The FJDM is an Open Access, peer reviewed journal. There is no Article Processing Charge (APC) and no other costs to authors.
The following information is provided to help you to prepare your manuscript in the style of the FJDM. Please read this guidance carefully before submitting your paper but do not hesitate to contact us if you have further questions.
The FJDM publishes research in English on a wide range of topics associated with oral health including but limited to oral medicine, dentistry, prevention, general dental practice, orthodontics, periodontics etc., all of which undergo peer review.
Whilst writing your paper, please keep the following in mind:
- The FJDM publishes papers in English; papers should preferably be submitted in English and help will be given in refining the language where necessary. Papers in French will also be considered
- If submitted in French and subsequently accepted for publication, papers will be translated into English by the FJDM
- We suggest a word limit of 3,000 words but if your paper is either considerably shorter or longer than this please check with the editor using the contact details above
- Ensure your writing is precise and accurate throughout
- Ensure that the paper includes an abstract
- Make sure your references are in the Vancouver reference style
- Include a cover email when submitting your paper
- Prepare and submit the paper as a Word document.
Abstract
Abstracts should be able to stand alone. They should be up to 200 words in length and contain no references and few abbreviations.
Papers should be submitted with an abstract up to 200 words in length, structured under the following headings, as appropriate: introduction, aims, design, setting, materials and methods, interventions, main outcome methods, results, discussion, conclusion(s).
Where possible, we advise that you try and use the same headings used in the abstract in the main body of text. Additional headings can of course be added.
Key words
A maximum of five key words should be provided.
Introduction
This is a brief introductory statement, placing your work in perspective and explaining its intent and significance.
Materials and methods This section should be sufficiently detailed, with references, so that all experimental procedures can be reproduced. Methods that have been published in great detail elsewhere do not need to be described to such an extent.
Papers involving clinical research should adhere to guidelines in the Declaration of Helsinki, with a statement in the text confirming that these protocols were followed and that patients gave their written, informed consent, as well as the trial registration number of the study. Trials also require ethical committee approval. For further review of the subject see Br Med J 1991; 302: 338-341.[Check for more up to date reference – and clinical trial registration].
For primary research manuscripts that document animal studies, we ask you to follow the ARRIVE reporting guidelines (PLoS BIO 2010; 8: e1000412).
We ask that reports of clinical trials conform to the CONSORT statement and reports of systematic reviews of clinical trials to conform to the PRISMA statement .
Results
This is where you can present your results without interpretation, in a logical and clear order. You can choose to present your results in table format, graphs, pie-charts, or any other way that best portrays the work.
Discussion
This section should focus on the interpretation and significance of the findings of your work, with comments that describe their relation to other work in the area.
Conclusion(s)
This should highlight the main conclusions of your work and indicate the direction future work could take.
Declaration of interests
We ask that you declare any possible conflicts of interest in your paper. This can include any of the following:
- Funding from an organisation or company directly for the research
- Funding you have received for any work you have been involved in from an organisation or company that could be linked to the research
- Consultation of advisory positions you may hold in an organisation or company involved in the research/similar research.
Acknowledgements
When thanking people, we do ask that permission and approval of the wording is obtained. If a research project was supported by industry, we ask that this is acknowledged in the covering email to the Editor at the time of submission.
References
Articles that have already been published or are in press should be included in the reference list. Unpublished results or personal communication can be cited as such in the text, in parentheses.
Our reference style is the Vancouver style, and references should be numbered in the order in which they appear in the text. We ask that reference numbers are inserted as superscripts, after punctuation. For example, ‘…true.4,5 Jones et al.6 demonstrated…’
The full list of references should give the names and initials of all authors, unless there are more than six, in which case only the first three should be given, followed by et al.
For example:
Reference to an article
1. Field J V, Balfour-Paul A, Wright D W. Perimandibular space infections. Br Dent J 1981; 150: 255-258.
Reference to a book
4. Hargreaves I A, Craig J W. The management of traumatised anterior teeth of children. 2nd ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 1981.
Reference to a book chapter
7. Harding S R, Fryer J I. Recurrent oral ulceration in Greenland natives. In Casselli G (ed) Coeliac diseases. 3rd ed. pp 307-324. London: Stoma Press, 1982.
