Scope of the Journal The scope of the journal covers all aspects of dentistry, both basic and clinical science. In general, analytical studies are preferred to descriptive studies. Articles reporting novel research showing cause and effect relationships for experimental studies and explanatory / associative relationships for those of an observational nature are favored. Hypothesis driven research are encouraged since simple descriptive reports tend to have relatively low scientific priority for publication.
Original research papers, review articles, short communications, and letters to the Editor will be considered for publication. Review articles may be invited by the Editor-in-Chief, but will be subjected to peer review. Proposals for review articles should be discussed with the Editor prior to submission. Short communications should not be longer than two printed pages, and should contain new and important information. Short communications should follow the usual division into Material and methods etc. and have a short abstract.
For more information on most aspects of scientific writing, consult Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals: Writing and Editing for Biomedical Publication, published by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors and freely available at: http://www.icmje.org/.
Conflict of interest and funding
Authors are responsible for recognising and disclosing financial and other conflicts of interest that might bias their work. They should acknowledge in the manuscript all financial support for the work and other financial or personal connections to the work.
Ethics and consent
When reporting experiments on human subjects, indicate whether the procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 1983. Do not use patients' names, initials, or hospital numbers, especially in illustrative material. Papers including animal experiments or clinical trials must be accompanied by an approval by the local ethics committee. Please give date of issue and registration number.
Identifying information should not be published in written descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or parent or guardian) gives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 the patient be shown the manuscript to be published.
Manuscript submission
All submissions should be made in final, fully corrected form online at Acta Odontologica Scandinavica's Manuscript Central site, which is accessible via the journal homepage
http://www.informaworld.com/sode or at
http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/aos. New users should first create an account. Once a user is logged onto the site submissions should be made via the Author Centre.
Receipt of the manuscript in the editor's office will be acknowledged via email. The manuscript will then be distributed to two or more external peer reviewers allotted a time period of four weeks for the review. The reviewers will be anonymous, but the authors' names will be known to the reviewers. If reviewers' opinions conflict, the manuscript may be sent to an extra reviewer. Efforts are made to avoid all types of conflict of interest when the reviewers are selected. The authors must always suggest two reviewers, and also have the option to name unsuitable reviewers.
Cover letter It must be stated in the cover letter, that the manuscript has not been published, simultaneously submitted, or already accepted for publication elsewhere, and that all authors have read and approved the manuscript. If there is more than one author, the contribution of each author should be stated. Gift authorship is not acceptable.
Make a full statement about all submissions and previous reports that could be regarded as redundant or as duplicate publication of the same or similar work, and alert the editor if the manuscript includes subjects about which the authors have published a previous report or have submitted a related report to another journal. Refer to and reference any such report in the new paper. Upload copies of such material as supplementary files.
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from everyone acknowledged by name in Acknowledgment section, because readers may infer their endorsement of the data and conclusions. Therefore, state explicitly that acknowledged persons have seen the text and given their permission to be named.
Manuscript preparation Editors and reviewers spend many hours reading manuscripts, and therefore they appreciate receiving material that has been carefully prepared in accordance with these Instructions to Authors.
Authors are advised to consult a recent issue of the Journal to be familiar with its style and format. The whole manuscript should be submitted in correct English. Authors whose native language is not English are strongly recommended to obtain assistance from someone proficient in scientific English. Manuscripts not submitted in the proper format or in poor English may be returned without review.
The parts of a manuscript should be as follows: Title page, abstract page, introduction, material and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgments, references, figure legends, tables, and figures, arranged in that order. This division is also appropriate for short communications. For review papers and qualitative studies, other headings may be used as appropriate. Use the built-in system of headings of your word processor to divide up and clarify the text; however, use not more than three levels of division. All text files (including abstract, keywords and figure legends) should be uploaded onto Manuscript central as one MS Word file and in the format described below.
To facilitate the editing of your manuscript, and lessen the time to publication, please adhere to the following simple general guidelines and advices:
1. Use double spacing throughout.
2. Begin each of the following sections on a separate sheet: title page; abstract and key words; body of the text starting with introduction; acknowledgements; references; figure legends and tables (each on a separate sheet).
3. Use font Times New Roman 12 point. If you use a non-English word processor, program it for English. Be especially careful to use full stop as decimal point, not comma. As spell checker, use American English. Check that diacritic signs are found in names only.
