This special double-page spread celebrates a milestone in BDJ history. It includes the 1,000th abstract published in the Journal by our current editor and writer for these pages, Dr Trevor Watts, BDJ Adviser on Abstracts (see News section of this issue).

The abstracts are aimed at both general and specialist practitioners, and cover most aspects of clinical dentistry. Trevor intends to highlight studies of clinical significance, and deliberately avoids the abstruse. The regular abstract selection process covers some 40 journals, most of which are dental, and 4 of which are medical. Occasionally Trevor chooses an item of dental interest from other scientific literature. Once a page of abstracts is completed, Trevor emails it to the BDJ where proofs are made which are then emailed back for checking. At least three people read this proof for accuracy before it is published in the BDJ.

When Trevor's work began in 1989, his starting point was the published abstract, which was edited to improve readability and sometimes to insert details which authors had not mentioned, either accidentally or deliberately! However, selecting papers later became easier with the advent of e-journals, and time saved in this area has allowed Trevor to rewrite virtually all abstracts himself. His aim is to report objectively, but this does not prevent him writing an occasional comment on experimental difficulties or other implications of a paper.

Occasionally, a study is fast-tracked to the next available BDJ, usually within 1–2 months. Examples include the large 1998 Philadelphia study showing minimal dental involvement in endocarditis (Annals of Internal Medicine), and in 2003, the interesting association between caries and smoking (Journal of the American Medical Association) and case reports on the serious complication of intracranial hypertension induced by doxycycline (British Medical Journal).