Information for Authors

Important Notice for Potential Authors

Clinical Manuscripts

JCDA.ca (Journal of the Canadian Dental Association) is Canada's premier dental publication. This online peer-reviewed journal is the flagship publication of the Canadian Dental Association (CDA) providing essential knowledge to Canadian dentists and their colleagues worldwide.

JCDA.ca is an open access publication that contains scholarly articles that contribute to the literature. JCDA.ca employs a continuous publication model which means that clinical articles appear almost exclusively online with the occasional abstract or abridged version appearing in CDA Essentials / L’essentiel de l’ADC magazine.

JCDA.ca is indexed in Medline, Journal Citation Reports and Science Citation Index. Through Journal Citation Reports, Thomson Reuters Scientific creates an impact factor for approximately 81 publications in the dentistry, oral medicine and oral surgery category. In 2020,  JCDA.ca posted an impact factor of 1.693, evidence that the publication is recognized as an important and credible dentistry journal whose clinical articles are valuable to research.

All material published on JCDA.ca includes an elocator for identification, retrieval and citation purposes. The citation method is year, volume, elocator (not page number). This citation (e.g., J Can Dent Assoc 2015;81:f10) will appear in Medline, PubMed and other bibliographical indexes.

JCDA.ca endorses the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (www.icmje.org/) and the CONSORT statement relating to improving the quality of reports of randomized clinical trials (www.consort-statement.org).

Authors writing for JCDA.ca should note that the majority of its readers are general dental practitioners. Specialists and clinical researchers should therefore direct their articles to this audience.

Scope of JCDA.ca

JCDA.ca is a general dental journal concerned with science-based clinical practice and the major issues (e.g., clinical, demographic, educational, ethical, legal and regulatory) facing the dental profession.

Our main priorities are to publish action-oriented, science-based articles that are clinically relevant, as well as reflective articles presenting and discussing the main issues facing the Canadian dental profession today and in the future. Priority will be given to comprehensive literature reviews or systematic reviews on clinically pertinent topics, and original research relevant to the Canadian oral health care sector.

Types of manuscripts accepted

Research and Reviews

Applied  Research

This includes original submissions reporting findings of clinical research projects. Submitted papers must be pertinent to clinical decision making. The text of the manuscript, excluding abstract and references, should not exceed 2500 words. If accepted for publication, the full text of the article will be published online only at JCDA.ca. The abstract or an abridged version of the article may appear in CDA Essentials magazine or Oasis Discussions (oasisdiscussions.ca)

Clinical Review

This includes review articles that use a systematic approach to assess the literature pertaining to clinical topics and to evaluate the strength of the evidence for clinical practice. The text of the manuscript, excluding abstract and references, should not exceed 2500 words. If accepted for publication, the full text of such a paper will be published online only at JCDA.ca. The abstract or an abridged version of the article may appear in CDA Essentials magazine or Oasis Discussions (oasisdiscussions.ca).

Professional Issues

This includes articles that help the dental practitioner understand and adapt to the changing professional environment. Epidemiology reports and reviews relevant to oral health care in Canada are welcome. Topics within the scope of this section include demographics, dental education, dental ethics, health policy and professional regulation. Manuscripts must not exceed 2000 words. "Professional Issues" manuscripts that are reports of research projects will be published in the same format as "Applied Research" manuscripts (please see above).

Meeting Reports

This includes summaries of recent meetings, symposiums, conferences or workshops that have taken place in Canada or abroad. Priority will be given to meetings that feature Canadian research funding agencies (e.g., CIHR) and/or collaborators. Links to full reports or proceedings will be included along with the condensed meeting reports. An abridged version of a Meeting Reports may appear in CDA Essentials magazine or Oasis Discussions (oasisdiscussions.ca).

Illustrations submitted with articles

Digital images must be at least 300 dpi when sized to 3.33" x 2.125" (or at least 1000 pixels along the largest dimension). Only TIFF or JPG formats will be accepted.

Preparing your manuscript

Arrange the manuscript in the following sequence: title page; abstract; text of the manuscript; acknowledgments; references; individual tables and figure legends.

Title page

This page should contain the title; each author's complete given and family names, earned academic degrees, primary institutional affiliation and address; and the postal address, fax, telephone and email address of the author responsible for correspondence relating to the manuscript. Sources of support in the form of grants, equipment, materials or drugs should be mentioned in a footnote. Include the word count for the text of the manuscript (from beginning of Introduction to end of Discussion) on the title page.

Abstract

Include a structured abstract of up to 250 words for research articles and systematic reviews, and up to 150 words for other types of articles, depending on the length of the text. The abstract should highlight the main points of the paper.

Text

The length of the articles will vary, depending on the type of manuscript submitted. See the section "Types of manuscripts accepted" for information about word count.

Acknowledgements

You should acknowledge professional help received in the preparation or review of your manuscript.

References

Emphasize recent references (past 5 years preferred—novelty of information is a priority). In general, avoid references older than 10 years, letters to the editor or editorials. Please do not use abstracts, unpublished observations, manuscripts in preparation or submitted for publication, personal communications or references from journals that our readers will have difficulty accessing. As a general rule, references should be to material published in either English or French. If possible, please provide hyperlinks to the  PubMed page for all articles listed in the Reference section.