4. Number the pages consecutively beginning with the title page. Do not number lines.
5. Use the left alignment feature for a paragraph.
6. Avoid end-of-line hyphens.
7. The beginning of paragraphs should be properly marked with an indent.
8. Use a single hyphen to hyphenate compound words and a double hyphen (-) to indicate a dash in the text.
9. Enter only one space after the full stop at the end of a sentence.
10. Be consistent: use the same form of units, etc., and key these elements in exactly the same way throughout the manuscript. Prut a space between the digits and the unit, e.g. 5.2 mm.
11. When emphasizing words (seldom necessary), use the italics feature of your word processor software rather than the underline feature.
12. Do not use the lowercase l for 1 (one) or the uppercase O for 0 (zero), use the proper numerals instead.
13. Use the space bar only as a word separator, not as a tabulator.
14. Format tables using the table functions of your word processor.
Title page
The title page has to contain the following information:
1. A concise but fully informative title (a subtitle may be used in addition, but must be short). Avoid unnecessary words such as “Study on”, “An investigation of” etc, and also affirmative wordings. The title should include species used (if appropriate) and any non-standard acronyms or abbreviations should be avoided. Include all information in the title necessary to make electronic retrieval of the article both sensitive and specific. Do not capitalize the title: only the first word and proper nouns have capital initials.
2. The full name of each author. Use capital letters. Do not include academic degrees.
3. The departments and institutions to which the work should be attributed, including the city and country, for each author. Using numbering in superscript, key each author to the relevant institution.
4. A short title not exceeding 40 letters and spaces for use as a running head.
5. Give the name and current address of the author to whom correspondence, proofs, and reprints are to be sent. Include telephone and telefax numbers as well as e-mail address. Observe that these data will be published with the paper.
6. The number of figures and tables.
Abstract and key words
Present the abstract limited to 250 words on a separate page. The abstract should briefly state the objective of the investigation, basic procedures, main findings, and principal conclusions. Use only standard abbreviations, and include no references. Structure the abstract using the headings Objective, Material and methods, Results, and Conclusions in one paragraph.
Give not more than five key words in alphabetical order after the abstract, and, wherever possible, use terms from the Medical Subject Headings list of Index Medicus. Do not repeat words from the article title.
Abstract and keywords should be included in the main document file.
Introduction Provide a context or background for the study (i.e. the nature of the problem and its significance). Give only strictly pertinent references and do not include data or conclusions from the work being reported. In the last paragraph of the section, state the aim of the study concisely, and, where applicable, give the research hypothesis (but not the null hypothesis). When drawing comparisons for experimental or interventional studies, the latter must always be expressed explicitly.
Material and methods
In this section, describe all methods, materials and subjects so that researchers can readily repeat the study. Use appropriate subheadings for the different sections to obtain clarity. Define the material and equipment used in as detailed manner as necessary by, for example, name, product number and batch, and identify the manufacturer by product, city, and country in parentheses. For common methods, a brief description and a reference may be enough; however, if you deviate from the common method, give a full description. Quantitative estimates of the validity and reliability of the methods are desirable. Report length, height, weight, and volume in metric units (meters, kilograms, or liters), or their decimal multiples. Give temperatures in degrees Celsius and use of the International System of Units (SI) is recommended. Correct unit abbreviations should be used (e.g. ''yr'', ''wk'', ''d'', ''h'', ''min'', ''s'' and ''μm''). For many details the Biochemical Journal web site http://www.biochemj.org/bj/bji2a.htm#NOMENCLATURE can be a valuable resource. Scientific names of bacteria, binomials in italics, must be given in full when first mentioned. Subsequent mention may abbreviate genus, taking care that this abbreviation is unambiguous (Staph. or Strep. instead of S.).
Describe subjects participating in the study in detail so that a similar group of subjects can be identified readily. Include eligibility and exclusion criteria and a description of the source population. If applicable, describe ethical aspects here. Indicate that informed consent has been obtained. However, submit such details as the diary number in the covering letter.
When submitting review manuscripts, particularly Systematic Reviews, include a section describing the methods used in locating, selecting, extracting, and synthesizing data. Summarize these methods in the abstract.
