Guidelines for Authors
Manuscript Preparation
The journal receives original research articles, review articles, case reports, short communications and letters to the editor. The journal may also invite editorials from eminent scholars in the dental sciences. Manuscripts should conform to standard reporting protocols as highlighted below.
Reporting Protocols
| Guideline | Full Name | Applies To |
|---|---|---|
| CONSORT | Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials | Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) |
| STROBE | Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology | Observational studies: cohort, case-control, cross-sectional |
| PRISMA | Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses | Systematic reviews and meta-analyses |
| CARE | Case Report Guidelines | Clinical case reports |
| TREND | Transparent Reporting of Evaluations with Nonrandomized Designs | Nonrandomized intervention studies |
| SRQR | Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research | Qualitative studies |
| COREQ | Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research | Interviews and focus groups |
| STARD | Standards for Reporting Diagnostic Accuracy Studies | Diagnostic accuracy studies |
| TRIPOD | Transparent Reporting of a multivariable prediction model for Individual Prognosis or Diagnosis | Prediction model development and validation |
| MOOSE | Meta-analysis Of Observational Studies in Epidemiology | Meta-analyses of observational studies |
| SPIRIT | Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Interventional Trials | Protocols for clinical trials |
| SQUIRE | Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence | Quality improvement studies in healthcare |
| RECORD | Reporting of studies Conducted using Observational Routinely-collected Data | Studies using routinely collected health data |
| CHEERS | Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards | Economic evaluations of health interventions |
The authors are advised to submit the appropriate checklist along with their manuscripts. This will help the author and the journal to objectively perform quality assurance checks on all manuscripts. These checklists are available on the journal website. Authors should go through the checklist and check off items by providing the page, paragraph and line numbers where the required parameter is dealt with in the manuscript.
Word Counts and Number of References
Abstracts for case reports should have a maximum word count of 200 words, while original articles should have abstracts not exceeding 250 words. Abstracts for review articles should not exceed 300 words. Three to 5 key words should be presented with each abstract.
Case reports shall have a maximum word count of 2000 words excluding references. References for case reports shall be limited not more than 25. Original articles shall have a minimum word count of 2800 and a maximum word count of 3500 (excluding tables, graphs, figures and references). References for original articles must not exceed 60. Review articles shall have a minimum of 5000 words (excluding tables, graphs, figures and references) to a maximum of 8000 words. Review articles shall have a minimum of 50 references.
Abstracts
Abstracts for all article types shall be structured.
Abstracts for case reports should be structured under the following sections: Background, case presentation, discussion and conclusion.
Abstracts for original articles should be structured under the following sections: Background, objectives, Materials and methods, Results and Conclusion.
Abstracts for Review articles should be structured under the following sections: Background, Scope, Key findings and Significance.
Case Reports
Manuscripts should be written with the following sections: Background, Case presentation, Discussion and Conclusion.
Manuscripts should be submitted with images that are sharp and clear. Pictures should ideally be at least 300 dpi for print-quality reproduction. Images should ensure visibility of all relevant anatomical or pathological features without overexposure or shadows. Images should be free of compression artefacts.
Annotations on images should be with small alphabets with the key to the annotations provided below the image along with the title of the image. Images should be labelled as Figure followed by an Arabic numeral depicting their chronology of appearance in the text. Images should be placed in-text approximately where they are expected to appear in the article. Images should be restricted to not more than 12 of the most important images describing a procedure or depicting a clinical feature.
The use of tables to summarize data in case reports is not encouraged. However, if this proves to be the most efficient way to summarize information, one table may be tolerated. However, the contents of the table will form part of the word count for the manuscript.
Authors must confirm reception of consent from subjects to publish their cases. This should be accompanied by evidence that an Institutional Ethics Review Board has provided at least an expedited approval for the reporting of the case(s).
While it may be difficult to totally avoid depiction of faces in a journal of dentistry, it must be clear to authors that the journal places a premium on the privacy and confidentiality of subjects whose cases are reported. All identifiers should be cropped or blurred from images. The editorial board will engage authors on patient confidentiality on a case-by-case nature.
Original Articles
Manuscripts should be prepared with the following sections: Background, Objectives, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and Conclusion.
The manuscript should be prepared in accordance with the appropriate reporting style for study design and this should be confirmed by a statement within the text.
All human studies (whether prospective or retrospective) must be accompanied by evidence of approval from an Institutional Ethics Review Committee.
Sample size determination and sampling methods must be explicitly itemized.
Methods should be sufficiently espoused to permit unambiguous replication of the study. This will include attachment of study instruments that were pre-validated by authors. They must clearly state how the instruments were pretested (including statistical values leading to the inference of validity). Validated instruments adopted for the study should be properly referenced. If these instruments were adopted, the modifications made to the instruments should be clearly stated.
