Editor’s Note on Prescreening of Manuscripts
All articles published in General Dentistry are submitted online and undergo a blind peer-review process prior to acceptance. While that process will not change, I want to explain why we are initiating a prescreening review process. We are very grateful to the authors who submit their work, but the volume of submissions we receive threatens to overwhelm the peer-review system, which relies on volunteer reviewers.
Effective immediately, the editorial team will perform a brief review of submitted manuscripts to ensure that they are appropriate for inclusion in the broader peer-review process. Manuscripts will be rejected without peer review if they contain plagiarized content; are irrelevant to General Dentistry’s target audience; do not follow submission guidelines; demonstrate language problems that pose a significant barrier to understanding; present a significant conflict of interest; or are meta-analyses. Prescreening decisions are based on the publishing needs of the journal and the interests of its audience and do not reflect the quality of the research or manuscript.
Updated November 2021. This update includes several changes to required forms, including the Copyright Release and Authorship Statement and procedures for submitting documentation of patient consent for publication.
General Dentistry welcomes the submission of original clinical manuscripts that have not been published in the past and are not under publication consideration, accepted for publication, or pending publication elsewhere.
General Dentistry is peer reviewed; the review process may take up to 4 months. To ensure that your manuscript moves through the review process as quickly as possible, please follow the steps outlined below when preparing your submission.
Manuscripts and corresponding materials should be submitted to mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/gendent.
If you have questions about the submission requirements described below, please email us at generaldentistry@agd.org.
A printable version of the Information for Authors is available. A Manuscript Submission Checklist is available to guide you through the process.
Scope of General Dentistry
With a readership of more than 35,000 dentists, General Dentistry seeks to publish technique papers, case reports, literature reviews, and original research containing insights and information that are applicable to everyday practice. The journal content mirrors the scope of general dental practice, covering topics ranging from anesthesiology to dental materials, esthetics to oral medicine, implants to prosthodontics and beyond.
Preparing your manuscript
Every manuscript must offer unique ideas presented in the author’s own words. Unattributed use of phrases and sentences from previously published works (including works by the author[s] of the submission) constitutes plagiarism and is grounds for immediate rejection of a manuscript. Verbatim copying of other authors’ words is plagiarism, even if the source is cited as a reference. Changing a few words in a direct quote is not sufficient to avoid plagiarism. Direct quotes from other sources must be enclosed in quotation marks. Upon submission to General Dentistry, manuscripts may be screened with iThenticate plagiarism detection software. If plagiarism is detected after an article has been accepted, acceptance will be withdrawn.
All manuscripts must be written in English and prepared as Microsoft Word documents. Manuscripts prepared in incompatible word processing software will not be reviewed. Manuscript pages should have 1-inch margins and must be numbered consecutively throughout the document. Manuscripts should be approximately 10 double-spaced pages (roughly 3000 words), not including the cover page and figure captions. Manuscripts and corresponding materials should be submitted to mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/gendent.
Each manuscript submission should contain the following:
- Copyright Release and Authorship Statement
- Permission to reprint copyrighted materials, if applicable
- Author Declaration of Patient Consent, if applicable
- Academic thesis disclosure, if applicable
- Conflict of interest disclosure, if applicable
- Cover page file (including Acknowledgments, if applicable)
- Abstract file
- Article file (body of text and references)
- Graphics files, if applicable
- Figure captions file, if applicable
Please only include author names or identifying information on the cover page. All other manuscript elements must be anonymized.
A Manuscript Submission Checklist is available to guide you through the process.
Copyright Release and Authorship Statement
Articles that have been published previously or submitted or accepted for publication elsewhere are not eligible for submission. All manuscripts must be accompanied by a Copyright Release and Authorship Statement that lists and is signed by all authors. No authors can be added after submission. Please note that bylines published in General Dentistry do not identify the corresponding or lead authors. Download the Copyright Release and Authorship Statement.
Permission to reprint copyrighted materials, if applicable
If an original manuscript contains materials (including tables, photographs, charts, and radiographs) that have been published previously, the submission must include written permission from the copyright holder, even if the material is presented in adapted form. The permission to reprint must allow reuse of the material in both printed and electronic forms.
Author Declaration of Patient Consent, if applicable
If manuscripts contain any information or images that may identify an individual patient, the corresponding author must sign and submit an Author Declaration of Patient Consent form to confirm that they have received written consent from the patient or patient’s guardian.
Do not submit the consent form signed by the patient unless requested by General Dentistry.
The Author Declaration of Patient Consent states: (1) the patient has provided written, informed consent for both print and electronic distribution of the potentially identifying content; (2) the consent complies with the privacy laws of the authors’ locale; (3) the authors will retain the signed consent for a minimum of 7 years; and (4) the consent form will be made available to General Dentistry upon request. Download the Author Declaration of Patient Consent.
