MANUSCRIPT GUIDELINES

     JIDAM is an official publication of IDA –Madras branch and is designed to serve as a literature platform to publish articles relevant to various fields of dentistry which will be beneficial for all dentists. Manuscripts submitted for publication must be original articles and must not have appeared in any other publication. The journal does not charge for submission, processing or publication of an article.The journal accepts articles from general dentists, any speciality dentist, undergraduate and postgraduate students. Authors are encouraged to submit interesting manuscripts under any of the following category.

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLES

     They are primary sources of scientific literature that comprises of randomized controlled trials, interventional studies, studies of screening and diagnostic tests, outcome studies, cost effectiveness analyses, case-control series, and surveys with high response rate.The article can be upto maximum 2500 words excluding references and abstract. References should be restricted to 30 and can hold upto 6 contributing authors.

REVIEW ARTICLES

     Any article that summarizes the current state of understanding on a topic, previously published studies and critically assesses literature rather than reporting new facts or analysis can be considered for publication. The article may have maximum 3500 words excluding references and abstract. References should be restricted upto 40 and the number of authors to be restricted to 5.

CASE REPORTS

     Any novel / captivating / unusual cases can be reported. Cases with clinical significance or implications will be given priority, whereas, mere reporting of a rare case may not be considered.The article should contain upto 2000 words excluding references and abstract. Upto 10 references is accepted. The number of authors should be restricted to 4.

SHORT COMMUNICATION

     A short communication contains only a short report of the case (only pertinent details) and a short discussion. It should focus on a particular aspect of a problem or a novel finding that is expected to have a significant scientific impact. The article should contain upto 1000 words excluding references and abstract. A short discussion with upto 8 references may be accepted. The number of figures should be restricted to a maximum of 6 and the number of authors should be restricted to 3.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Should be short, decisive observation. They should not be preliminary observations that need a later paper for validation. It should be limited upto 400 words with 4 references.

AUTHORSHIP CREDIT SHOULD BE BASED ONLY ON

1. Substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data.
2. Drafting the article or revising is critically for important intellectual content.
3.Final approval of the version to be published.

     The collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, by themselves, do not justify authorship. The order of authorship on the byline should be a joint decision of the co-authors. Authors should be prepared to explain the order in which authors are listed. Once submitted the order cannot be changed without written consent of all the authors. A justification should be included, if the number of authors exceeds these limits.Only those who have done substantial work in a particular field can write a review article. A short summary of the work done by the authors (s) in the field of review should accompany the manuscript. The journal expects the authors to give post-publication updates on the subject of review. The update should be brief, covering the advances in the field after the publication of article and should be sent as letter to editor, as and when major development occur in the field. Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take publication responsibility for appropriate portions of the content. One or more authors should take responsibility for the integrity of the work as a whole, from inception to publication of the article. The name and order of the authors cannot be changed once the article is provisionally accepted.

MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION

     The manuscripts should be typed in A4 size (212 × 297 mm) paper, with margins of 25 mm (1 inch) from all the four sides. Use 1.5 spacing throughout with Times New Roman in 12 size font. Number pages consecutively, beginning with the abstract page. The language should be British English. The text of observational and experimental articles should be divided into sections with the headings: Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, References, Tables, Figures, Figure legends.

Manuscript should be sent in the following order as separate files

• Title Page.
• Article file which includes Abstract, Text, References, Figure legends, Tables.
• Individual images/tables should be sent separately as JPEG/PNG image with
  size 89x50 mm (with 300 pixels per inch).

TITLE PAGE

The title page should contain

• Type of manuscript
• The title of the article, which should be concise, but informative;
• Running title or short title not more than 50 characters;
• Name of the authors (the way it should appear in the journal), with his or her
  highest academic degree(s) and institutional affiliation;
• The name of the department(s) and institution(s) to which the work should be
  attributed;
• The name, address, phone numbers, facsimile numbers, and e-mail address of
  the contributor responsible for correspondence about the manuscript;
• The total number of pages, total number of photographs and word counts
  separately for abstract and for the text (excluding the references and abstract).

ARTICLE FILE

     The main text of the article, beginning from abstract till references should be in this file. Do not include any information such as acknowledgement, your names in page headers, etc., in this file. Do not zip the files. Limit the file size to 2 MB. Do not incorporate images in the file. If the file size is large, graphs can be submitted as images separately without incorporating them in the article file to reduce the size of the file.

