EDITORIAL POLICY

Document drafted in accordance with the guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and good publishing practices.

1. RECOMMENDATIONS AND OBJECTIVES

Dental Press International Publisher has developed these guidelines and recommendations following the standards of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), based on the best practices and ethical standards in the conduct and reporting of research and other materials published in its journals. These guidelines aim to assist and direct authors, editors, and other professionals involved in peer review and the publication of scientific editorial content. They also seek to create and distribute accurate, clear, and reproducible data, along with a commitment to publishing impartial articles. These recommendations can also provide useful information about journal editing and the publication process for the media, patients, families, and general readers.


1.1. Who should use our recommendations?

These recommendations are primarily intended for use by authors who wish to submit their work for publication in the Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. To ensure the best publication practices, Dental Press International follows the ICMJE guidelines, which, in turn, encourage their use. Authors should refer to the guidelines for each specific type of study, available at the following link: http://equator-network.org


ICMJE encourages widespread dissemination of these recommendations and the reproduction of the document in its entirety for educational, nonprofit purposes, and without regard to copyright. However, all uses of these recommendations should direct readers to the link https://www.icmje.org/, where the most recent version of the guidelines can be accessed. Dental Press thus promotes and replicates this link, as updates are periodically made to enhance the performance of scientific publications linked to ICMJE.



2. DISCLOSURE OF ACTIVITIES AND CONFLICTS OF INTEREST


Public trust in the scientific process and the credibility of published articles depend, in part, on how transparent an author’s relationships and activities are, directly or indirectly related to their work. This should be considered during the planning, implementation, writing, peer review, editing, and publication of any scientific study in the Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.


Conflict of interest or bias in a study exists when professional judgment about a primary interest can be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain). According to the ICMJE, individuals may disagree on whether an author’s relationships or activities represent conflicts. While the presence of a relationship or activity does not always indicate problematic influence on the content of an article, perceptions of conflict can erode trust in science as much as actual conflicts of interest.


Ultimately, readers should be able to make their own judgments about whether an author’s relationships and activities are relevant to the content of an article. These judgments require transparent disclosure through a conflict of interest statement. Full disclosure of each author’s commitments and conflicts demonstrates a commitment to transparency and helps maintain trust in the scientific process.


Financial relationships (such as employment, consulting, stock ownership, honoraria, patents, and paid expert testimony) are the most easily identifiable. These are precisely the most common ones and are considered potential conflicts of interest and, therefore, the most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal, authors, and science itself.


Other interests can also constitute conflicts, such as personal relationships or rivalries, academic competition, and intellectual beliefs. Authors should avoid entering agreements with study sponsors, whether for-profit or nonprofit, that interfere with researchers’ access to all study data.


Policies dictating where authors can publish their work violate this principle of academic freedom. Authors may be asked to confidentially provide these agreements to the journal. Deliberately omitting these relationships or activities when submitting relevant conflict of interest documentation to the journal is considered a form of misconduct.


2.1. Participants


All participants in the peer review and publication process—not just the authors, but also the reviewers, editors, and members of the editorial board of the Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery—must disclose their relationships and activities in order to fulfill their roles in the review and publication of articles.

2.1.1. Authors



When authors submit an article of any type or format, they are responsible for disclosing all relationships and activities that could influence or appear to bias their own work. Dental Press uses a Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form, developed by ICMJE, to facilitate and standardize authors’ conflict disclosures. Emphasizing these criteria of Dental Press, based on ICMJE guidelines.


2.1.2. Peer Review

Reviewers at Dental Press are queried—at the time they are asked to review and critique an article—about any relationships or activities that might compromise their review. Reviewers must disclose to editors any relationships or activities that could bias their opinions about a study, and they must decline to review specific articles if there is potential for distortion or conflict of interest. Reviewers are also instructed not to use knowledge of the work they are reviewing prior to its publication, to avoid personal gain.


2.1.3. Editors and Journal Team

Dental Press advises that editors—who make final decisions about manuscripts—refrain from editorial decisions in which they have relationships or activities that pose potential conflicts related to the articles under evaluation. Other members of the editorial team participating in editorial decisions should provide editors with up-to-date descriptions of their relationships and activities, so they do not take part in decisions where there is an interest representing a potential conflict.

The editorial team should not use information obtained during manuscript evaluation for personal gain. Editors must regularly publish their own conflict of interest statements and those of their editorial team. Guest editors should follow the same procedures. The Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery takes extra precautions and has a stated policy for evaluating manuscripts submitted by individuals involved in editorial decisions.

