Focus and Schope

Journal of Dentistry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (JDSUMS) is the official quarterly publication of Vice-chancellery for Research. However, the statements and opinions expressed in this publication reflect the views of the author(s) and do not reflect the policy of the Shiraz Dental Journal.

This journal covers a wide range of scientific materials from basic science and biological research to the more practical clinical trials and is dedicated to dissemination of knowledge and information on all sciences relevant to dentistry and to the oral cavity and associated structures.

This journal is a scientific journal of a department and accepts no advertisement. Neither the editors nor the publisher guarantees any product or service advertised in articles. JDSUMS has the right to reject any manuscript based on unethical conduct of either human or animal studies.

 

Manuscript Submission

The new authors are asked to register with the Journal’s website: http://dentjods.sums.ac.ir/index.php/JDSUMS/user/register

All the new manuscripts should be submitted to the Journal’s website: http://dentjods.sums.ac.ir/

Authors are asked to submit their ORCID Id with their submission. To provide this Id please check: https://orcid.org/.

Scientific and Initial Screening

JDSUMS staff would check the structure and content of manuscripts to ensure compliance with standard structures (based on the type of study), the Journal’s scope, standard guidelines, quality, novelty, and adherence to ethical issues. In this step, articles would be screened and triaged in the shortest possible time. As a result, such screening would assist the editor in making fair final decisions on articles and ultimately improve the final quality of published articles.

 

Peer-Review Process

Submitted articles are primarily evaluated by our statisticians who check the articles for any methodological flaws, format, and their compliance with the Journal’s instructions. Then, a submission code will be allocated and all the future contacts should be based on this code. Through a double-anonymized review, the articles will be reviewed by at least two external (peer) reviewers. Their comments will be passed to the authors and their responses to the comments along with the reviewers’ comments will then be evaluated by the Editor-in-Chief, and a final reviewer who can be a member of the Editorial Board. The final review process will be discussed in regular editorial board sessions and based on the comments, and the Journal’s standards, the Editors-in-Chief will decide which articles should be published.

It should be noted that articles submitted by the staff and editors of the IJMS will also be subjected to peer review and the authors will be completely anonymized to the evaluation process of their article until a final decision has been made.

Editorial Policeies

Editorial  Independency

Although Shiraz University of Medical Sciences sponsors the JDSUMS financially, the journal benefits from editorial freedom. The editors evaluate and accept articles based only on significance, originality, validity, and adherence to the aims and scope of the journal.

Our editorial policy is consistent with the principles of editorial independence presented by WAME. http://wame.org/editorial-independence

 

Ethical Consideration

The Journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (https://publicationethics.org/). COPE’s flowcharts and guidelines are approached in confronting any ethical misbehavior. The Journal also follows the guidelines mentioned in the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals issued by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) (http://www.icmje.org/).

Human and Animal Rights

Research involving human subjects, human material, or human data, must have been performed in accordance with The Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association(Declaration of Helsinki) and must have been approved by an independent local, regional or national review body (e.g., ethics committee, institutional review board) and be prepared to provide documentation when requested by editors.

The manuscript should be in line with the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals and aim for the inclusion of representative human populations (sex, age and ethnicity) as pert-hose recommendations. Manuscripts describing studies involving animals should comply with local/national guidelines governing the use of experimental animals and must contain a statement indicating that the procedures have been approved by the appropriate regulatory body and institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. All animal experiments should comply with the ARRIVE guidelines. Further guidance on animal research ethics is available from the International Association of Veterinary Editors’ Consensus Author Guidelines on Animal Ethics and Welfare.

Animal research must also comply with to National of Institutional Guide for the care and use of laboratory Animals, and the ethical treatment of all experimental animals must conform to the guidelines provided by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). A statement concerning institutional review board and IACUC approval and consent procedures must appear in Method and Materials section.

Informed Consent

All patients and participants in a research project should be thoroughly informed about the aims of the study and any possible side effects of the drugs and interventions. Written informed consent from the participants or their legal guardians is necessary for any such studies. The Journal reserves the right to request the related documents. Articles that require informed consent should contain related statements in the “Methods” section.

Authorship

JDSUMS follows the ICMJE recommendations. Only those individuals who have made a significant impact to the script submitted should be listed as authors. All of the named authors should have been elaborated in the work leading to the publication of the article and should have read the paper before it is submitted for publication. 

Authorship credit should be based only on significant contributions to each of the three elements stated below: 

  1. Conception and planning of study or achievement of data or analysis and interpretation of data
  2. Drafting the work or reviewing it critically for important intellectual content; and
  3. Final endorsement of the version to be published
  4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Authors should fully encounter conditions one, two, and three. Participation solely in the funding or the collection of data or general supervision of the research group does not validate authorship.