Clinical trials must be submitted with evidence of trial registration. They must conform to the SPIRIT statement and be accompanied with a SPIRIT checklist. The manuscript must contain adequate information on how bias was avoided or minimized. There should be adequate details of how treatment failures were dealt with.
The statistical analysis conducted must be described in detail. The software used to perform the analysis must be clearly described (including the version). The nature of data summarization including the tools used to achieve this must be clearly stated. The methods of classifying data as parametric or otherwise must be clearly defined. Bivariate and multivariate analysis methods must be clearly described (including the tools used for such analyses). P-values, confidence intervals and effect sizes (where applicable) must be clearly reported. Model assumptions, variable selection criteria, and goodness-of-fit metrics must be included for multivariate analysis. Cases of missing data should be reported. The guidelines for dealing with missing data should be mentioned and referenced.
Figures and tables should be clearly labelled with a legend below the table. Figures should be tagged with Arabic numerals, while Tables should be tagged with Roman numerals in relation to their appearance in the text. Each table or figure should have a title and legend placed below the table or figure in the text. Figures and tables should be placed in-text and not at the end of the manuscripts. Figures and tables as a collective must not exceed six in total for any manuscript.
Review Articles
The journal will receive narrative and systematic reviews. All systematic reviews with (or without metanalysis must conform to the PRISMA guidelines and be accompanied by a PRISMA checklist.
Abstracts for review articles must be structured under the following headings Background, Methods, Results and Conclusions. Abstracts for narrative reviews must not exceed 350 words, while those for systematic reviews must not exceed 500 words.
Narrative reviews should be written in a structured manner similar to the structure of the abstract. However, additional headings for clarity will be accepted.
The methods section of systematic reviews must have the following subheadings: Data Sources, Study Selection, Data Extraction, Data Synthesis.
Formatting Requirements
Manuscripts should be double spaced Microsoft Word documents which are open to editing. They should be prepared in Times New Roman 12pt font. There should be 2.5mm margins on all sides. All manuscripts must be prepared with the Vancouver referencing style.
Ethical Considerations
All prospective and retrospective human studies (whether interventional or observational) must be accompanied by evidence of ethical clearance from an institutional ethics review committee. All animal studies should be similarly accompanied by evidence of ethics clearance from an institutional review committee. Case reports and case series must be accompanied by evidence of consent from the patients being reported. A letter from an ethics review committee in this regard will be ideal.
The journal frowns at the generation of data or manuscripts by artificial intelligence (AI). While authors may use AI to perform literature searches or perform statistical calculations, the wholesale generation of data or manuscripts is considered as a gross ethical misconduct by the journal. The use of AI to generate data or write manuscripts will lead to an automatic rejection of such manuscripts.
Plagiarism, including self-plagiarism, are strictly prohibited by the journal. Every manuscript shall undergo a plagiarism check before being accepted for editorial review. A score above 30% will lead to an immediate rejection of the manuscript.
Change of Authors
The journal will only recognize as authors individuals who have duly signed a license to publish documents. The addition of additional authors will not be countenanced by the journal. The journal will also not delete any author from this form once it is submitted.
Retraction
The journal reserves the right to retract any article which may have been published if it discovers new evidence of ethical misconduct or fraudulent use of false data that was not detected during editorial review. The journal shall also retract an article if it finds that authors have published the article or substantial parts of it in another journal. The authors are also free to call for a retraction of an article if they come to the knowledge that there was an error in reporting of data.
Submission Guidelines
Manuscripts should have an attached cover page containing the names and affiliations of all authors (including ORCID numbers where available). The email addresses of all authors should also be provided. The phone number of the corresponding author should also be provided.
All manuscripts for submission should be accompanied by a cover letter stating the title of the manuscript, the manuscript type and a brief summary of the significance of the study. This cover letter should be addressed to the Editor-in-Chief, Bayero Journal of Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, College of Health Sciences, Bayero University Kano.
Accepted Articles and Publication Fees
On acceptance of an article, the authors shall pay an article processing fee of forty thousand Naira (₦40,000.00) for Nigerian authors or fifty dollars ($50.00) for international authors. When the editor-in-chief receives evidence of this payment, a proof copy of their article shall be sent to them for final correction (preferably with sticky notes). The publication of an article in the journal entitles authors (to a maximum of 6 authors) to one hard copy each of the issues in which they were published.
Publication and Copyright
The journal is published under the Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) license. Published material may be freely used without change for non-commercial purposes. The journal shall be published both electronically and on paper. Authors retain the copyright to their work. However, they must grant the journal a license to publish.
A license to publish a document shall be forwarded to the corresponding author for endorsement by all the authors immediately the manuscript is accepted into the editorial cycle.
All published articles are published with the understanding that they have not been submitted to any other publishers for publication. The journal reserves the right to retract any publication if it finds that they have been published elsewhere, contain falsehoods or other ethical infractions.
License to Publish
Note: The license-to-publish document will be provided separately to accepted authors.