2.2. Relationships and Activities

Articles in the Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery must be published with conflict of interest statements, such as the aforementioned ICMJE Disclosure Form, providing information on:



● Authors’ relationships and activities.
● Sources of financial support for the work, including the sponsor’s name, along with explanations of these sources’ role in data collection, analysis, and interpretation; any restrictions or influences on submitting the final article for publication; or a statement that the funding source had no involvement or restrictions on publication.
● Whether authors had access to study data, with an explanation of the nature and extent of access, including whether access is ongoing.


To support this statement, editors at Dental Press International may request authors of a study sponsored by a financier with a proprietary or financial interest in the outcome to sign a statement such as: "I had full access to all data in this study and take full responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis."



3. RESPONSIBILITY IN SUBMISSION AND PEER REVIEW



3.1. Authors Authors must adhere to all principles of authorship and conflict of interest declaration as detailed in this code of conduct and publication guidelines.


3.1.1. Predatory or Pseudo-Journals: There is a growing number of entities globally, including in Brazil, that present themselves as "academic journals in Dentistry," but do not operate according to quality standards endorsed by the international scientific community.


These journals (predatory or pseudo-journals) accept and publish almost all submissions, charging processing (or publication) fees from authors, often informing them of this after the article’s acceptance. They often claim to conduct peer review but do not, and may intentionally use names similar to well-established journals. The Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery follows all ICMJE guidelines and thus refrains from such practices.


Therefore, the editorial board of the Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery recommends that authors submitting their work to the journal avoid citing articles (or do so cautiously) published in predatory or pseudo-journals, as there is no assurance that the proper scientific method was followed—thus ensuring sound scientific standards and reliable data for serious studies focused on patient health preservation.


3.2. Journals



3.2.1. Confidentiality: Articles submitted to the Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery are privileged communications, privately owned and confidential to authors. Therefore, researchers may be harmed by premature disclosure of any study details.


Editors of the journal do not share information about manuscripts—including receipt, under review status, content, reviewer critiques, and final editorial decision—with anyone not strictly related to the editing process, authors, and reviewers. All third-party requests for use of original data or legal opinions (animal or human ethics committees) will be declined, and editors will do their best not to provide confidential material, even in cases of subpoena.


Editors should also make it clear that reviewers will keep the manuscripts and their contents confidential. Reviewers and editorial team members should not publicly discuss authors’ work, and reviewers should not appropriate authors’ ideas prior to the publication of the original text. Reviewers should not retain the manuscript for personal use and, after submitting reviews, should destroy paper copies of the originals and delete electronic copies.


Editors must not publish or disclose reviewers’ comments without the explicit written permission of both the reviewer and the author. The journal’s policy is to hide the identity of non-signing reviewers from authors; thus, this identity must not be revealed to authors or anyone else without the express written permission of the reviewers.


Dental Press reserves the right to breach confidentiality in cases of alleged dishonesty or fraud. However, the editors will notify authors or reviewers if such intention arises. Otherwise, confidentiality will always be respected.


3.2.2. Timeliness: The editors of the Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery will strive to ensure timely processing of articles, considering available resources. If editors intend to publish a study, they will attempt to do so promptly, and any planned delays will be discussed with authors. If the journal does not intend to proceed with publication, editors will make efforts to reject the article as quickly as possible, allowing authors to submit it to a different journal.


3.2.4. Integrity: Editorial decisions should be based on the relevance of an article to the journal and the originality, quality, and contribution of the study to the evidence on important issues. These decisions are not influenced by commercial interests, personal relationships or political interests, or findings that contradict what is already established in the accepted literature. 3.2.3. Peer Review: Peer review is the critical assessment of articles submitted to the journal by experts who are generally not part of the editorial team. Peer review is an important extension of the scientific process—including scientific research—as part of impartial, independent, and critical evaluation; this is an intrinsic step of all academic work.


The true value of peer review is widely debated, but the process facilitates a fair audience for a manuscript among members of the scientific community. More practically, it aids editors in determining which articles are suitable for each journal. Peer review often helps authors and editors improve the overall quality of scientific publications.


It is the responsibility of the Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery to ensure that double-blind peer review systems are implemented to allow for the selection of appropriate reviewers. It is the editor’s responsibility to ensure that reviewers have access to all materials that may be relevant for evaluating the article and to ensure that reviewer comments are evaluated and interpreted appropriately in the context of their declared relationships and activities.