Conflict of Interest

We request all authors and reviewers to inform us about any kinds of “Conflict of Interest” (such as financial, personal, political, or academic) that would potentially affect their judgment. Authors are preferably asked to fill the uniform disclosure form available through: http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/  

Plagiarism

Authors are not allowed to utilize verbatim text of previously published papers or manuscripts submitted elsewhere. All submitted manuscripts will be checked for possible similarity in any part of the work by iThenticate plagiarism checker. COPE’s flowcharts and guidelines are approached in cases in which plagiarism is detected.

Data Fabrication/Falsification

Falsification is the practice of omitting or altering research materials, data, or processes so that the results of the research are no longer accurately reflected. Fabrication is the practice of inventing data or results and reporting them in the research. Both of these misconducts are fraudulent and seriously alter the integrity of research. Therefore, articles must be written based on original data and use of falsified or fabricated data is strongly prohibited. In confronting cases with fabricated or falsified data COPE’s flowcharts and guidelines are followed. Researchers who perform randomized controlled or clinical trials (RCTs) are advised to keep their original data at hand. The Journal keeps the right to ask for raw data even after publication. 

Image Manipulation

The JDSUMS encourages authors to send their original images. All digital images in manuscripts accepted for publication will be checked for inappropriate manipulation. No specific feature within an image may be enhanced, obscured, moved, removed, or introduced. Adjustments of brightness, contrast, or color balance are acceptable as long as they are applied to the entire image and do not misrepresent any information present in the original, including the background. The editors will request the original data from the authors to compare the manipulated figures in cases suspected of inappropriate manipulation.

 

Copyright

If a manuscript contains any previous published image or text, it is the responsibility of the author to obtain authorization from copyright holders. The author is required to obtain and submit the written original permission letters for all copyrighted material used in his/her manuscript. Submission and publication is free for international authors. From July 1st 2022, all Iranian authors are asked to pay part of the processing and publication fees of their manuscripts based on following table:

 

International Contributors

Submission Fee

….

Acceptance Fee

….

Iranian Contributors

Submission Fee

1,800,000 Rls

Acceptance Fee

Original Article

18,000,000 Rls

Review Article

18,000,000 Rls

Case Report

10,000,000 Rls

Short Communication and Letter to Editor

10,000,000 Rls

 

The account number for payment is 9903775434 and the related card number is 6104338655784466 at Mellat Bank.

Retraction Policy

The JDSUMS uses the COPE flowchart for retraction of a published article to determine whether a published article should be retracted.  

Assignment of Authorship Responsibilities

Your article will not be published unless you warrant that “This article is an original work, has not been published before, and is not being considered for publication elsewhere in its final form either in printed or electronic form.” The JDSUMS Assignment Form (available in the Forms tab of the website) should be signed and dated by all authors and sent along with the manuscript. 

Open Access Policy

This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Manuscript Style, Structure and Peer-Review Process

Manuscripts submitted to the JDSUMS must conform to the journal style. JDSUMS accepts manuscripts which are prepared in accordance with the “Uniform requirements for Manuscripts submitted to Biomedical Journal” developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) available at: https://www.icmje.org/icmje-recommendations.pdf. Manuscripts not complying with the journal style will be returned to the author(s) without review.

All manuscript submitted to the journal should be accompanied by a covering letter from the corresponding author. The letter should state that the manuscript has been approved by all the authors and that it is not being considered for publication in another journal. Only those who were actively involved in the work should be named as authors. Please provide name, email address, institution, department and telephone number and area of expertise of each author.

Through a double- anonymized review, all manuscripts will be reviewed at least by three external (peer) reviewers. The reviewers’ suggestions and recommendations will be sent to the corresponding author. After receiving the revised manuscript, the editorial board makes the proper decision. The corresponding author will be notified the acceptance or rejection of the manuscript after Editor-in-Chief decision.

Manuscript Preparation

Manuscripts should be written in fluent English language. It should be computer typed with 1.5 line spacing and all margins should be 2.5 cm. Use a conventional font, such as Times Roman or Arial. Use a font size of 12. All pages must have a page number to indicate sequence. The abbreviations should be kept to a minimum, particularly for those, which are not standard. The full term for which an abbreviation stands, should precede its first use in the text unless it is a standard unit of measurement.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Assisted Technology

At submission, reviewers must request permission from the journal prior to using AI technology to facilitate their review. Authors who use such technology should describe, in both the cover letter and the submitted work, in the appropriate section if applicable, how they used it. For example, if AI was used for writing assistance, describe this in the acknowledgment section. If AI was used for data collection, analysis, or figure generation, authors should describe this use in the methods. Chatbots (such as ChatGPT) should not be listed as authors because they cannot be responsible for the accuracy, integrity, and originality of the work. Authors should carefully review and edit the result because AI can generate authoritative-sounding output that can be incorrect, incomplete, or biased. Authors should not list AI and AI assisted technologies as an author or co-author, nor cite AI as an author. Authors should be able to assert that there is no plagiarism in their paper, including in text and images produced by the AI. Humans must ensure there is appropriate attribution of all quoted material, including full citations. 

