Dental Hypotheses

Online Submissions

Already have a Username/Password for Dental Hypotheses?
Go to Login

Need a Username/Password?
Go to Registration

Registration and login are required to submit items online and to check the status of current submissions.

Author Guidelines

Dental Hypotheses is a forum for new, challenging and thought provoking ideas in the field of dental sciences. The journal will consider radical, speculative and non-mainstream scientific ideas provided they are coherently expressed.

Most dental journals will publish ideas only in papers which also report observations. As the best scientists have repeatedly emphasized, this gives a misleading impression of the process of discovery. Dental Hypotheses can therefore form a bridge between cutting-edge theory and the mainstream of dental scientific communication, which ideas must eventually enter if they are to be critiqued and tested against observations.

Guidelines of Dental Hypotheses for authores are based on the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) Uniform Requirements for Submission of Manuscripts to Biomedical Journals. Dental Hypothesesendorses the philosophy that the Equator Network has adopted for reporting health research.

Title page
This should list the title of the article. The full names, institutional addresses, and email addresses for all authors must be included on the title page. The corresponding author should also be indicated.

Abstract
This should not exceed 250 words and for Original Hypothesis should be structured into separate sections headed e.g. Introduction, The hypothesis, Evaluation of the hypothesis. Please do not use abbreviations or references in the abstract. At the end of abstract up to 10 keywords should be given.

Expected content, by article type

• Original Hypothesis

Roughly speaking, a hypothesis should be an organized logical structure (or model) that accounts for (some) known facts, and which has real world consequences that are (in principle) observable. 
The consequences of a hypothesis constitute predictions that may be tested against observations and experiments to determine whether some of them are (apparently) fulfilled.

Hypothesis articles should present an untested original hypothesis backed up solely by a survey of previously published results rather than any new evidence. Hypothesis articles should not be reviews

Manuscript sections for Hypothesis articles

Introduction

The introduction should to be a concise introduction to the scientific area to be addressed, supported by appropriate references and should set the scene for the hypothesis. The introduction should not be an attempt to review the evidence in detail, unless review of specific pieces of evidence is central and critical to why a new hypothesis is needed.

The hypothesis

The hypothesis needs to be set out in explicit detail. Typically it should be clear why and how the hypothesis is different from current thinking, how the idea has evolved, and why it is important.
The scientific logic of the hypothesis should be clearly evident (eg. the steps in its causal assumptions).

Evaluation of the hypothesis

The proposed hypothesis should be evaluated in the light of known and published information. Generally, this entails an evaluation of both evidence in support and evidence (apparently) against the hypothesis. Only relevant, and critically evaluated, papers should be cited. 
A hypothesis should, if correct, have implications and make predictions. These predictions are (in principle) amenable to further observation and experimentation that could tend to confirm or refute the hypothesis. Typically, authors would be expected to indicate how their hypothesis might be tested.

• Systematic Review

Dental Hypotheses accepts review of the challenging and thought provoking ideas, dental hypotheses and newly issued dental patents. Reviews should take a broad view of the field. Reviews should be written according to the PRISMA statement and should be approximately 3500 words with 100 references or fewer.

• Special Report

They are miscellaneous robust, radical, speculative and non-mainstream scientific articles of special interest to the dental scientific community. They are limited to 2700 words.

• Perspective

These articles will discuss important, emerging issues in clinical dental practice. They will cover a wide variety of topics of current interest in dental health care, clinical dentistry, and the intersection between dentistry and society. Perspective articles are limited to 1000 to 1500 words and usually include a maximum of 25 references.

• Commentary

These articles will discuss important controversial issues in clinical practice, dental public health policy, or dental health in general. It is also a forum in which colleagues can respond, with room for speculation, to previously stated opinions or observations. A successful Opinion piece will make a compelling case for a particular point of view, but will do so, mindful of existing controversies or alternative views, and will make an effort to integrate these into the discussion. These articles should be no more than 1700 words with 3 figures and a maximum of 30 references.

• Clinical Innovation

These articles will illustrate significant improvements in clinical practice such as the report of a novel clinical technique, a breakthrough in technology or practical approaches to recognized clinical challenges. They should conform to the highest scientific and clinical practice standards.

• Case Study

Dental Hypotheses only accepts entrepreneurial case studies. These articles will discuss Success Stories of new and innovative dental products and services. Several stages of developing of a new dental products and services from an idea to prototyping, pre-clinical and clinical testing, patenting, licensing, manufacturing, marketing, etc. should be discussed. Most case studies have three parts including Background, Case Study and Discussion.

• Editorial

Unsolicited editorials will be reviewed for publication of any subject within the journal's scope. Editorials should be 1,200 words and a maximum of 20 references or fewer.

• Letter to the Editor

These can take three forms: a substantial re-analysis of a previously published article, or a substantial response to such a re-analysis from the authors of the original publication, or an article that may not cover 'standard hypothesis' but that may be relevant to the journal's scope. Letters should be limited to 500 words and a maximum of 10 references or fewer.

References

Authors are responsible for the accuracy of all references. The list of references begins on a fresh page in the manuscript, using the Vancouver format. References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they are first mentioned in the text. Identified references in the text should be sequentially numbered by Arabic numerals in parentheses, e.g., (1,3,9). Superscript in-text references are not acceptable in CDOE. For correct style, authors are referred to: International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals: writing and editing for biomedical publication. http://www.icmje.org.

