Author Guidelines for the Swiss Dental Journal’s Research and Science section
Editorial Board
The scientific section of the Swiss Dental Journal is a peer-reviewed independent open access journal. Original articles on all aspects of dentistry are considered for possible publication. At the time of their submission, manuscripts must not have been published in or simultaneously submitted to any other journal. Submissions may cover experimental, biomedical, epidemiological, or clinical research. Reviews utilizing a systemic search strategy are also welcome. Please note, as of 2018, only English manuscripts will be considered. For our local readers, texts should therefore include extended abstracts in German and French (see below). Manuscripts and tables should be in MS Word format. Pages and lines should be numbered. Figures should be submitted in Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) or Tagged Image File (TIF) format in adequate size. If files are too large to be sent by e-mail, please consider using WeTransfer (https://wetransfer.com).
Please submit your manuscript by email to the editor (Matthias Zehnder)
matthias.zehnder@zzm.uzh.ch
By submitting a manuscript, the corresponding author confirms that all co-authors have agreed to the submission. All submitted articles are subject to a preliminary evaluation by the editorial team. If there is interest in a manuscript, it will then be reviewed by two independent referees to decide whether it can be published. Before an article is printed, it must be free of errors and available in the form of a print-ready manuscript prepared according to the following guidelines. Once an article has been accepted for publication, the copyright is transferred to Swiss Dental Society (SSO), and page proofs are made available to the corresponding author for final review.
Ethical requirements
Manuscripts that describe the results of trials involving humans or animals are only accepted for publication if it is clear from the text that the studies were conducted in accordance with high ethical standards. In the case of experimental studies involving animals, the reference number of the animal testing permit issued by the affiliated veterinary office must be included. In addition, written approval by the relevant ethical committee must be submitted alongside the manuscript. In the case of prospective clinical trials involving humans, the article must include a note (in the Materials and Methods section) indicating that the requirements of the Declaration of Helsinki regarding informed consent have been met. Furthermore, the authors must provide the written approval for the study issued by the relevant ethics committee. Photographs depicting a patient's face (frontal or profile) must be presented in such a way as to protect the person's identity; otherwise it is necessary to acquire written permission from the patient.
Structure and formatting
Each manuscript consists of the following sections: Title page, Abstract, Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements (if necessary), Zusammenfassung, Résumé, References, Captions (for any images) and Tables (if included). Pages and lines should be numbered.
Manuscripts should be word processed using one of the standard fonts (Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman) and double line spacing. Titles should be in bold, font size 14; subtitles also bold, font size 12; subchapter titles in italics, font size 12. The body text should be in font size 12.
Title page: the title page should include:
- title of the work (max. 90 characters)
- full names of all authors (without titles), including given name and middle initials (if applicable)
- name of institution (hospital, department, faculty, university) that produced the work
- three to five keywords
- contact details of the submitting author including phone number and email address (in local language)
Abstract: the abstract should concisely describe the overall purpose of the study, basic design, major findings and summary of the interpretations and conclusions and may not exceed 250 words.
Introduction: the introduction should outline the objectives of the work and provide an adequate background. It should end with a paragraph on the specific aims of the study. In clinical studies, this should follow the PICO concept: population (on whom was the study performed?), intervention (what was the test treatment?), control (what was the control treatment?), outcome (which outcomes were evaluated?)
Materials and methods: the materials and methods section should clearly describe the materials used, designs, procedures and tests utilized. In the case of clinical trials or experimental research involving patients, it must be stated that the study conformed to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and that informed consent was obtained.
Results: the results should state the findings of the research and be presented without comparison or references to other papers nor with any attempts at interpretation.
Discussion: the discussion section should start with the main result of the study as viewed by the authors. After that, the author may discuss the limitations of the work and critically examine the methods used. The author's own results/observations are interpreted, explained and compared to those of other authors. Major conclusions should be addressed and if possible include recommendations and highlight areas in the relevant field requiring future investigation.
