Submissions

UNIVERSITAS ODONTOLOGICA

Instructions for Authors

 

STYLE MANUAL AND PREPARATION OF MANUSCRIPTS

General Characteristics

The manuscript must be written on letter size paper (21.59 cm × 27.94 cm or 8.5 ”× 11”) with margins of 2.54 cm (1 ”). The text must be written in single space, Times New Roman font size 12, with left and right justification, WITHOUT using journalistic columns. Manuscripts with a maximum of 5,000-6,000 words (body of the article, not counting title, abstract and references) and 8 tables and figures combined are accepted. A paper submitted for evaluation for publication in Universitas Odontologica must include three files: body of the article with tables/figures (main file), plus cover letter and front page (complementary files).

Cover Letter

The cover letter should be submitted in a separate file (complementary). It must include proposed title of the article, name of the author who will be responsible for communications and possible revisions, as well as the name, signature, permanent address, telephone number and permanent email of each one of the authors. The cover letter with ALL SIGNATURES scanned must be sent in PDF. A sample cover letter is provided below.

Front or Title Page

The title page must go in a separate file (complementary) and includes: (1) title in Spanish or the original language; (2) full name of all authors, one below the other, indicating all their academic degrees and institutions where they obtained the degrees, position and institutional affiliation, permanent email, and ORCID code (if not, it can be easily obtained at https://orcid.org/); and (3) specific acknowledgments regarding institutional, technological or technical support, financing, and approval by the respective Research Committee or Research Ethics Committee of the institution.

Manuscript Body

The article main content must be submitted in a separate file in MS Word®. It includes title, abstract with keywords, body of the article, tables/figures incorporated in the text and references (main file). [Note: if the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors will be asked for the title, abstract, and keywords in the other two languages—English, Portuguese, or Spanish]. The body is the section where the content is developed with a maximum of 5,000-6,000 words (up to 8,000 words will be accepted in qualitative studies and extensive reviews of the literature). Tables and figures (NOT images or graphs) are used to illustrate and/or summarize processes/data. References appear at the end of the manuscript and are the bibliographic sources cited in the text.

ABSTRACT: It must in a single paragraph with a maximum of 250 words. All abstracts should be structured-type with the following subheadings for original research: background (research problem), purpose, methods (type of study, sample, main procedures and type of analysis), results, and conclusion. Only when requested, the abstract in English will have the following subheadings: background, purpose, methods, results, conclusion. Likewise, abstract subtitles in Portuguese (summary) will be: antecedentes, objetivo, métodos, resultados, conclusões. On the other hand, the subheadings of abstracts of clinical cases supported by systematic reviews should be: background, purpose, methods, results, description of the case (s), and conclusion.

KEYWORDS: These are simple descriptors (such as “orthodontics”) or compounds (such as “thermoplasticized gutta-percha”) that are standardized in databases or bibliographic indexes. Authors should select 6-10 keywords that best describe their article. To identify them, the thesauri or standard term lists found in Medical Subject Headings (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh) and Descriptors in Health Sciences (https: // decs. bvsalud.org/). It is important that the keywords are contained in the text of the abstract or the title. They must be written in alphabetical order, all in lowercase and separated by semicolons. In addition, they should include one or two subject areas.

ORIGINAL RESEARCH: Articles that present research results/findings, such as reports, systematic reviews of the literature, and meta-analyses, should be structured as follows: Introduction; Materials and Methods; Results; Discussion; Conclusions; and Recommendations.

- The INTRODUCTION includes a presentation of the topic, a clear and coherent research problem statement, definitions of concepts of the study, or variables, and how they are connected, a targeted theoretical and conceptual framework, the research question, the hypotheses of the study (in experimental designs), and the purpose of the study, all with appropriate bibliographic citations. In addition, there should be a justification regarding contribution to the body of knowledge and innovation.

- MATERIALS AND METHODS must include: (1) type of study and design; (2) universe, study population, type of sampling carried out and the sample size (calculation and specific aspects); (3) inclusion and exclusion criteria of the sample; (4) ethical considerations of the study and corresponding approval by institutional bioethics committees; (5) detailed and complete description of procedures in an orderly and clear manner; (6) description of the technical features of equipment, instruments (especially brands, references, and models), and biomaterials (hopefully generic, in the case of medicines); (7) equipment calibration and intra- and inter-examiner training and error calculation/reduction; (8) variables studied and operationalization (observations and measurements); (9) clear illustration of the methods and instruments used for data collection and organization (with its due validation); (10) detailed description of methods and decisions for data analysis (statistical, qualitative, or mixed).

