Guidelines for Research papers
Research papers in the BDJ focus on experimental studies and clinical research in dental practice and allied topics.
Research manuscripts should be formatted and submitted according to the guidelines for papers, with the following additional guidelines taken into account:
Abstracts should be no more than 200 words long and structured under the following headings:
Objective: The abstract should begin with a precise statement of why the study was done, usually in one sentence. It should be possible to make a connection between the conclusion and the objective.
Design: A few words describing the type of study — for example, 'double blind trial', 'prospective random control trial', 'retrospective analysis', 'open study', and whether the study was single or multi-centre.
Setting: To assist readers to assess the applicability of the study to their own circumstances this paragraph should state whether the setting was the community, a university department, a hospital, or general practice. The country and year of the study should be given.
Subjects (materials) and methods: This should state whether and how subjects were selected and from what population. This will give the reader an idea of the generalisability of the results.
Interventions: This should include a description of any intervention. Generic names of drugs are preferred but trade names may be given as well in case there is some difference in the formulation from country to country.
Main outcome measures: Methods by which patients were assessed or the success of experiments judged should be mentioned, and those that may be unfamiliar to readers should be described. The outcome that was sought should be stated.
Results: The main results should be given, including the number, gender and age of the subjects, together with a note of the fate of exclusions and withdrawals. Numerical results should be stated as mean (SD) or mean (SEM) in the case of normally distributed data, and median (range or interquartile) if the data are skewed; 95% confidence intervals (CI) and the level of significance of differences should be indicated. If the differences in the main outcome measures between two (or more) groups are not significantly different the 95% CI for the difference should be given and any clinical inference stated.
Conclusion(s): Only those conclusions supported by the data that are presented should be given, followed by a short statement on the clinical applications of the results, if any, bearing in mind the limitations implicit in the study — for example, size of sample, number of withdrawals, or length of follow-up.
All manuscripts that are reports of reviews (including meta-analyses) should be submitted with a structured abstract of no more than 200 words under the following headings: Objectives, Data sources, Data selection, Data extraction, Data synthesis, Conclusions.
Sub-headings: Authors should try to use the same headings that are used in the structured abstract. If the text needs subdividing further within these sections, then a second level of headings can be used. If this approach is used, the hierarchy of the subheads should be made clear with the use of block caps or bold text.
Tables should be typed on pages separate from the text. Please do not send manuscripts with tables inserted into the main body of text. Each should have a caption which will explain the table without reference to the text. Authors may wish to consider presenting their tables in pie- or bar-chart form.
Research section online: BDJ policy is that research papers are published in full online only and will not be published in full in the print version of the BDJ. This will not affect the way in which papers are referenced or cited. BDJ Research papers are citable and are listed in Medline, PubMed, ISI and the other listing, database and referencing services. All accepted Research papers will be published online as Advanced Online Publications as soon as possible after the author has approved the proofs, before being assigned to an online issue and listed in the contents of the corresponding printed issue. At the Editor-in-Chief's discretion research papers may be included in the print version of the BDJ for reasons such as, but not limited to, topicality, relevance to clinical practice, and balance of journal content.
Research Summaries in print: Selected Research papers will in addition be featured in the printed journal in the form of a Research Summary. This includes the 'In brief' points and abstract from the full paper, an Editor's summary, a comment from another expert in the same field and a few sentences from the authors explaining why the research was undertaken and what they would like to do next to follow on from this work. Authors of papers selected to be featured in this way will be asked to provide additional information for the summary on acceptance.
CONSORT guidelines: Reports of clinical trials must conform to the CONSORT statement.
QUOROM guidelines: Reports of systematic reviews of clinical trials must conform to the QUOROM statement.
