encourages
the use of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials CONSORT
checklist as detailed later.
2.Ethical Guidelines
The Journal of Disability and Oral Health adheres to the
following ethical guidelines for publication and research, manuscripts
will only be considered for publication if they meet the highest
ethical standards. Authors must read and adhere to the following:
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors - Uniform Requirements
for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Statement of Purpose:
About the Uniform Requirements. Revision 2010. Full details: www.icmje.org/sop_1about.html
2.1.Published Conflict of Interest Statement
Ethical Considerations in the Conduct and Reporting of Research:
Conflicts of Interest www.icmje.org/ethical_4conflicts.html
‘Public trust in the peer-review process and the credibility
of published articles depends in part on how well conflict of interest
is handled during writing, peer review, and editorial decision making.
Conflict of interest exists when an author (or the author’s
institution), reviewer, or editor has financial or personal relationships
that inappropriately influence (bias) his or her actions (such relationships
are also known as dual commitments, competing interests, or competing
loyalties). These relationships vary from being negligible to having
great potential for influencing judgment. Not all relationships
represent true conflict of interest. On the other hand, the potential
for conflict of interest can exist regardless of whether an individual
believes that the relationship affects his or her scientific judgment.
Financial relationships (such as employment, consultancies, stock
ownership, honoraria, and paid expert testimony) are the most easily
identifiable conflicts of interest and the most likely to undermine
the credibility of the journal, the authors, and of science itself.
However, conflicts can occur for other reasons, such as personal
relationships, academic competition, and intellectual passion.
All participants in the peer-review and publication process must
disclose all relationships that could be viewed as potential conflicts
of interest. Disclosure of such relationships is also important
in connection with editorials and review articles, because it can
be more difficult to detect bias in these types of publications
than in reports of original research. Editors may use information
disclosed in conflict-of-interest and financial-interest statements
as a basis for editorial decisions. Editors should publish this
information if they believe it is important in judging the manuscript’.
2.2.Published Statement on Human and Animal Rights
Ethical Considerations in the Conduct and Reporting of Research:
Protection of Human Subjects and Animals in Researchwww.icmje.org/ethical_6protection.html
‘When reporting experiments on human subjects, authors should
indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with
the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation
(institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of
1975, as revised in 2008 (5). If doubt exists whether the research
was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration, the authors
must explain the rationale for their approach and demonstrate that
the institutional review body explicitly approved the doubtful aspects
of the study. When reporting experiments on animals, authors should
indicate whether the institutional and national guide for the care
and use of laboratory animals was followed’.
2.3.Published statement of informed consent
Ethical Considerations in the Conduct and Reporting of Research:
Privacy and Confidentiality www.icmje.org/ethical_5privacy.html
Patients and Study Participants
‘Patients have a right to privacy that should not be violated
without informed consent. Identifying information, including names,
initials, or hospital numbers, should not be published in written
descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees unless the information is
essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or
guardian) gives written informed consent for publication. Informed
consent for this purpose requires that an identifiable patient be
shown the manuscript to be published. Authors should disclose to
these patients whether any potential identifiable material might
be available via the Internet as well as in print after publication.
Patient consent should be written and archived with the journal,
the authors, or both, as dictated by local regulations or laws.
Applicable laws vary from locale to locale, and journals should
establish their own policies with legal guidance. Since a journal
that archives the consent will be aware of patient identity, some
journals may decide that patient confidentiality is better guarded
by having the author archive the consent and instead providing the
journal with a written statement that attests that they have received
and archived written patient consent.
Nonessential identifying details should be omitted. Informed consent
should be obtained if there is any doubt that anonymity can be maintained.
For example, masking the eye region in photographs of patients is
inadequate protection of anonymity. If identifying characteristics
are altered to protect anonymity, such as in genetic pedigrees,
authors should provide assurance, and editors should so note, that
such alterations do not distort scientific meaning.
The requirement for informed consent should be included in the journal’s
Instructions for Authors. When informed consent has been obtained,
it should be indicated in the published article’.