Title Page

Page 1 should include the following information: 1) Title of the article (Authors are advocated to write descriptive but as concisely as possible 5-10 words), 2) Complete name(s), Job title(s), work affiliations, and name(s) of institutions for each author. 3) Name, complete address, telephone, and e-mail address of the corresponding author.

Requirements for Different Types of Articles

Original Articles(Research Article)

Research article should normally be divided into Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Method, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgments, References, Figure legends, Table and Figures (maximum 4 tables and 4 figures arranged in this order. The length should not exceed 3000-3500 words excluding the references, abstract, figures and tables. 15-40 references should be stated for original articles.

Abstract should be structured using the following subheading: Statement of Problem, Purpose, Materials and Method, Results, Conclusion, Key words, and should not be more than 300 words. The Key words should be compatible with PubMed MeSH.  

Introduction should be brief and end with a statement of the aim of the study or hypotheses tested. Describe and cite only the most relevant earlier studies. Relevant background information, including critical review of available literature, is essential for any experimental study but avoid presentation of an extensive review of the field.

Materials and Method should be clearly described and provide enough details. Use section subheadings in a logical order to title each category in method and then in results.

These section subheadings may include selection and Description of Participants, data Collection and Measurements, Statistics. Describe the materials or the human subjects used for an experiment-based study. Describe what variables were measured and how. Novel techniques or new procedures should be explained in detail. Previously published methods must be attended by at least a brief summary of the procedures. Manufacturers and sources of particular equipment, medications, or chemicals should be identified by name and city of origin in brackets after the description (e.g. Procter & Gamble Co., Switzerland). The design and sequence of experimental or observational study must be clearly described in a rational method. Sizes and frequency of samples and measurements should always be declared.

A description of the statistical methods used to analyze the data should also be included, together with any tests of reproducibility of measurement. Reference should be made to any permission given by related committees of ethical practice. Authors should have considered the ethical aspects of their research in human and animal study, and mention it.

Authors who used AI technology to conduct the study should describe its use in the methods section in sufficient detail to enable replication of the approach, including the tool used, version, and prompts where applicable.

 Results should concisely present the finding. Tables are the most useful means of presenting summarized descriptive data.Tables and figures should not include data that can be given in the text in one or two sentences.

Discussion section presents the interpretation of the findings. This is the only proper section for subjective comments and references to previous literature. You should critically evaluate your study methods; discuss the limitations and reliability of the data collection; appraise possible sources of error and their effects on the study outcome.The ending results should include what the paper ads and why the paper is important in dentistry.

In conclusion, bring together the topic sections or experimental findings into a rational combination of current opinion/ knowledge, adding up your own views based on your study.

Acknowledgments should recognize individuals who have provided assistance in the project. Report all resources of grants and funding, including funds from contributor’s institutions. Use of AI for writing assistance should be reported in the acknowledgment section.

Conflict of Interest any conflict of interest should be declared if present. General institutional support for an author's time on the work should be distinguished from direct overall funding of the work. An appropriate funding statement might be: “This study was funded by A; Dr. F's time on the work was supported by B.”

 

Clinical trials

The format is similar to original articles. However, reporting of randomized controlled trials should follow the guidelines of the CONSORT Statement (http://www.consort-statement. org). RCTs should be registered at any RCT Registry approved by the WHO and their registration number should be mentioned in the title page (https://www.who.int/clinical-trials-registry-platform).

Appropriate registries include: 1) the registry sponsored by the United States National Library of Medicine (www. clinicaltrials.gov); 2) the ISRCTN Registry (http:// www.isrctn. com/); 3) the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (http://www.anzctr.org.au/); 4) the Chinese Clinical Trials Registry (http://www.chictr.org. cn/); 5) the Clinical Trials Registry-India (http://ctri. nic.in/); 6) the University hospital Medical Information Network (UMIN) (http://www.umin. ac.jp/ctr); and 7) the Clinical Research Information Service-Republic of Korea (CRiS) (https://cris.nih.go.kr/cris/). The platform for the registry of RCTs in WHO website is https://www.who.int/clinical-trials-registry-platform/network/ who-data-set. RCTs done in Iran must be registered at www.irct.ir

Brief Reports

Should contain a non-structured abstract, 3-5 keywords, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgement (if applicable), and references sections, and maximum two tables and figures. However, the word count should not exceed 2000 words. 10-15 references should be stated.