Avoid reference to 'unpublished observations', and manuscripts not yet accepted for publication. References to abstracts should be avoided if possible; such references are appropriate only if they are recent enough that time has not permitted full publication. References to written personal communications (not oral) may be inserted in parentheses in the text.
We recommend the use of a tool such as EndNote orReference Manager for reference management and formatting.

Examples of the Vancouver reference style are given below:

Journals
Standard journal article
(List all authors when six or fewer. When seven or more, list first six and add et al.)

Kolahi J, Fazilati M. Bluetooth technology for prevention of dental caries. Med Hypotheses 2009;73:1067-8.

Corporate author
WHO Collaborating Centre for Oral Precancerous Lesions. Definition of leukoplakia and related lesions: an aid to studies on oral precancer. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol 1978;46:518-39.

Books and other monographs
Personal author(s)
Fejerskov O, Baelum V, Manji F, Møller IJ. Dental fluorosis; a handbook for health workers. Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1988:41-3.

Chapter in a book
Fomon SJ, Ekstrand J. Fluoride intake. In: Fejerskov O, Ekstrand J, Burt BA, editors: Fluoride in dentistry, 2nd edition. Copenhagen: Munksgaard, 1996; 40-52.

For other kinds of citation sources please consult National Library of Medicine's Citing Medicine

Tables

Tables should be typed double spaced, presented on separate pages after the references, and numbered in the order in which they are cited in the text. Table headers should be fully descriptive of the contents, and whenever possible should be comprehensible without reference to the text. Tables should supplement, not duplicate, the text. Use only horizontal rules.

Figures, charts and images

During the initial submission, images may be send in separate supplementary files or all in rhe main submission file. Each file (including main and supplementary files) must not be larger than 2 MB in size, otherwise it will not be uploaded. After manuscript acceptance each image must be prepared as a high quality graphic file with high resolution suitable for print production. These images should be in a high resolution format in accordance with the Pubmed Central preferred image file specification. For the details of image file specifications please refer to the Pubmed Central documents. Failure to submit the required image format in time, may cause delay in the publication of the accepted papers. Keep wording on images to a minimum, with explanations written in the legends. Legends should not be part of the image proper. Legends for figures should be placed at the end of the main submission file.

Other kinds of figures such as bar charts, histograms, scattergrams and line graphs should be prepared using standard chart drawing software such as MS-Graph, or OpenOffice, and embedded in the main submission file. These figures must not be prepared as scanned images.

List of abbreviations
If abbreviations are used in the text, either they should be defined in the text where first used, or a list of abbreviations can be provided, which should precede the competing interests and authors' contributions.

Conflicts of interests

This section should list specific competing interests associated with any of the authors. If authors declare that no competing interests exist, we will print a statement to this effect.

Declared conflict of interest will not automatically result in rejection of paper but the editors reserve the right to publish any declared conflict of interest alongside accepted. The following would generally be regarded as potential conflicts of interest:

• Direct financial payment to an author for the research or manuscript production by the sponsor of a product or service evaluated in an article.
• Ownership of shares by an author in the company sponsoring a product service evaluated in an article (or in a company sponsoring a competing product).
• Personal consultant with companies or other organizations with a financial interest in the promotion of particular health care products and services.

All authors should complete the ICMJE Uniform Disclosure Form for Potential Conflicts of Interest.

Acknowledgements

Under acknowledgements please specify contributors to the article other than the authors accredited and all sources of financial support for the research.

Authors' contributions

As stated in the Uniform Requirements, credit for authorship requires substantial contributions to (a) the conception and design or analysis and interpretation of the data, (b) the drafting of the article or critical revision for important intellectual content, and c) final approval of the version to be published. All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship should be listed in an acknowledgements section. Examples of those who might be acknowledged include a person who provided purely technical help, writing assistance, or a department chair that provided only general support. Type and extent of contribution of each author should be explicitly stated in the Authors' Contribution section of the manuscript.

We follow the COPE guidelines covering changes in authorship. Please note that if any changes to the list of authors of a manuscript are necessary after the initial submission of a manuscript to Dental Hypotheses but before its publication, the corresponding author must first contact the journal staff and provide a clear reason for the change(s). If the change to the authorship list is appropriate and in keeping with the guidelines above, the corresponding author will be asked to provide written confirmation that all other authors listed on the manuscript at that time consent to the change(s). Any individuals who the corresponding author requests to add or remove from the list of authors will be contacted.

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 OpenOffice, Microsoft Word, RTF, or WordPerfect document file format.
3. Where available, URLs for the references have been provided.
4. The text is single-spaced; uses a 12-point font; employs italics, rather than underlining (except with URL addresses); and all illustrations, figures, and tables are placed within the text at the appropriate points, rather than at the end.
5. The text adheres to the stylistic and bibliographic requirements outlined in the Author Guidelines, which is found in About the Journal.
6. If submitting to a peer-reviewed section of the journal, the instructions in Ensuring a Blind Review have been followed.

Copyright Notice

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.


2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.


3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).

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.