Statistics Conclude the Material and methods section with a paragraph dealing with statistics, if applicable. Name and specify all non-descriptive statistical methods if applicable. The praxis of naming statistical terms and methods is very variable. Therefore, define statistical terms, abbreviations, and most symbols. However, the following abbreviations may be used without definition: ANOVA (analysis of variance), CI (Confidence interval), r (coefficient of correlation, sample), r2 (coefficient of determination, sample), R (coefficient of multiple correlation), R2 (coefficient of multiple determination), CV (coefficient of variation), df (degrees of freedom), n (number of observations), NS (non significant), P (probability (level of significance)), SD (standard deviation), SEM (standard error of the mean), t (statistical datum derived in Student's t test), F (variance ratio). Use mean(SD) for mean and standard deviation, for example “The mean(SD) was 19.2(2.3)”. Median, range etc. are written out in text and tables. Specify the computer software used. Authors are advised to consult a statistician or a person with in-depth statistical knowledge.
Results
Present your results in logical sequence giving the main or most important findings first, usually in past tense, without subjective comments and reference to previous literature. For clarity, the results section may have subheadings. The Result section is not the place for interpretation of the data, and must not include any references to other articles.
Do not repeat in the text, data easily found in the tables or illustrations (double documentation is not acceptable). Restrict tables and figures to those needed to explain the argument of the paper and to assess its support. Use graphs as an alternative to tables with many entries; do not duplicate data in graphs and tables. Avoid non-technical uses of technical terms in statistics, such as “random”, “normal,” “significant,” “correlations,” and “sample.”
Tables Present each table on a separate sheet. Do not submit tables as graphics but use the table facility of most word processors. Format the table as you expect it to appear in print and therefore hide internal vertical and horizontal lines. Number the tables consecutively in Roman numerals and give each a short descriptive heading. Give each column a short or abbreviated head. Place explanatory matter in footnotes to the table, not in the heading. Explain all non-standard abbreviations in footnotes to the table.
If data from another published or unpublished source are used, obtain permission and acknowledge fully. As far as possible, tables have to be self-explanatory and understandable without reference to the text of the article.
Figures Upload figures (illustrations) in electronic form in JPG or TIFF file format only. Optimize the size of the file for printing with 800 DPI for line graphics and 300 DPI for halftone figures, but depending on the character of the article and the quality of those electronic files, the author(s) may be asked to supply files of higher quality. Consult the editor if you have special figures to submit such as camera-ready originals or transparencies. Authors will be charged for the extra cost of reproducing illustrations in color (USD 200 for the first colour page, USD 100 for each subsequent page).
Make sure that letters, numbers, and symbols added to illustrations are clear, in proportion to each other, and large enough to be legible when reduced for publication.
Refer to the journal and decide whether the figure is to cover one, one-and-a-half, or two columns of the journal when printed, and then plan the figure accordingly.
Create line drawings using dedicated professional software, not spreadsheets. Prepare the figures in proportion to each other, so that lettering, numerals, and symbols in different figures will be roughly the same size after reduction. Use sans-serif fonts for lettering the axes, and capitalize only the first letter. If submitting photographs, prepare them as near to the size they will appear in print as possible, and, if magnification is significant, indicate this by a bar on the print, not by a magnification factor in the figure legend. Arrows, letters, etc., affixed to a photograph in a file must be secure.
Give each figure a legend containing sufficient information to make it intelligible without reference to the text, and type all the legends together, double-spaced, on a separate page(s). Consider all illustrations as figures and number them consecutively in Arabic numerals. If a figure has been published previously, acknowledge the original source and submit written permission from the copyright holder to reproduce it. If images of persons are used, render the subject unidentifiable (not only a black bar covering the eyes), and obtain written permission to use them, and submit with the manuscript.
Discussion The Discussion section should present the interpretation of the findings. This section is the only proper section for subjective comments. Authors are strongly urged to avoid undue repetition of what has already been reported in the results section, or introduced in the introduction.
The last paragraph should be dedicated to the conclusions of the study. There ought to be a correspondence between the aims and hypotheses in the end of the introduction and conclusions.
Acknowledgements Acknowledge the source of financial support here, and state any links to companies or other commercial organizations. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from everyone acknowledged by name (see section on Cover Letter above).