- In the RESULTS, it is important to start by indicating how they are going to be presented. It is convenient to organize them in a simple-to-complex manner (from descriptive to inferential/analytical). The results will be better understood when they are accompanied by tables and figures; The narrative should NOT repeat what tables/figures show but present an analysis of the information they contain and highlight what is relevant to answer the research questions or test the hypotheses. Readers should be able to review them and do their own analysis. Tables/figures must be included in the body of the article (approximate location where they should be located) and must be referred from the text, for example, (table 1) or (figure 1).

- The DISCUSSION is the section where the results of the study are analyzed in relation to the initial statements. It includes a synthesis of the problem studied, the procedures that were conducted to answer the research question, and what was expected to be found and why. The analysis must be done regarding the assumptions of the study, the method used (strengths, weaknesses, and limitations), and the related literature on the subject (explain the findings and place them in the knowledge body of the discipline). Likewise, the findings are weighted in terms of their scope, applicability, type of evidence provided, possibility of answering questions or proving hypotheses, and what can be concluded; it explains what remains to be answered and what new questions or hypotheses arise as a result of the study. It is important to do the analysis of the findings in relation to the existing literature (evidence) as part of a coherent argument and not a simple reference-by-reference comparison without critical analysis.

- The CONCLUSIONS include specific inferences from the study based the findings, without going beyond what the evidence and the conditions of the study allow to conclude.

- Finally, the RECOMMENDATIONS can be addressed towards practice and the possibility of new studies with new problems, hypotheses, variables, or execution conditions.

CLINICAL CASES SUPPORTED BY SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS: Universitas Odontologica only accepts clinical case reports that are supported by systematic reviews, at least of the scoping or integrative type. The reviews must be exhaustive to substantiate the cases that represent situations of sporadic occurrence, novel therapies or methods that will require further studies of sophisticated design and will generate new research questions. The sections of clinical case articles supported by systematic reviews are INTRODUCTION, MATERIALS AND METHODS, RESULTS (of the systematic review), DESCRIPTION OF THE CASE(S) (following the CARE guideline mentioned below), DISCUSSION (analysis of the case in light of its findings and the literature), CONCLUSIONS (accurate to what the case and the systematic review allow) and RECOMMENDATIONS (for future studies).

RESEARCH QUALITY: Universitas Odontologica adheres to international standards for the publication of different types of studies. Below are the main checklists that authors will need to refer to in designing their studies and follow in writing articles for publication.

• Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (Vancouver style). International Committee of Medical Journal Editors—ICMJE (http://www.icmje.org).
• Randomized Controlled Trials. CONSORT 2010 Statement (http://www.consort-statement.org/consort-2010).
• Observational Studies. STROBE Statement (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/strobe).
• Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. PRISMA 2020 Statement (http://www.prisma-statement.org/PRISMAStatement/).
• Diagnostic Accuracy Studies. STARD 2015 (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/stard/).
• Clinical Practice Guidelines. AGREE Reporting Checklist (http://www.agreetrust.org/resource-centre/agree-reporting-checklist/).
• Clinical Case Reporting. CARE Guidelines (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/care).
• Qualitative Research. SRQR (https://www.equator-network.org/reporting-guidelines/srqr/).
• In Vivo Animal Experiments. ARRIVE Guidelines (https://arriveguidelines.org).

Numbered Citations and References

Universitas Odontologica uses the citation system adopted by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (originally Vancouver group). A citation is the mention of one or several bibliographic sources to support an idea or statement in a text (mainly scientific articles, authored chapters in books with editors, and author monographs). A citation consists of two parts: the in-text citation number and the reference.

NOTE: Footnotes in articles should be avoided.

- Number in parentheses of a CITATION: The number in parentheses is a part of a citation placed immediately after naming an author or authors in the text or it can be located at the end of an idea or statement, writing it before the period and corresponds to a bibliographic reference located at the end of the article (REFERENCES section). Citations are numbered in ascending order and the numbers in parenthesis can be repeated as many times as necessary (i.e., a new citation number should not be assigned to a reference that was already cited in the text). Likewise, an idea or statement can have more than one citation. The following are examples of how to write multiple citations in the same paragraph: (4-6) [three references in a row], (3,7-9) [non-consecutive]. You can use endnote insertion tools from word processors such as Word®, or reference management programs such as EndNote® or Mendeley®.

- REFERENCES at the end of the manuscript are numbered and must be listed in the order in which citations appeared in the text. This means that the references are NOT arranged alphabetically. The minimum number of bibliographic references per article must be 20, of which at least six should correspond to references from Colombian or Ibero-American publications. Universitas Odontologica requests this from authors to promote the use of literature published in the region. The main internet portals that can be consulted to obtain good quality references from Latin America include Publindex (https://scienti.minciencias.gov.co/publindex/#/revistasPublindex/buscador), SciELO (https://scielo.org/es/), Re­dALyC (https://www.redalyc.org/), and LiLACS (https://lilacs.bvsalud.org/en/). 