2.4.Ethical Considerations in the Conduct and Reporting of Research:
Peer Review
www.icmje.org/ethical_3peer.html
‘Unbiased, independent, critical assessment is an intrinsic
part of all scholarly work, including the scientific process. Peer
review is the critical assessment of manuscripts submitted to journals
by experts who are not part of the editorial staff. Peer review
can therefore be viewed as an important extension of the scientific
process. Although its actual value has been little studied and is
widely debated (4), peer review helps editors decide which manuscripts
are suitable for their journals and helps authors and editors to
improve the quality of reporting. A peer-reviewed journal submits
most of its published research articles for outside review. The
number and kinds of manuscripts sent for review, the number of reviewers,
the reviewing procedures, and the use made of the reviewers’
opinions may vary. In the interests of transparency, each journal
should publicly disclose its policies and average turn-around times
in its Instructions to Authors’.
Ethical Approvals
The Journal of Disability and Oral Health is a member of
the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). The Journal of Disability
and Oral Health supports and encourages the use of the Consolidated
Standards of Reporting Trials CONSORT checklist.
Ethics: Experimentation involving human subjects will only
be published if such research has been
conducted in full accordance with ethical principles, including:
1.The World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (version,
2008) and the additional requirements, if any, of the country
where the research has been carried out. The paper should detail
the approval of the ethical committee for the study.
www.wma.net/en/20activities/10ethics/10helsinki/
2.European Medicines Agency July 2002 CPMP/ICH/135/95
ICH Topic E 6 (R1) Guideline for Good Clinical Practice www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_GB/document_library/Scientific_guideline/2009/09/WC500002874.pdf
NOTE FOR GUIDANCE ON GOOD CLINICAL PRACTICE (CPMP/ICH/135/95)
‘Good Clinical Practice (GCP) is an international ethical and
scientific quality standard for designing, conducting, recording
and reporting trials that involve the participation of human subjects.
Compliance with this standard provides public assurance that the
rights, safety and well-being of trial subjects are protected, consistent
with the principles that have their origin in the Declaration of
Helsinki, and that the clinical trial data are credible. The objective
of this ICH GCP Guideline is to provide a unified standard for the
European Union (EU), Japan and the United States to facilitate the
mutual acceptance of clinical data by the regulatory authorities
in these jurisdictions. The guideline was developed with consideration
of the current good clinical practices of the European Union, Japan,
and the United States, as well as those of Australia, Canada, the
Nordic countries and the World Health Organization (WHO). This guideline
should be followed when generating clinical trial data that are
intended to be submitted to regulatory authorities. The principles
established in this guideline may also be applied to other clinical
investigations that may have an impact on the safety and well-being
of human subjects’.
3.Clinical Trials
Clinical trials should be reported using the CONSORT guidelines
available at:
www.consort-statement.org/
‘The CONSORT Statement is intended to improve the reporting
of a randomized controlled trial (RCT), enabling readers to understand
a trial's design, conduct, analysis and interpretation, and to assess
the validity of its results. It emphasizes that this can only be
achieved through complete transparency from authors. Investigators
and editors developed and revised the CONSORT (CONsolidated Standards
of Reporting Trials) Statement to help authors improve reporting
of two-parallel design RCTs by using a checklist and flow diagram.
The most up-to-date revision of the CONSORT Statement is CONSORT
2010, which can be freely viewed and downloaded from this website.
All previous versions of the CONSORT Statement are out-dated. Extensions
of the CONSORT Statement have been developed for other types of
study designs, interventions and data’ www.consort-statement.org/extensions/extensions/
A CONSORT checklist and flow diagram should also be included in
the submission material. The Journal of Disability and Oral Health
encourages authors submitting manuscripts reporting from a clinical
trial to register the trials in any of the following free, public
clinical trials registries: www.clinicaltrials.gov, www.clinicaltrials.ifpma.org/clinicaltrials,
www.isrctn.org/. The clinical trial registration number and name
of the trial register will then be published with the paper’.