Review Article

Review articles for JDSUMS should include: A) Description of search strategy of relevant literature (search terms and databases), B) Inclusion criteria (language, type of studied i.e. randomized controlled trial or other, duration of studies and chosen endpoints, C) Evaluation of papers and level of evidence.

-Narrative reviews- Should contain at least 60 references.

Abstract should be non-structured. The word count should not exceed 4500 words. Narrative reviews should critically assess the current knowledge of the field.

-Systematic reviews- Systematic reviews of RCTs or Observational Studies will be accepted by the Journal. The protocol

of the study should adhere to PRISMA or MOOSE guidelines for systematic reviews of RCTs or Observational studies, respectively. The number of references should not exceed 150. Abstracts should be structured.

 

Case Reports

Case reports should contain a non-structured abstract, 3-5 keywords, introduction, case presentation, discussion, conclusion, acknowledgement (if applicable) and references sections, and maximum 1 table and 3 figures. 5-10 references should be stated. Case reports should optimally be accompanied by relevant figures to document findings. Informed consents should be obtained from the patients to report their cases. The Journal keeps the right to ask for original signed informed consents.

 

Clinical Techniques

This type of publication is best suited to describe significant important in clinical practice such as introduction of new technology or practical approaches to recognized clinical challenges. They should conform to highest scientific and clinical practice standards.

 

Letters to the Editor

Letters should be less than 750 words. Letters discussing articles published in the JDSUMS should be submitted at most within 4 months after the publication of the main article. Letters will undergo peer review and they might be edited for clarity. Up to 5 references should be stated.

Please note the authors for all these types of study are encouraged to refer to the SAGER guidelines for reporting of sex and gender information in study design, data analyses, results, and interpretation of findings: www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/sager-guidelines/

References

All references given must be cited in the text, numbered in order of appearance the reference. References should be made to published articles rather than to abstracts whenever possible. 

The number of each reference should be in brackets before the full stop, e.g. CBCT is an advanced imaging system [1].

List should be double- spaced at the end of the article in numeric sequence.We recommend Vancouver style (described in the British Medical Journal (1991) 302: 338-41)

Do not include unpublished data or personal communications in the reference list. Cite such references parenthetically in the text and include a data. Different sources of how to write article references are:

Journals: Spitz MR, Batsakis JG. Major salivary gland carcinoma. Descriptive epidemiology and survival of 498 patients.

Arch Otolaryngol 1984; 110: 45-49.

Books: Peres MR. Focal Encyclopedia of Photography: Digital Imaging, Theory and Applications, History, and Science. 4th ed. Focal Press: Burlington, MA; 2013. p. 17- 29.

e-Books: ASTM Standard E399-83. Standard test method for planstrain facture toughness of metalic materials. Available at: http://www.astm.org/Standards/E399.htm

Referencing AI-generated material as the primary source is not acceptable.

Illustration (Figures and Figure Legends) and Tables

All illustrations and tables should be numbered and cited in the text in order of appearance and they should be grouped at the end of the text. High-resolution images must be sent via email or on a CD. It is the policy of JDSUMS for authors not to pay any charge for their color artwork. 

Acceptance of a Manuscript for Publication

Copyright

Authors submitting a paper do so on the understanding that work has not been published before, is not being considered for publication elsewhere and has been read and approved by all authors.

Proofs

The corresponding author will receive an email alert containing a link to download their proof as a PDF. The last correction paper with the ending letters, including the acceptance of corresponding author about the last changes and agreement for publishing must be returned to office preferably via email within one week of receipt.

Offprint

A PDF offprint will be sent to corresponding author free of charge and a complimentary copies of the journal in which the paper is published will be sent to the corresponding author as well as other authors, free of charge.

Privacy Statement

The names and email addresses entered in this journal site will be used exclusively for the stated purposes of this journal and will not be made available for any other purpose or to any other party.

Copyright Notice

All Rights Reserved for Journal of Dentistry Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.

Submission Preparation Checklist

As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission's compliance with all of the following items, and submissions may be returned to authors that do not adhere to these guidelines.

  1. The submission has not been previously published, nor is it before another journal for consideration (or an explanation has been provided in Comments to the Editor).
  2. The submission file is in Microsoft Word file format.
  3. Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
  4. The text is 1.5-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed at the end of the text.
  5. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in Manuscript style.
  6. If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring an anonymized Review have been followed.