Extended abstracts in German and French of approximately 500 words each must accompany each submission. The abstract is divided into the following sections: Introduction, Materials and methods, Results, Discussion (D Zusammenfassung: Einleitung, Material und Methoden, Resultate, Diskussion; F: Résumé: Introduction, Matériels et methods, Résultats, Discussion).
References: this section should only cite literature that has been directly referenced and must be kept to a strict minimum. Please avoid self-citation unless necessary. Instead, cite the work that truly supports a statement that is made in the text. Reference titles appear in small caps. Authors' surnames and the year of publication (KELLER & MEIER 1986, MÜLLER 1989) are listed; in the case of three authors or more, only the first author is mentioned followed by ET AL. (KELLER ET AL. 1986). Multiple references (in the same brackets) should be listed in chronological order. An alphabetical Reference list is compiled for quotations used in the text. Publications from the same author or the same group of authors should be listed in chronological order; publications that were released in the same year must be differentiated using letters (a, b, c, etc.). Each reference should include the following information: the surnames of all authors, followed by their initials in capital letters, the exact title of the work, the internationally recognized abbreviation for the journal (see Index Medicus), the volume number, the first and last page numbers of the article and the year of publication. When referencing books, the journal details are replaced by the name of the publisher, the place of publication, the page numbers, and the year of publication. The references should not include abstracts, personal footnotes or company information. If such information is essential, it can be included directly in the main text.
Examples of correct forms of reference follow:
Journal articles
ATTIN T, BECKER K, WIEGAND A, TAUBÖCK T T, WEGEHAUPT F J: Impact of laminar flow velocity of different acids on enamel calcium loss. Clin Oral Investig 17: 595–600 (2013)
Books by personal author(s)
WOLF H F, RATEITSCHAK E M, RATEITSCHAK K H: Periodontology. 3rd edn, Thieme, Stuttgart (2004)
Book chapters
WESSELINK P: Conventional root-canal therapy III: root filling. In: HARTY F G (editor): Endodontics in Clinical Practice, 3rd edn, Butterworth, London, pp 186-223 (1990)
Images should not be inserted into the text. They are to be submitted in adequate size and resolution (300 dpi) in JPEG or Tagged Image File (TIF) format. If an image has already been published elsewhere, it is necessary for copyright reasons to obtain permission from the respective publisher to present this image again. Furthermore, the number of images is limited and must correlate to the length of the text.
Captions are required for each image. All images and captions are numbered using Arabic numerals as they appear in the article (1, 2, 3...). All captions are listed consecutively at the end of the manuscript.
Tables should be placed at the end of the manuscript. They should be designated using Roman numerals (I, II, III...), and must feature a title and clearly defined rows and columns. Explanatory details, e.g. unabbreviated forms, references, statistical tests and other supporting information should appear directly underneath the table.
Please avoid duplication of information in tables and figures. Also please note that typically a submission should not contain more than a total of 5 tables and figures.
Review and publication process
Once a manuscript has been submitted, the editorial team will determine whether the work falls into the scope of the journal and meets the minimal quality standard that has been set.
The review process typically takes 2 months. The editorial team reserves the right to reject submitted manuscripts without justification. Furthermore, in the case of manuscripts recommended for publication requests may be made for amendments regarding content or form, additions, subtractions or other changes designed to improve the quality of the work. In such instances, the author is required to implement the changes requested by the reviewers, and to prepare a new manuscript that is free of errors and ready for printing. Once an accepted article has reached the publisher, page proofs are made available to the corresponding author in due time. At that stage, corrections are limited to orthographic corrections to avoid misprints while changes to the content or style can no longer be incorporated. The typesetting, i.e. the layout of the individual textual elements, images and tables, etc., is carried out in accordance with editorial standards.
Authors of accepted articles receive a total of three printed copies of the associated issue. Published articles can also be downloaded free of charge from the journal's website and via PubMed.
MZ 12/2017