Manuscripts must be accompanied by a statement that experiments
were undertaken with the understanding and written consent of each
subject and according to the above mentioned principles. A statement
regarding the fact that the study has been independently reviewed
and approved by an ethical board should also be included. This may
be a Local Research Ethics Committee approval and the approval number
should be included.
The Editor reserves the right to reject manuscripts if there are
doubts as to whether appropriate procedures have been used in preparation
of the manuscript.
4.Submission instructions
Guidance on Manuscript preparation and submission can be found:
Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals:
Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication www.icmje.org/urm_full.pdf"
Submission to Journal of Disability and Oral Health
Submission of your manuscript should be sent by email to JDOHEditor@cardiff.ac.uk
Please attach the following:
Note: failure to do so may significantly delay the review process
of your manuscript:
1.Manuscript: Send your manuscript in the correct form –
see instructions below
2.Covering letter: A covering letter must be signed by all
the authors stating:
The submission is the original work of the author(s) and has not
been published, nor being considered for publication, elsewhere.
Authors submitting a paper do so on the understanding that the manuscript
has been read and approved by all authors and that all authors agree
to the submission of the manuscript to the Journal of Disability
and Oral Health. ALL named authors must have made an active
contribution to the conception and design and/or analysis and interpretation
of the data and/or the drafting of the paper. ALL named authors
must have critically reviewed its content and have approved the
final version submitted for publication. Participation solely by
virtue of acquisition of funding or the collection of data does
not justify authorship.Up to 6 authors are accepted without need
for justification. In the case of a specific and detailed justification
of the role of every author, up to 8 authors may be mentioned. It
is a requirement that all authors have been accredited as appropriate
upon submission of the manuscript.
Contributors who do not qualify as authors should be mentioned under
Acknowledgements.
3.Disclosure Form: a completed disclosure form must be included
(www.icmje.org/coi_disclosure.pdf) declaring any potential
conflict of interest.
4.Ethical Approval: Where necessary, authors should have
received ethical approval for their
work and this information should be recorded in the manuscript.
Content and style of manuscripts
Use a clear and concise writing style and avoid jargon or long and
complicated sentences that are hard to follow. Avoid the passive
voice when the active voice may be more appropriate e.g. ‘The
authors chose to examine patients because..’ rather than ‘Patients
were chosen to be examined by the authors because...’.
Use International English spelling e.g. ‘ise’ not ‘ize’.
Manuscripts should be double-spaced with a font size of 12. Use
a margin of 4cm on the left hand side of the page. Pages should
be numbered consecutively on the top right hand corner. Main headings
should be in upper case and emboldened, subsidiary headings should
be in lower case and emboldened.
Original Scientific Articles
Length of contributions: As a general guide, contributions
should be no more than 3000 words, including Tables and Figures
these generally count for 100-500 words depending on size.
Title page should contain the following information and be sent
as separate document with authors’ names and address (es).
Academic qualifications are not necessary.
Title - must be short and descriptive
Author(s) name(s) – Surname then initials of each author.
Separate authors by ‘,’ and job titles
Institution – indicate with numbers the Institution
associated with each author
Correspondence address- Address, telephone, fax and email
of corresponding author
Key Words no more than six key words
Running Title
Abstracts: must be able to stand alone and be structured
as indicated below. Abstracts should not include references or abbreviations
and may be up to 250 words long.
Aim and objectives
Methodology - to include subjects - number of subjects and
selection; setting, procedures including the nature of any interventions,
main outcome measures,
Results
Conclusions
Main Document: Should be divided into the sections and in
the following order:
Introduction
Material and Method
Results
Discussion
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
References
Tables
Figure Legends
Figures
Acknowledgements - Sources of institutional, private and
corporate financial support for the work within the manuscript should
be fully acknowledged, and any potential conflicts of interest noted.
Specify contributors to the article other than the authors should
be accredited. Acknowledge only persons who have made substantive
contributions to the study. Authors are responsible for obtaining
written permission from everyone acknowledged by name because readers
may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions.
