Instructions for authors

Instructions for authors
The Journal of Oral and Dental Research (JODR) is a peer reviewed international scientific journal registered in www.iasj.net. It is dedicated to the dissemination of knowledge and information on subjects relevant to dental and orofacial structures, in health and disease. The JODR is the official journal of the Iraqi Association for Oral Research (IAOR)/Iraqi Division of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) and College of Dentistry/Duhok University. Manuscripts authored by members and non-members of the IAOR/IADR are welcome.

The Journal publishes reports of original research, adopted research with regional significance, clinical case presentations and critical reviews. Letters to the Editor will also be published, as appropriate.

Submitted research should have been conducted in full accordance with ethical principles and with the consent of the study subjects. The author(s) have the responsibility of obtaining consent from patients/study subject for publication of data and other material, including photographs as appropriate.

Original Research Reports
Description of original clinical and basic research is accepted for consideration. The manuscript is limited to 3,000 words excluding figure legends and references. The article is to be arranged under the subheadings: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion. A short Acknowledgments section can be added at the end of the manuscript, if appropriate. A maximum of 6 figures, tables, illustrations and images, and 30 references are to be included.

Adopted Research with Regional Significance
These papers are describing existing methodologies and research applied to a local population, which could influence clinical practice in the region or inform the literature in the subject. Paper prepared under this category should follow the outline for Original Research Reports.

Clinical Case Reports
Interesting or unusual clinical cases will be considered for publishing in the JOR. The maximum word number is 2,000 words.

Critical Reviews
Manuscripts of systematic reviews are favoured although critical review articles will also be considered for publications. The review of the specific subject should be comprehensive and with the aim of highlighting problems and controversies. The important relevant concepts should be illustrated clearly with the aid of tables and flow charts as relevant. The word limit for this type of articles is 4,000 words.

Letters to the Editor
Letters expressing an opinion or a position in relation to issues of interest to the readers of the JOR will be published. The letter has a limit of 300 words. No figures, tables, illustrations or images are permitted.

General Requirements
The manuscripts must be the original work of the author(s). The article must not have been previously published or is under consideration by another journal. Any form of publication other than an abstract only, constitutes prior publication. All authors must have contributed significantly to the work.

The submission should be accompanied by a completed and signed Authors’ Statement, which includes a declaration confirming the above.

Submission Fee: The cost of submission is $70 for members of the IAOR and $120 for non-members, paid online via the Journal’s website.

Guidelines for Manuscript Format
Text formatting
The Journal publishes articles written in English according to the British Dictionary only. The authors are encouraged to use a language editing service prior to submitting, if their first language is not English. Independent professional English language editing services can be found on the Internet. The text should be in New Times Roman, font size 12, single-spaced. Paragraphs should not start with indents. The layout of the article should not include any automated formatting (e.g. Boarders, headers, footers, numbering, bullets and page numbers). No special formatting within the text, except for the main headings, which should be in bold.

Title page: The title page should include: the title of the article, total word count (Abstract to Acknowledgements), total number of tables/figures, number of references and 4 to 6 key words. Titles should consist of a maximum of 10 words. The title should reflect the content of the manuscript. Sufficient details should be included in the title for indexing purposes. Titles should not include acronyms or abbreviations - The authors’ names should be stated as first name, initial of middle name and surname, preferred degree (only one) and affiliation. Example: Anwar R. Tappuni, PhD., Institute of Dentistry, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, UK.

The corresponding author should be clearly indicated stating the name, email address and telephone number.

Abstract: The abstract should be presented as structured abstract under the following subheadings: Introduction, Methods, Results and Conclusion. No references should be cited within the abstract. The word number is a maximum of 300 words.

Introduction : Aconcise background of the research and the relevant literature review should be given in this section. The aim(s) and objective(s) should be clearly stated at the end of the introduction section.

Material and Methods: This section should include a detailed description of the study subjects, materials and methods. An account of the statistical methodologies should be included where relevant. This section should not include any results, data analysis or discussion.

Results: The results should be stated in this section in a logical and clear manner. It is not usual to include references in this section. Numbers with decimal points should be limited to two decimal digits.

Discussion: Avoid repeating the results in this section. Critically appraise the study comparing and contrasting results to previous similar studies. Highlight novel and important findings of your study and their implication for future research in the subject.

Conclusion: A clear and concise statement of the main message of the paper should be written in one paragraph of a maximum of 100 words.

Acknowledgement: This section is included only where necessary to specify contributors to the article other than the authors accredited. The authors are responsible for informing and obtaining permission from everyone acknowledged by name to ensure their endorsement of the article. Authors are required to acknowledge all sources of support for their study or their article and any source of perceived or actual conflicts of interest in this section.

References: References should be cited within the text by the first author’s name and year of publication in between brackets. When citing a reference by two authors use the two surnames separated by “and”. When citing references by three authors or more, mention the first author’s name followed by “et al”.

The References section should include all references cited in the text, arranged in alphabetical order by last name of the first author and without numbering. The Reference list should not include any papers that have not been cited in the manuscript. When citing multiple references by the same author(s) in the same year, use “a,” “b,” etc. When citing papers that have been accepted but not yet published, add “in press”. When citing a Web site, list the author(s), title and date, then the URL.

The reference list should follow the referencing style as shown in the below example: Lecanda F, Avioli LV, Cheng SL (1997). Regulation of bone matrix protein expression and induction of differentiation of human osteoblasts and human bone marrow stromal cells by bone morphogenetic protein-2. J Cell Biochem 67:386-396.

Figures, Tables and images: All digitised images must be of high quality and resolution, preferably 300 dpi. They should be submitted as separate files to the manuscript. Figures should be uploaded as tiff (.tif), jpeg (.jpg), or encapsulated postscript (.eps) and submitted as a separate file to the manuscript.

Figures should not be embedded in Word documents, PDFs or as a Power Point. Figure legends should be in 10 point and single-spaced formatting, at the end of the manuscript (after the References section). Tables should be at the end of the manuscript with legends of 10 point and single-spaced formatting.

Copy rights: Submission will constitute the agreement of all authors that all rights to the manuscript will be transferred to the JODR, which will hold all propriety rights in the manuscript submitted including all copyrights.

How to submit: All materials should be submitted online to the following address: online submission
The submission should include the following:

1. Manuscript.
2. File for the figures and images.
3. Complete and signed Authors’ statement, which can be found on the following address
   If you have any enquiries or technical problem during the submission process, please do not hesitate to contact us on the following address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

JODR Complaint Policy
To ensure fair and transparent process, the JODR Editorial Team encourages authors to express any concerns or complaint they have by sending an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., stating your full name, academic degree, affiliation and contact details. We welcome any feedback or suggestion to improve the JODR and the editorial process, with the objective to improve the journal’s overall performance.

Professor Anwar R. Tappuni
Editor-in-Chief

JOURNAL OF ORAL AND DENTAL RESEARCH