Authors wishing to submit their work to the journal are urged to read this detailed guide for authors and comply with all the requirements, particularly those relating to manuscript length and format. This will speed up the reviewing process and reduce the time taken to publish a paper following acceptance.

A paper is accepted for publication on the understanding that it has not been submitted simultaneously to another journal, has been read and approved by all authors, and that the work has not been published before. The Editors reserve the right to make editorial and literary corrections. Any opinions expressed or policies advocated do not necessarily reflect the opinions and policies of the Editors.

All authors should have made substantial contributions to all of the following :

• the conception and design of the study, or acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data
• drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content
• final approval of the version to be submitted.

Normally one or two, and no more than three, authors should appear on a short communication, technical note or interesting case/lesson learnt. Full length articles may contain as many authors as appropriate. Minor contributors and non-contributory clinicians who have allowed their patients to be used in the paper should be acknowledged at the end of the text and before the references.

The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that all authors are aware of their obligations.

All contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship as defined above 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 who provided only general support. Authors should disclose whether they had any writing assistance and identify the entity that paid for this assistance.

The following contributions will be accepted for publication. Please take careful note of the maximum length where applicable. Over length articles will be returned to the authors without peer review :

• editorials (commissioned by the editor)
• clinical papers: no more than 5000 words and 30 references
• research papers: no more than 6000 words and 40 references
• review papers - no limit on length or number of references
• technical notes (surgical techniques, new instruments, technical innovations) - no more than 2000 words, 10 references and 4 figures
• case reports - no more than 2000 words, 10 references and 4 figures book reviews
• general announcements.

Please note: Case reports will be considered for publication only if they add new information to the existing body of knowledge or present new points of view on known diseases.

All authors must have contributed to the paper, not necessarily the patient treatment. Technical notes and case reports are limited to a maximum of 4 authors, in exceptional circumstances, 5.

Papers that will be considered for publication should be :

• focused
• based on a sound hypothesis and an adequate investigation method analysing a statistically relevant series, leading to relevant results that back the conclusion
• well written in simple, scientific English grammar and style
• presented with a clear message and containing new information that is relevant for the readership of the journal
• Note the comment above relating to case reports.

Following peer-review, authors are required to resubmit their revised paper within 3 months; in exceptional circumstances, this timeline may be extended at the editor's discretion.

General points

Papers should be submitted in journal style. Failure to do so will result in the paper being immediately returned to the author and may lead to significant delays in publication. Spelling may follow British or American usage, but not a mixture of the two. Papers should be double-spaced with a margin of at least 3 cm all round.

Format

Papers should be set out as follows, with each section beginning on a separate page :

• title page
• abstract
• text
• acknowledgements
• references
• tables
• captions to illustrations

Please note that the qualifications of the authors will not be included in the published paper and should not be listed anywhere on the manuscript

Title page

The title page should give the following information :

• title of the article
• full name of each author
• name and address of the department or institution to which the work should be attributed
• name, address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of the author responsible for correspondence and to whom requests for offprints should be sent
• sources of support in the form of grants
• key words.

If the title is longer than 40 characters (including spaces), a short title should be supplied for use in the running heads.

Abstract

200 words maximum. Do not use subheadings or abbreviations; write as a continuous paragraph. Must contain all relevant information, including results and conclusion.

Text

Please ensure that the text of your paper conforms to the following structure: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion. There is no separate Conclusion section. There should be no mention of the institution where the work was carried out, especially in the Materials and Methods section.

Introduction

• Present first the nature and scope of the problem investigated
• Review briefly the pertinent literature
• State the rationale for the study
• Explain the purpose in writing the paper
• State the method of investigation and the reasons for the choice of a particular method
• Should be written in the present tense

Materials and Methods

• Give the full details, limit references
• Should be written in the past tense
• Include exact technical specifications, quantities and generic names
• Limit the number of subheadings, and use the same in the results section
• Mention statistical method
• Do not include results in this section

Results

• Do not describe methods
• Present results in the past tense
• Present representations rather than endlessly repetitive data
• Use tables where appropriate, and do not repeat information in the text

Discussion

• Discuss - do not recapitulate results
• Point out exceptions and lack of correlations. Do not try to cover up or 'fudge' data
• Show how results agree/contrast with previous work
• Discuss the implications of your findings
• State your conclusions very clearly

Headings : Headings enhance readability but should be appropriate to the nature of the paper. They should be kept to a minimum and may be removed by the Editors. Normally only two categories of headings should be used: major ones should be typed in capital letters; minor ones should be typed in lower case (with an initial capital letter) at the left hand margin.

Quantitative analysis : If any statistical methods are used, the text should state the test or other analytical method applied, basic descriptive statistics, critical value obtained, degrees of freedom, and significance level, e.g. (ANOVA, F=2.34; df=3,46; P<0.001). If a computer data analysis was involved, the software package should be mentioned. Descriptive statistics may be presented in the form of a table, or included in the text.

Abbreviations, symbols, and nomenclature : Only standardized terms, which have been generally accepted, should be used. Unfamiliar abbreviations must be defined when first used. For further details concerning abbreviations, see Baron DN, ed. Units, symbols, and abbreviations. A guide for biological and medical editors and authors, London, Royal Society of Medicine, 1988 (available from The Royal Society of Medicine Services, 1 Wimpole Street, London W1M 8AE, UK). The minus sign should be -. If a special designation for teeth is used, a note should explain the symbols. Scientific names of organisms should be binomials, the generic name only with a capital, and should be italicised in the typescript. Microorganisms should be named according to the latest edition of the Manual of Clinical Microbiology, American Society of Microbiology.