NOTE: It is important, when working on revisions requested by referees and editors, to always double check the order of citations in the text and the references, because they tend to get out of order.

- Writing ARTICLE REFERENCES: References include the last names of ALL the authors (written in initial capital letters or where appropriate) followed by the initials of their names (each author separated by comma), article title, international abbreviation of the journal title without periods (found in the databases such as PubMed, SciELO, RedALyC and LiLACS), year and month of publication, volume, issue number (in parentheses), initial and final pages of the article, and the full URL of the article’s DOI.EXAMPLE: Caviedes-Bucheli J, Moreno GC, López MP, Pacheco-Rodríguez G, Cuellar A, Muñoz HR. Calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor expression in alternatively activated monocytes/macrophages during irreversible pulpitis. J Endod. 2008 Aug; 34(8): 945-949. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joen.2008.05.011.

- Writing MONOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: References of authored books or monographies include last names of ALL authors (written in initial capital letters or where appropriate) followed by initials of their names (each author separated by comma), book title, edition, city and country of publication: publisher; and year of publication.

EXAMPLE: Echeverri E, Sencherman G. Neurofisiología de la oclusión. Bogotá, Colombia: Monserrate; 1988.

- Writing REFERENCES OF AUTHORED CHAPTERS IN BOOKS WITH EDITORS AND SEVERAL AUTHORS: This type of references include last names of ALL the authors (written in initial capital letters or where appropriate), followed by the initials of the names (separating each author with a comma), and the chapter title. Then "In:", editors’ last names and initials (separating each editor with a comma), the word "editors", book title, edition number, initial and final pages of the chapter in parentheses, city and country of publication: publisher; and year of publication.

EXAMPLE: Delgado JE. Latin American private universities in the context of competition and research productivity. In: Gregorutti G, Delgado JE, editors. Private universities in Latin America: research and innovation in the knowledge economy, (pp. 27-49). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan; 2015.

- Writing OTHER TYPES OF REFERENCES: Other kinds of references can be web pages, direct communications, unpublished manuscripts, legislation, videos, etc. The following link is a guide on how to cite other sources: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7256/.

Tables and Figures

Data could be represented through tables and figures. Tables are matrices or charts that show descriptive or analytical numerical results. Figures can be other types of representations of numerical/non-numerical data (such as bar figures), diagrams, and/or original photos from the study. The maximum number of tables/figures allowed is eight (8). The text of the tables/figures should use Times New Roman 10 font.

Tables/figures must be included in the article file, close to where they should appear, with the proper referral from the text and following the same standard of citations: tables/figures are cited in the text in ascending order with independent numbering for tables and for figures.

Each table/figure should be headed by the type and number of table/figure, followed by the title (EXAMPLE: Table 1. Demographic characteristics of the sample). The corresponding table or figure is inserted below the title and can include footnotes to help the reader better understand the content (i.e., abbreviations, image codes, and source or who prepared that table/figure).

It is advisable to avoid tables/figures with very little information (three data or less) and that can be described in the text. The tables or figures must include enough information so that the reader can make their own data reading. Likewise, the description of table/figure content in the text should highlight what is relevant and allows answering the research questions without duplicating the information.

Universitas Odontologica publishes TIFF/JPG color images, which must have a minimum resolution of 300 dpi. For ethical considerations, photos should not reveal patients’ identity. When it is required, images must be accompanied by appropriate permits and concealment. Likewise, an article should have attached written permissions when including reproductions of copyrighted material.

On the other hand, tables should NOT have visible vertical lines and only the horizontal lines of the top/bottom borders and separating variable names from data.

If statistical packages such as SPSS or STATA are used for data analysis, the authors should send the tables drawn in Excel, NOT as images, because they cannot be edited.

Additional Comments

ABBREVIATIONS OR ACRONYMS: A full term must be spelled out the first time it appears in the text, followed by the abbreviation/acronym in parentheses. In the rest of the text, when necessary, use only the abbreviation/acronym. The abstract and the body of the article should be considered independent texts; therefore, the handling of acronyms is also independent.

SPECIALIZED TERMS AND LANGUAGE: It is important to correctly spell medical and scientific terms, as well as nomenclature. For example, generic drug names do not have capital letters, but they do when they are brands. Also, species of microorganisms have two-word names that are written in italics with a capital initial on the first word. Similarly, when using dental classifications, the type of nomenclature should be indicated because it varies between countries. The use of terms in the original language of the article is preferred, instead of foreign words. When necessary, translations can be included in parentheses.

INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF MEDICAL JOURNAL EDITORS: As indicated above, Universitas Odontologica abides by the ICMJE presentation, style, and citation standards that are available at http://www.icmje.org.  