To avoid plagiarism, please be sure not to use the language, content or concepts of another source without appropriate citation. Do not use extensive verbatim or near verbatim portions of text from another source, even with appropriate citation.

Number references in the text in the order of citation. Arrange them numerically, not alphabetically, in the reference list. Follow the style advocated by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (the Vancouver Group). We strongly prefer that you do not exceed 35 references. In the text, references should be superscripted (please do not use the Footnote function).

References first cited in tables or figure legends must also be numbered in sequence with references cited in the text.
Note the following examples of the correct reference style:

Standard journal article

1. Ettinger R. The development of geriatric dental education programs in Canada: an update. J Can Dent Assoc. 2010;76(1):a1.
2. Feine JS, de Grandmont P, Boudrias P, Brien N, LaMarche C, Taché R, et al. Within-subject comparisons of implant-supported mandibular prostheses: choice of prosthesis. J Dent Res. 1994;73(5):1105-11.

Chapter in a book

1. Banting DW. Management of dental caries in the older patient. In: Papas AS, Niessen LC, Chauncey HH, eds. Geriatric dentistry: aging and oral health. St. Louis: Mosby Year Book Inc.; 1991. p. 141-67.

Illustrations (tables and figures)

Number tables and figures sequentially with arabic numerals (e.g., Table 1, Figure 1) and reference them at the appropriate location in the text.

Give complete reference data and include copies of all tables and figures taken or adapted from other sources. Authors may have to obtain permission from the original publication to reproduce this material.

Tables

Tables should be understandable without reference to the text. They should not duplicate the text. Start each table on a separate page and include a title which is concise yet comprehensive.

Figures

JCDA.ca encourages the submission of original images that highlight the text. Photographs in which a patient is identifiable must be accompanied by the patient's written permission to publish the photographs.

Style guidelines

Use of Proprietary Names: Generic names should ideally be used for all drugs and materials. When a trade name must be used, cite (in parentheses) the name, city, province/state and country of the manufacturer.

Text Formatting: (1) Use plain text with no special formatting. (2) Use bold print, italics and underlining sparingly. (3) Use a single, standard typeface (preferably Times New Roman 12 pt).

Cover letter

Include a statement that the manuscript is original, that it has not been published previously and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, and that the final version has been seen and approved by all authors.

Submitting your manuscript

Please submit the manuscript by email to JCDA@cda-adc.ca.

Copyright transfer

All manuscripts that are accepted for publication become the permanent property of the Canadian Dental Association (CDA) and may not be published elsewhere without written permission from CDA.

A Copyright Transfer Agreement will be sent to the corresponding author upon being accepted for peer review. This statement should be signed by all authors and returned as soon as possible to CDA.

Conflict of interest

CDA expects authors to disclose any commercial association that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted paper. All funding sources supporting the work should be acknowledged.

A Financial Disclosure Statement will be sent to the corresponding author upon being accepted for peer review. This statement should be signed by all authors and returned as soon as possible to CDA.

The review process

• Article is submitted by email to the CDA Editorial Team.
• The editorial team reviews the manuscript and decides to 1) accept for review, 2) send back for modification before re-submission or 3) reject outright.
• The editorial team picks 2 reviewers who have expertise in the particular clinical discipline or topic area. The reviewers are asked to return their comments to the editorial team within 3 weeks.
• Manuscripts may be sent to an expert statistician for review.
• When the comments of the expert reviewers come back, the editorial team decides whether to 1) accept, 2) accept with modifications or 3) reject the manuscript. This decision is based on the quality, importance and relevance of the manuscript. NOTE: The editorial team has the final decision on the acceptance of the manuscript.
• The editorial team communicates the acceptance decision to the corresponding author and advises of next steps.
• The corresponding author re-submits the modified manuscript to the editorial team. In some cases, the manuscript may need to be reviewed by a technical expert.
• Once accepted for publication, the manuscript is sent for copyediting.
• Article is published on JCDA.ca.

Checklist for authors

Incomplete submissions will be returned to the author. Please ensure your submission by email to JCDA@cda-adc.ca includes the following:

• "Cover letter" of submission.
• Original manuscript (in Microsoft Word format)
• Title page
• Title of manuscript
• Full name(s), academic degree(s), affiliation(s) and titles of author(s) on title page accompanying the original manuscript.
• Author to whom galleys and correspondence are to be sent, including address and business telephone, fax and email
• Word count of the body of the text alone (from beginning of Introduction to end of Discussion) and word count of the entire manuscript provided
• Structured abstract for your manuscript
• Manuscript
• References
• Tables
• Legends
• Illustrations: Photos must be at least 300 dpi when sized to 3.33" x 2.125" (or at least 1000 pixels along the largest dimension). Only TIFF or JPG formats will be accepted. Charts/graphs: whenever possible send as separate original file (Microsoft Excel format preferred)
• Acknowledgements
• Sources of funding for research
• Permission(s) to reproduce previously published material or to publish photographs of identifiable persons

Please review this checklist carefully before submitting your manuscript to ensure its completeness and conformity with JCDA.ca style. The Canadian Medical Association provides a wealth of useful information for potential authors at its Medical Writing Centre. Copyright Transfer Agreement & Financial Disclosure Statement