Drugs : use only generic (non-proprietary) names in the text. Suppliers of drugs used may be named in the Acknowledgments section. Do not use 'he', 'his' etc where the sex of the person is unknown; say 'the patient' etc. Avoid inelegant alternatives such as 'he/she'. Patients should not be automatically designated as 'she', and doctors as 'he'.

References

The accuracy of references is the responsibility of the author; please refer to a recent issue of the journal to familiarise yourself with the reference style. All authors or groups of authors cited in the article must appear in the list of references and vice versa. References in the text should use superscript numerals with or without the name(s) of the author(s): "Kenneth and Cohen14 showed¿", "it has been shown14 that¿" When a cited paper has more than two authors; the citation in the text should appear as "Halsband et al."The list of references at the end of the paper should be arranged alphabetically and numbered, and must contain the name of all authors.All references cited in the text must be included in the list of references. Clinical and research articles should have a maximum of 25 references and case reports no more than 10.

Titles of journals should be abbreviated according to Index Medicus (see www.nlm.nih.gov.uk) . When citing papers from monographs and books, give the author, title of chapter, editor of book, title of book, publisher, place and year of publication, first and last page numbers. Internet pages and online resources may be included within the text and should state as a minimum the author(s), title and full URL. The date of access should be supplied and all URLs should be checked again at proof stage.

Examples :

Journal article: Halsband ER, Hirshberg YA, Berg LI. Ketamine hydrochloride in outpatient oral surgery. J Oral Surg 1971: 29: 472-476. When citing a paper which has a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), use the following style: Toschka H, Feifel H. Aesthetic and functional results of harvesting radial forearm flap. Int J Oral Maxillofac Surg 2001: 30: 45-51. doi: 10.1054/ijom.2000.0005 Book/monograph: Costich ER, White RP. Fundamentals of oral surgery. Philadelphia: WB Saunders, 1971: 201-220. Book chapter: Hodge HC, Smith FA. Biological properties of inorganic fluorides. In: Simons JH, ed.: Fluorine chemistry. New York: Academic Press, 1965: 135. Internet resource: International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. http://www.icmje.org [Accessibility verified March 21, 2008]

Tables

Tables should be used only to clarify important points. Double documentation in the form of tables and figures is not acceptable. Tables should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals. They should be double spaced on separate pages and contain only horizontal rules. Do not submit tables as photographs. A short descriptive title should appear above each table, with any footnotes suitably identified below. Care must be taken to ensure that all units are included. Ensure that each table is cited in the text.

Figures

All illustrations (e.g. graphs, drawings or photographs) are considered to be figures, and should be numbered in sequence with Arabic numerals. Each figure should have a caption, typed double-spaced on a separate page and numbered correspondingly. The minimum resolution for electronically generated figures is 300 dpi.

Line illustrations : All line illustrations should present a crisp black image on an even white background (127 x 178 mm (5 x 7 in), or no larger than 203 x 254 mm (8 x 10 in). The size of the lettering should be appropriate, taking into account the necessary size reduction.

Photographs and radiographs: Photomicrographs should show magnification and details of any staining techniques used. The area(s) of interest must be clearly indicated with arrows or other symbols.

Colour images are encouraged, but the decision whether an illustration is accepted for reproduction in colour in the printed journal lies with the editor-in-chief. Figures supplied in colour will appear in colour in the online version of the journal.

Size of photographs: The final size of photographs will be: (a) single column width (53 mm), (b) double column width (110 mm), (c) full page width (170 mm). Photographs should ideally be submitted at the final reproduction size based on the above figures.

Patient confidentiality : Where illustrations must include recognizable individuals, living or dead, great care must be taken to ensure that consent for publication has been obtained. If identifiable features are not essential to the illustration, please indicate where the illustration can be cropped. In cases where consent has not been obtained and recognizable features may appear, it will be necessary to retouch the illustration to mask the eyes or otherwise render the individual unrecognizable.

Proofs

One set of page proofs in PDF format will be sent by e-mail to the corresponding author, which they are requested to correct and return within 48 hours. Elsevier now sends PDF proofs which can be annotated; for this you will need to download Adobe Reader version 7 available free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Instructions on how to annotate PDF files will accompany the proofs. The exact system requirements are given at the Adobe site: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/acrrsystemreqs.html#70win. If you do not wish to use the PDF annotations function, you may list the corrections (including replies to the Query Form) and return to Elsevier in an e-mail. Please list your corrections quoting line number. If, for any reason, this is not possible, then mark the corrections and any other comments (including replies to the Query Form) on a printout of your proof and return by fax, or scan the pages and e-mail, or by post. Please use this proof only for checking the typesetting, editing, completeness and correctness of the text, tables and figures. Significant changes to the article as accepted for publication will only be considered at this stage with permission from the Editor. We will do everything possible to get your article published quickly and accurately. Therefore, it is important to ensure that all of your corrections are sent back to us in one communication: please check carefully before replying, as inclusion of any subsequent corrections cannot be guaranteed. Proofreading is solely your responsibility. Note that Elsevier may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.

1. Covering letter
2. Copyright Transfer Agreement Form signed by all authors
3. Conflict of interest
4. Title page
   • Title of manuscript
   • Full name(s) and affiliations of author(s); institution(s) and city(ies) from which work originated
   • Name, address, telephone, fax numbers and e-mail address of the corresponding author
   • Running title
5. Abstract in structured format along with key words (on a separate sheet)
6. Blind manuscript
7. Acknowledgment
8. References
9. Tables (on separate sheets)
10. Figures (on separate sheets)