If the patient’s permission has not already been obtained, please download the General Dentistry Patient Consent form and ask the patient to sign it. Again, do not submit the consent form signed by the patient; instead, submit the Author Declaration of Patient Consent as described.
Academic thesis disclosure, if applicable
Articles that are based entirely or in part on academic theses or papers are eligible for submission, provided that (1) the thesis has been approved by the educational institution; (2) the material has not been published previously or submitted for publication in other scholarly journals, books, or monographs; (3) all coauthors of the thesis agree to publication; and (4) the submitted article falls within stated word count limits. The existence of the thesis, along with the thesis URL, must be disclosed upon submission of the manuscript. Failure to disclose that an article is based on a thesis may be grounds for rejection. This disclosure should be made directly in the field provided by ScholarOne; please do not upload a separate document.
Conflict of interest disclosure, if applicable
Authors are required to disclose any financial, economic, commercial, or professional conflicts of interest related to topics presented in the manuscript. Conflicts of interest include, but are not limited to, financial support, honoraria, provision of materials and equipment, and other forms of funding. This disclosure should be made directly in the field provided by ScholarOne; please do not upload a separate document.
If a manuscript could be perceived to have commercial overtones (for example, a study comparing various products), authors who do not have financial, economic, commercial, or professional conflicts of interest should include a disclaimer to that effect.
Cover page file
Each manuscript submission should include a cover page file that is separate from the manuscript file. The cover page must contain the title of the article, and names, academic degrees, and current professional affiliations of all authors. It may also include acknowledgments, if applicable. Previous affiliations should not be listed unless the research in the manuscript was carried out at that institution. For authors in private practice, affiliation should include city and state or country of practice. For institutionally affiliated authors, affiliation should include department (if any), institution name, city, and state or country. All authors should be listed on the cover page. No authors can be added after submission.
The cover page should also identify the corresponding author and list that author’s email address and complete mailing address.
INTERNATIONAL AUTHORS: The agd.org email domain is frequently blocked by internet service providers outside the United States and Canada (particularly university servers). To ensure timely and effective communication, we request that authors with such email addresses create an address from providers such as gmail.com or yahoo.com.
Article file
Please review each of the following sections carefully.
Graphics files, if applicable
A total of 10 tables and graphics (including photographs, radiographs, and charts) may be submitted. General Dentistry reserves the right to remove tables and graphics from the article during editing, as dictated by space considerations.
Figures should be uploaded as individual, high-resolution image files (TIFF, JPEG, Postscript, or EPS formats). They should not be embedded in the article file or submitted as a group in a single PDF or Microsoft Word document. Images should not include any numbering or identification on the actual photo, with the exception of arrows or abbreviations that further define what is being shown in the image. Unlabeled electronic versions of the images must be made available upon request.
Each figure should be numbered consecutively (Fig 1, Fig 2, etc) according to the order in which they are cited in the text. For photomicrographs, the stain used must be specified in the caption, and original magnification must be indicated unless a scale bar is included within the image. In the case of compound figures, each lettered element of the image is counted separately and must be uploaded as an individual file. For example, 3 separate files must be uploaded if the manuscript includes a Fig 1A, Fig 1B, and Fig 1C.
If a photograph shows a patient’s full face or other easily identifiable features, written permission from the patient is required for publication. Permission must cover print and digital media. See Author Declaration of Patient Consent above. If such permission cannot be obtained, the photographs will be cropped to prevent identification or deleted from the article.
Tables and charts must also be numbered consecutively according to the order in which they are cited in the text. They must be organized logically, include titles (and footnotes, when needed), and clarify or add to data presented, rather than simply repeat material in the text.
Tables should be provided in a single Microsoft Word document and not as graphic files.
Data points for charts (graphs) should be specified if the information is not included elsewhere in the text, so that the charts can be accurately reproduced by our graphic designers. For example, if a bar chart shows means and standard deviations, the exact numerical value of each mean and standard deviation should be provided (eg, in a table that will not be published). Do not provide all raw data.
Figure captions file, if applicable
The caption list must include captions for every graphic (including figures and charts). Each caption should be limited to approximately 20 words. The captions list must be submitted as a single Microsoft Word document.
Submitting your manuscript
Manuscripts and corresponding materials should be submitted to mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/gendent.
Please note that if any required materials are missing, the review process will be delayed until all materials are received.
Rejected manuscripts
In the event that your manuscript is rejected, we return the copyright to you so that you may consider submitting the manuscript to another journal.
If you have any questions about the manuscript submission process, please contact us at generaldentistry@agd.org.