Declaration of interest - Information concerning conflict
of interest and sources of funding regarding your paper should be
declared. This includes issues such as funding from an organisation
or company directly for the research; funding you have received
(or payment in kind) for any work you have been involved in or from
an organisation or company that could be linked to the research;
any consultation or advisory positions you may hold in an organisation
or company involved in the research or an organisation involved
in similar research; should be declared and any other situation
that could be construed as a conflict of interest.
References - Authors have responsibility for the accuracy
of the references both within the text and in the Reference section.
Personal communication should be avoided but where essential will
appear in the text only The Harvard style should be used. See Reference
style for further information.
Tables –should be numbered in Arabic numbers e.g. 1,
2. Each Table should appear on a separate page in Word and have
a legend which explains the content of the table without reference
to the text. No vertical lines should be included in the tables.
Where appropriate, consideration should be given to alternative
ways of displaying data other than in tables, for example, as histograms.
Figures - These should be referred to in the text as ‘Figure’
and given Arabic numbers. Figures should be submitted electronically
in TIFF, JPEG or EPS format at high resolution (at least 300dpi).
If the manuscript is accepted following the peer review process,
the original photograph may be requested for professional scanning.
Important note: Patients should not be readily identifiable
from their photographs. Their or their guardian’s written consent
for publication must be obtained by the author and a copy sent to
JDOH. It is not sufficient to block out the eyes of the person on
the image. Colour illustrations are permitted. All Figure legends
should be written on a separate page in the word processing package.
Abbreviations- The JDOH does not encourage the use of abbreviations,
especially in the Abstract or Summary where they are difficult to
interpret. Common abbreviations are accepted as follows; they should
be written out in full at the first mention in the text e.g. Special
Care Dentistry (SCD), cardiovascular system (CVS). If they are only
mentioned infrequently, write out in full.
Numbers and Units: spell out numbers in full when they start
a sentence or when less than 10, unless they are followed by a unit
of measurement. Units must conform to the Systemè International
d’Unités (SI).
Reference style
The reference style for JDOH is now the Harvard style for easier
electronic reference management.
Author(s): family name followed first name(s) initials. There should
be comma after each set of initials, except the last, which is to
be followed by a period. This is followed by the year of publication
then the volume number and then by the first and last pages in full.
Examples of Reference styles:
Original Scientific Articles: Author. Year. Article title. Journal
Title volume (issue), pages.
Gordon, F., Morgan, M., Thompson, S. 2009. A survey of the quality
and quantity of Special Care Dentistry Teaching, including Gerodontology,
in Dental Schools of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Journal of
Disability and Oral Health 10 (1), pp 3-10.
Books: Author. Year. Book Title. Place: Publisher.
Gorlin, R.J., Cohen, M.M. Jr, Levin, L.S. 1990. Syndromes of the
Head and Neck. Third edition. New York: Oxford University Press.
Chapter in book: Chapter Author(s). Year. Title of chapter.
In: Book Editor ed/eds. Book title. Place: Publisher, chapter page
numbers.
Griffiths, J.E. and Boyle, S. 1993. Oral assessment. In: Colour
guide to Holistic Oral Care: a Practical Approach. Aylesbury: Mosby-Year
Book Europe, pp 87-98.
Report or Web Document: Author or Editor (if available).
Year. Title [Online-if online]. Place: Publishable (if available).
Available at: web address of document [Accessed: day Month year].
Dalley, K. 2009. The Provision of Oral Health Care under General
Anaesthesia in Special Care Dentistry A Professional Consensus Statement
[Online]. UK: British Society for Disability and Oral Health. Available
at: http://www.bsdh.org.uk/guidelines/BSDH_GA_in_SCD_2009.pdf [Accessed:
31May 2011].
In the main text of the manuscript:
One author: should be referred to in the text as: (Thompson, 2009).
Two authors: should be referred to in the text as: (Clarkson and
O’Mullane, 1989).
Three or more authors: should be referred to in the text as (Shaw
et al., 1995).
Multiple references need to be listed in chronological order.