Reference to a report
2. Committee on Mercury Hazards in Dentistry. Code of practice for dental mercury hygiene. London: Department of Health and Social Security, 1979, publication no. DHSS 79-F3 72.
Reference to a webpage
3. General Dental Council. Scope of practice. 2009. Online information available at www.gdc-uk.org/Newsandpublications/Publications/Publications/ScopeofpracticeApril2009[1].pdf (accessed April 2012).
Figures and tables
Any figures or tables taken from another author’s work require permission to be obtained. Should you have any queries regarding permissions, you can contact the editorial office and we will help as much as possible. Obtaining permission also applies to quotes, adapted material and any other content taken from previously published works or unpublished but owned by a third party. The original source should be cited in the figure or table caption. It’s helpful for us if all figures are submitted separately in TIFF, JPEG or EPD formats, in either greyscale or colour, and that tables are submitted as separate word documents.
When photos of patients are used in which the patient is recognisable, written consent of the patient for publication should be obtained by the author and sent to us.
Supplementary material
Supplementary material can be a useful addition to a manuscript to convey material relevant to the conclusion that cannot be included in the main article due to space or format constraints. As such, the main article must be complete and self-explanatory without the supplementary material. All supplementary material is peer reviewed along with the main article.
Please make sure any supplementary material is submitted in its final form as a single combined PDF, not exceeding 25 MB.
Other considerations
How easy is submission?
We only consider manuscripts that are submitted electronically on our site. Please contact us if you are having any problems.
How quickly will you receive a decision?
On average, it takes 14 days for submissions to undergo their initial screening.
How quickly will your paper be published?
Papers will be published online as soon after translation and layout permits.
Ethics and policies
It is important that you consider ethics and policies when publishing in the FJDM.
- Authorship – who qualifies, and in what order should they be listed?
- Declare any conflict of interests
- Declare any source of funding
- Register clinical trials
- Never submit the same paper twice
- Obtain permissions if you re-use someone else’s and/or previously published figures or tables in your paper
- Do not plagiarise.
Remember, it is a condition of acceptance of manuscripts that they have not been previously published elsewhere nor are under consideration by any other periodical.
Confidentiality
The existence and content of all manuscripts under review is kept confidential within the offices of the FJDM. All referees are requested to respect that confidentiality.
Ethics
Articles involving clinical research should conform to the guidelines issued in the Declaration of Helsinki where applicable, and in general should have ethical committee approval. For further review of the subject see Br Med J 1991; 302: 338-341. ARRIVE reporting guidelines must be followed for primary research manuscripts documenting animal studies (PLoS Bio 2010; 8: e1000412). Reports of clinical trials must conform to the CONSORT statement and reports of systematic reviews of clinical trials must conform to the PRISMA statement. This journal is a member of, and subscribes to the principles of, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).
Research Data Policy
We strongly encourage that all datasets on which the conclusions of the paper rely should be available to readers. We encourage authors to ensure that their datasets are either deposited in publicly available repositories (where available and appropriate) or presented in the main manuscript or additional supporting files whenever possible. Where one does not exist, the information must be made available to referees at submission and to readers promptly upon request. Any restrictions on material availability or other relevant information must be disclosed in the manuscript’s Methods section and should include details of how materials and information may be obtained.
Plagiarism and fabrication
Plagiarism is when an author attempts to pass off someone else’s work as his or her own. Duplicate publication, sometimes called self-plagiarism, occurs when an author reuses substantial parts of his or her own published work without providing the appropriate references. Minor plagiarism without dishonest intent is relatively frequent, for example, when an author reuses parts of an introduction from an earlier paper.
FJDM uses a plagiarism detection software tool to identify instances of overlapping and similar text in submitted manuscripts. If a case of plagiarism comes to light after a paper is published, the Journal will conduct a preliminary investigation, utilising the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics. If plagiarism is proven, the Journal will contact the author’s institute and funding agencies as appropriate. The paper containing the plagiarism may also be formally retracted or subject to correction.
Submission of papers
Papers for consideration for publication should be submitted online and will be subject to peer review.
Once accepted an agreement will be sent which will be under the widely used Creative Commons Attribution standard. Full licence details at: http://www.creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0