(I) Abstract and Key Words

     The second page should carry the full title of the manuscript and an abstract (of not more than 150 words for case reports, brief reports and 250 words for original articles). The abstract for reviews, case reports and short communication should consist of no more than 150 words in one paragraph. The structured abstract for original articles, should consist of no more than 250 words and the following four paragraphs:
* Background: Describes the problem being addressed.
* Methods: Describes how the study was performed.
* Results: Describes the primary results.
* Conclusions: Reports what authors have concluded from these results and its relative clinical implications.

(II) TEXT

INTRODUCTION

The introduction contains a concise review of the subject area and the rationale for the study. More detailed comparisons of previous work and conclusions of the study should appear in the discussion section.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

This section lists the methods used in the study in sufficient detail so that other investigators would be able to reproduce the research. When established methods are used, the author need only refer to previously published reports; however, the authors should provide brief descriptions of methods that are not well known or that have been modified.

RESULTS

Results should be presented in a logical sequence with reference to tables, figures, and illustrations as appropriate.

DISCUSSION

New and probable paramount findings of the study should be emphasized, as well as any conclusions that can be drawn. The discussion should compare the present data to previous findings. Limitations of the experimental methods should be indicated, as should implications for future research. New hypotheses and clinical recommendations are appropriate and should be clearly identified. Recommendations, particularly clinical ones, may be included when appropriate.

(III) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

At the end of the discussion, acknowledgments may be made to individuals who contributed to the research or the manuscript preparation at a level that did not qualify for authorship. This may include technical help or participation in a clinical study. Authors are responsible for obtaining written permission from persons listed by name.

(IV) REFERENCES

References should be numbered consecutively in the order in which they appear in the text. All references are identified, whether they appear in the text, tables, or legends, by Arabic numbers in superscript. The use of abstracts as references is strongly discouraged. Manuscripts accepted for publication may be cited. Material submitted, but not yet accepted, should be cited in text as ‘‘unpublished observations.’’

REFERENCES STYLE

References should be numbered consecutively in order in which they appear in the text. A journal, magazine, or newspaper article should be given only one number; a book should be given a different number each time it is mentioned, if different page numbers are cited.
*Authors ( use et al. after 6 authors,if there are more than 6 authors, complete name should not be written. “et al” must be in italics )
*Article title (should be exact as existing)
*Journal name (should be in standard pubmed abbreviation, full journal name should not be written).
*Year
*Volume
*Page numbers (445-447 to be written as 445-47)

EXAMPLE

Singh JK, Bawa M, Kanojia RP, Ghai P, Menon P, Rao KL. Idiopathic simultaneous intussusceptions in a neonate. Pediatr Surg Int 2009;25:445-7.

(v) TABLES

Tables should be numbered consecutively in Arabic numbers in the order of their appearance in the text. A brief descriptive title should be supplied for each. Explanations, including abbreviations, should be listed as footnotes, not in the heading. Every column should have a heading. Statistical measures of variations such as standard deviation or standard error of the mean should be included as appropriate in the footnotes.

(VI) LEGENDS

Legends for the figures/images should be included at the end of the article file. When arrows, symbols, numbers, or letters are used, explain each clearly in the legend. Panel labels should be in capital letters. Legends should not appear on the same page as the actual figures.

(VII) FOOTNOTES 

Footnotes should be used only to identify author affiliation; to explain symbols in tables and illustrations; and to identify manufacturers of equipment, medications, materials, and devices. Use the following symbols in the sequence shown: *, †, ‡, §, k, ¶, #, **, ††, etc.

(VIII) IDENTIFICATION OF PRODUCTS

Use of brand names within the title or text is not acceptable, unless essential when the paper is comparing two or more products. When identification of a product is needed or helpful to explain the procedure or trial being discussed, a generic term should be used and the brand name, manufacturer, and location (city/state/country) cited as a footnote.

3. IMAGE FILE

Good quality color images should be sent as separate file. Each image should be less than 400 kb in size(300 pixels per inch ). Size of the image can be reduced by decreasing the actual height and width of the images (keep up to 89×50 mm). All image formats (jpeg, tiff, gif, bmp, png, eps, etc.) are acceptable; jpeg is most suitable. Figures should not be embedded in the manuscript.

MODE OF SUBMISSION

Manuscripts should be submitted only through online at www.jidam.idamadras.com

The authors’ form and copyright transfer form has to be submitted to the editorial office by post, in original with the signatures of all the authors within two weeks of submission. Images related to the articles should be sent in a ‘compact disc’ to the journal office at the time of acceptance of the manuscript. These images should of high resolution and exceptional quality. Authors should retain a copy of their manuscript for their own records.

Manuscript submission, processing or
publication charges

The journal does not charge for submission or publishing the manuscripts.