The editor of the Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery is the ultimate authority in the selection of all content, and editorial decisions may be made based on factors unrelated to the quality of an article. The editor can reject an article at any time before publication, including after acceptance, if doubts about the integrity of the work arise.


As a form of respect for contributors, the Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery informs reviewers about the final decision to accept or reject an article, acknowledging the reviewers’ contribution to the journal. Editors are encouraged to share each reviewer’s comments with other reviewers of the same article, so that all can be aware of each aspect of the review process.


As part of peer review—following ICMJE guidelines—editors of this journal are encouraged to review research protocols and methods of statistical analysis.


Dental Press International, like ICMJE, believes that researchers have a duty to retain primary data and analytical procedures that support published results for at least 10 years. ICMJE encourages the preservation of this data in a data repository to ensure its long-term availability.


3.2.4. Integrity: Editorial decisions should be based on the relevance of an article to the journal and the study’s originality, quality, and contribution to evidence on important issues. These decisions are not influenced by commercial interests, personal relationships, political interests, or findings that contradict what is already established in accepted literature.


Editors should not consider for publication studies with inconclusive or statistically insignificant results. Even if unpublished, such studies may in the future contribute evidence that, when combined with other articles’ evidence through meta-analysis, could help answer important questions.


3.2.5. Diversity and Inclusion: To improve academic culture, editors at Dental Press International seek to involve a wide and diverse range of authors, reviewers, editorial team members, editorial board members, and readers.


3.3. Reviewers



Articles submitted to journals are privileged communications, privately owned and confidential to authors. Therefore, authors may be harmed by premature disclosure of any details of the article. As such, reviewers of the Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery are instructed to maintain complete confidentiality of articles and the information contained within them.


Reviewers must not publicly discuss the evaluated works or appropriate authors’ ideas before the original article is published. Reviewers should not retain the study for personal use, and only the Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery will retain copies of manuscripts after receiving the reviews.


Reviewers at Dental Press International who seek assistance from an intern or colleague in conducting a review should acknowledge the contributions of these individuals in written comments to the editor. These individuals must maintain manuscript confidentiality as outlined in this document.


Reviewers for this journal disclose any relationships and activities that could bias their evaluation of a manuscript and decline to participate in the peer review process if a conflict arises, in accordance with the guidelines stipulated in this document.

4. PROTECTION OF PARTICIPANTS


4.1. Research on Humans and Animals

All researchers must ensure that the conduct of research involving human participants is in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and its 2013 revision. All authors should seek approval to conduct research from an independent local, regional, or national review board—such as a Regional Dental Council or an ethics committee.


If there is doubt whether the research was conducted in line with the declaration, authors should explain the reason for their approach and demonstrate that the review board explicitly approved aspects that may be questionable regarding the study. Approval from a responsible review board does not prevent editors of the Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery from making their own judgment as to whether the research conduct was appropriate.

When reporting experiments on animals, authors should indicate whether institutional and national standards for the care and use of laboratory animals were followed. Additional guidelines adopted by Dental Press International regarding ethics in animal research are available in the Author Guidelines of the Consensus on Animal Ethics and Welfare from the International Association of Veterinary Editors, at the following link:

https://veteditors.org/consensus-author-guidelines-on-animal-ethics-and-welfare-for-editors


4.2. Patient Privacy


All patients have the right to privacy, which should not be violated without informed and documented consent. Identifying information, including names, initials, or hospital/clinic/office numbers, should not be published in written descriptions or photographs unless the information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (or guardians) provide written consent for such publication.


Informed consent for this purpose requires that a patient who can be identified be shown the manuscript of the article before publication. Authors should inform these patients if any potentially identifiable material might be available on the internet, as well as in the printed version after publication.


Written patient consent should be archived with the journal, the authors, or both, as dictated by the regulations in force in Brazilian law. Dental Press explicitly states that the legislation adopted by the Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery follows the current constitutional parameters and rules in Brazil.


The requirement for informed consent is included in the instructions of the Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery for authors, and therefore, when informed consent has been obtained, it must be indicated in the published article.

5. ARCHIVES


The journal is indexed in Scopus and EBSCO. All content can still be accessed even if the journal is no longer being published.

6. OWNERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT


The Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery is published by Dental Press Publishing.


7. PUBLICATION SCHEDULE


The Journal of the Brazilian College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery is a quarterly publication (four issues per year).