Where an author has published more than one reference in any one
year, these should be suffixed as 1987a or 1996a; b.
The author is responsible for the accuracy of the reference list
at the end of the manuscript.
Case reports
These should be short and concise reports of one or a small series
of clinical cases or of a novel technique. There should be a purpose
to presenting the case, for example, a cautionary note for other
clinicians or a new way of managing a particular situation.
The Abstract should be short (50 words maximum) and no references
should be included. The Case report should include a short
Introduction and then a Report of Case(s) to include
details of patient/technique, investigations, differential diagnosis,
treatment options and outcomes, ideally over at least 6 months.
Discussion should be focussed and describe the importance
of the case in regard to implications for oral healthcare and of
relevant findings that have not previously been reported. The Conclusions
should be short and there should be a maximum of 10 References.
Key Words -no more than five key words and there should be
a Running Title.
Review Articles
A review article should be a structured assessment of the literature
using current papers (usually within the last decade) which have
a good scientific background. The review should include a description
of how the articles have been selected and if appropriate a full
search strategy. The review should include analysis and comment
on the literature reviewed and include a report of the results and
an analysis of the quality of the literature reviewed.
The review would usually be approximately 4000-5000 words of text,
excluding references. The review would need to undergo the standard
peer review process of the JDOH therefore, acceptance cannot be
guaranteed.
Additional Points
Peer Review: All papers will undergo initial screening for
suitability for publication in JDOH by the Editor. Papers that are
deemed suitable will be sent for peer review by two or more referees.
If reviewers widely differ, a third reviewer is appointed. Additional
specialist advice may be sought if necessary, for example from a
bio medical statistician. The final decision to accept or reject,
based on revised manuscript is made by the Editor.
Proofs and offprints/reprints page proofs will be sent to
the corresponding author for checking of accuracy only, essentially
typesetting errors. No substantial changes can be made to the paper
at this stage. A rapid turn-around is required to keep to publisher’s
deadlines. A CD of a PDF file of the paper, offprints, printed at
the same time as the paper or reprints, printed subsequently and
therefore a more costly option can be ordered by the author(s) at
the time of acceptance of the page proofs. Copyright is normally
signed over to the British Society for Disability and Oral Health
at this stage. Photocopies can be made for educational purposes
without the consent of the publisher.
Disclaimer: The Publisher, Editor and Editorial Board cannot
be responsible for any errors or any consequences arising from the
use of information that is published in the Journal of Disability
and Oral Health. The views and opinions expressed in the Journal
are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views
of the Publisher, Editor and Editorial Board or policies of the
British Society for Disability and Oral Health, the Irish Association
of Disability and Oral Health or the International Association of
Disability and Oral Health. The publication of advertisements does
not necessarily constitute any endorsement by the Publisher, Editor
and Editorial Board of the products advertised.
Confidentiality: The content of all manuscripts under review
is kept confidential within the office of the Editor of the JDOH.
Referees are requested to respect confidentiality throughout the
peer review process until publication if the manuscript is accepted.
Following acceptance all information relating to a paper will be
kept confidential.
Copyright: All authors assign a Copyright Transfer Agreement
of their article to the Journal of Disability and Oral Health
upon acceptance. Single copies of papers can be made for personal
use free of charge. Multiple copies can be made only after permission
has been granted by Stephen Hancocks Ltd, 8.12 Aragon Tower, Longshore,
London, SE8 3AH.
Manuscripts may be edited to improve clarity by the Editor who reserves
the right to do so in order to conform to acceptable JDOH style
and to the limits of space available. Proofs are supplied to the
authors only for correction of typographical errors or misprints;
no materials should be added or removed at this stage, except in
exceptional circumstances.
For correspondence to the Editor:
Dr Shelagh Thompson
Editor: Journal of Disability and Oral Health
Reader: Conscious Sedation & Special Care Dentistry
Honorary Consultant in Special Care Dentistry
School of Dentistry Cardiff University
Heath Park, Cardiff , CF14 4XY
Wales, UK
Telephone: +44 (0) 2920744550 (office)
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