Review/Assessment of Articles

Universitas Odontologica accepts manuscripts in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Articles for publication are received throughout the year, except in the case of calls for thematic dossiers that will have a deadline.

Every manuscript enters a two-step review process. In the first step, the editors verify that the manuscript meets all the requirements of style, presentation, writing, and methodology. The decision can be: 1) “reject,” 2) “request methodological corrections from the authors,” or 3) “send for peer review,” which does NOT guarantee final acceptance for publication but increases the chances of being accepted.

In the second step, an article is evaluated by 2 expert peers (or more, if required), anonymous and external to the institution and, if possible, to the country of origin of the authors. In this phase, the topic, originality and relevance of the study, scientific and ethical rigor, validity of the study, its contribution to the literature/knowledge, and the quality of the presentation are evaluated. The peer review recommendation can be: 1) “accept as is,” 2) “accept with minor corrections,” 3) “resubmit—requires major corrections,” 4) “reject,” or 5) “send to another referee.

Since the scientific editing process is an activity of dialogue and scientific discussion, in the event of receiving completely opposed peer reviews, the editors may assign additional reviewers. Likewise, upon receiving the assessment, the authors will be able to work on the corrections and send the necessary clarifications to challenge/argue some of the peers’ suggestions.

An article approved and prepared for publication will be reviewed with the authors before being published. Once final approval has been received, an article will be published immediately and authors will receive automatic notification generated by the publishing platform.

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

Universitas Odontologica receives articles in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. All manuscripts must be sent through the portal: http://www.javeriana.edu.co/universitasodontologica. The following are the steps to submit an article:.

• Go to the journal page and select the language (top right).
• Register (if you haven't already done so) as a reader, author, and reviewer.
• On the right, go to “View Profile.”
• Select on the left “"Submission.”
• Select on the right “New Submission.”
• Read and complete all the fields and the eight boxes as an author (do not forget to select the language in which the article is written).
• Save and continue.
• Select the article component (article text), choose “upload file,” and attach the body of the manuscript in Word®.
• Select “Next.”
• Select “Next.”
• Likewise, upload additional files (signed letter in PDF® and cover page in Word®).
• Select “Complete.”
• Select “Save and Continue.”
• Enter the metadata,
  1. Title and abstract: in the language of the article.
  2. All authors: full names, emails, countries, institutional affiliations, ORCID, brief biographies with degrees, and job titles.
  3. Keywords: in the language of the article. NOTE: Click Intro/Enter after each keyword so that it is registered separately.
  4. NOT the list of references. This will be done at the end of the process, when the article is going to be published.
• Save and continue.
• Finish the submission.

If you have any problem submitting an article for evaluation through the journal page, you can send it to the email: universitas.odontologica@gmail.com.

 

COVER LETTER TEMPLATE: The cover letter of manuscripts submitted for publication in Universitas Odontologica must have the following content:

______ [City], ______ [date]

Editorial Board

Universitas Odontologica Journal

School of Dentistry

Pontifical Javeriana University

Bogota, Colombia

 

Through this cover letter I (we) present you the manuscript titled, “_____” [manuscript title] for publication in Universitas Odontologica. This article is original, has not been published elsewhere, and is not currently being evaluated for publication in any other journal or publication, including books, conference proceedings with ISBN, or internet pages. I (we) declare that: I (we) conducted the study, meaning it does not usurp other authors’ rights, I am (we are) the exclusive author(s), and I (we) hold ownership of the moral rights of it. I (we) assure that the manuscript includes citations or transcriptions of appropriately referenced work, and it does not contain defamatory statements against others or contrary to public order and decency. By submitting this article for evaluation for publication, I (we) accept establishing an academic dialogue with the editors who, following evaluation by peer reviewers, may recommend revisions to improve the quality of the manuscript. In case there is a claim from a third party regarding moral or property rights of this work, I (we) will assume full responsibility and will defend the rights granted herein.

Being aware of the non-for-profit academic and scientific purpose of the journal and the institutional publisher, I (we) authorize the revenue received to be used to supporting the financing of the costs borne by the Pontifical Javeriana University for dissemination of the publication. Likewise, I (we) agree that, upon acceptance, my (our) manuscript to be published in print, digital, and electronic media, and included in databases and bibliographic indexes. Lastly, I (we) declare that I (we) transfer the copyright of this article to Pontifical Javeriana University.

For future clarifications and revisions, the author responsible for communication will be _____ [author’s name].

Looking forward to receiving your feedback, I (we) thank you for your attention to this letter.

Sincerely,

_____ [Signature of ALL authors]

_____ [Name of all authors]

_____ [Permanent address, phone number, and permanent email address of all authors]