References
References in languages not understood by all scientists must be avoided. Therefore, only articles written in English should be used as references. This applies also to law texts, other official texts and internet sites. Furthermore, avoid references difficult to retrieve, e.g. old textbooks, journals not indexed in Medline, etc. Avoid references to websites, since these are often changed or removed.
References to 'personal communication' are permitted in the text only, not in the list of references, but should be avoided. Documentary evidence from the person quoted showing agreement with the quotation must be provided in the cover letter. A reference to `unpublished work' (text only) must be supported by the names of all involved and included in the cover letter. The use of `in preparation', 'private communication' and 'submitted for publication' is not allowed.
References in the text The number of references should not normally exceed 40, and 20-30 references are frequently adequate. However, for review articles there is no upper limit. Number each reference consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identify references in the text by Arabic numerals in square brackets. If more than one reference, separate them by a comma: [2,4-6,8]. Avoid putting references in tables and figure legends. Give cross-references by the name of the author followed by the appropriate number in parentheses, e.g. “Lagerl
f [1] has reported ...”, “Oliveby & Lagerl
f [2] have reported ...”, or simply by giving the appropriate number in parentheses, e.g. “As has recently been reported [1] ...”. When there are three or more authors, give only the name of the first author, followed by 'et al.': “Oliveby et al. [1] have reported…”. Ensure that all listed references are cited in the text.
The Reference list
At the end of the paper references should be listed in numerical order, in the style shown in the following examples, preceded by the number. For reference list entries, follow the style set out in the examples below. Abbreviate the names of journals in accordance with MedLine. List the names of the first six authors in reference-list entries before adding 'et al.' Here are some examples to follow:
Journals
Standard journal article [1] Flink H, Tegelberg
, Th
rn M, Lagerl
f F. Effect of oral iron supplementation on unstimulated salivary flow rate: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. J Oral Pathol Med 2006;35:540-7.
[2] Twetman S, Axelsson S, Dahlgren H, Holm AK, K
llest
l C, Lagerlf F, et al. Caries-preventive effect of fluoride toothpaste: A systematic review. Acta Odontol Scand 2003;61:347-55.
Article in supplement or special issue [3] Fleischer W, Reimer K. Povidone iodine antisepsis. State of the art. Dermatology 1997;195 Suppl 2:3-9.
Corporate (collective) author
[4] American Academy of Periodontology. Sonic and ultrasonic scalers in periodontics. J Periodontol 2000;71:1792-801.
Unpublished article
[5] Garoushi S, Lassila LV, Tezvergil A, Vallittu PK. Static and fatigue compression test for particulate filler composite resin with fiber-reinforced composite substructure. Dent Mater 2006. In press.
Books and other monographs
Personal author(s)
[6] Hosmer D, Lemeshow S. Applied logistic regression, 2nd edn. New York: Wiley-Interscience; 2000.
Chapter in book
[7] Nauntofte B, Tenovuo J, Lagerl
f F. Secretion and composition of saliva. In: Fejerskov O, Kidd EAM, editors. Dental caries: The disease and its clinical management. Oxford: Blackwell Munksgaard; 2003. p. 7-27.
No author given
[8] World Health Organization. Oral health surveys - basic methods, 4th edn. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1997.
More information about other reference types is available at www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.html, but observe some minor deviations (no full stop after journal title, no issue or date after volume, etc).
Abbreviations Use only standard abbreviations. Consult Scientific Style and Format. The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers, 7th ed. ISBN 0-9779665-0-X, 2006. Explain any non-standard abbreviations (to be avoided if possible) in the text at first mention. Avoid abbreviations in the title of the article. Give tooth designations in accordance with the two digit system (ISO 3950-1977).
Page charges
Authors will be charged USD 95 for each printed page in excess of 4 pages.
Copyright
It is a condition of publication that authors vest copyright in their articles, including abstracts, in Taylor & Francis. This ensures full copyright protection and dissemination of the article, and the journal, to the widest possible readership in print and electronic formats as appropriate. Authors may, of course, use the material elsewhere after publication provided that prior permission is obtained from Taylor & Francis. Authors are themselves responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyright material from other sources. To view 'Copyright Transfer Frequently Asked Questions', please visit
./authors_journals_copyright_transfer~db=all.
Extra issues Proceedings from scientific meetings, monographs or other longer texts may be published as additional issues, if considered to have a significant scientific value. Further information may be obtained from the Editor-in-Chief.
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