Guide for Authors
Guide for Authors
AUTHORS' GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPT PREPARATION
Authors should submit their manuscripts electronically through the Journal website submission system to the editorial team. MDJ Website: https://mdj.uomustansiriyah.edu.iq.
- Preparation of manuscripts
Manuscripts should be presented in English only. Manuscripts must be written according to sound rules and correct terminology. Submission of manuscripts must be applied once to obtain only one ID number. More than one manuscript submission can lose the opportunity to consider the manuscript. The manuscript must be accompanied by sending the address file including the address, the author's name (s), and their affiliation. The author (s) must use the Journal's template, contained in this paragraph, to prepare and submit the manuscript.
1-1: English Language Writing
All publications in the journal are written in English. Authors whose first language is not English should ensure that their manuscript is written in academic formal English before submission. Please write your text in clear and correct English, whether it follows American usage. Please note that Mustansiria Dental Journal does not provide language and copy-editing services. Therefore, authors who believe their manuscript may require editing to eliminate potential grammatical or spelling errors are encouraged to seek such services before submission. Authors are responsible for covering all costs associated with these services.
1-2: New Submissions
Submission to MDJ journal proceeds totally online and authors will be guided stepwise through the creation and uploading of the manuscript files. As part of the manuscript, authors may choose to submit the manuscript as a single file to be used in the refereeing process. This can be a Word document (*.docx), that can be used by referees to evaluate the manuscript. All figures and tables are encouraged to be embedded and included in the main manuscript file.
1-3: References
References list must be provided according to the format of the MDJ reference in a consistent style. Where applicable, author(s) name(s), article title, journal abbreviation, year of publication, article/chapter/book title, volume/issue number, and the pagination must be present. The use of DOI is highly encouraged.
Example:
Patricio R., Cesar A., Galvão A., Cristiane M., Ulisses C., Mario Fernando D. and Frederick A. Comparison of in vivo and in vitro models to evaluate pulp temperature rise during exposure to a Polywave LED light curing unit. J Applied Oral Science. 2019; 11:27.e20180480.
1-4: Formatting requirements
All manuscripts must contain the essential elements needed to convey your manuscript, for example, Abstract, Keywords, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgement, Conflict of Interest, and References. Please ensure all figures and tables should be embedded and included in the main manuscript file. To avoid unnecessary errors the authors are strongly advised to use 'spell-check' and 'grammar-check' for the submitted manuscript.
1-5: Manuscript Submission and Declaration
While submitting a manuscript to MDJ, all contributing author(s) must verify that the manuscript represents authentic and valid work and that neither this manuscript nor one with significantly similar content under their authorship has been published or is being considered for publication elsewhere including electronically in the same form, in English. All authors have agreed to allow the corresponding author to serve as the primary correspondent with the editorial office, to review the edited manuscript and proof.
1-6: Manuscript Submission and Verification
Manuscripts are assumed not to be published previously in print or electronic versions and are not under consideration by another publication. Copies of related or possibly duplicated materials (including those containing significantly similar content or using the same data) that have been published previously or are under consideration for another publication must be provided at the time of online submission.
- Manuscript Structure
Manuscript literature and tenses must be structured as Title; Abstract; Keywords; Introduction; Materials and Methods; Results, Discussion; Conclusion; Acknowledgements and References submitted in a file with limited size.
2-1: Title Page
The first page of the manuscript includes the title (UPPERCASE) of the article. The title should be limited to 15 words or less and should not contain abbreviations, followed by one-line space and the names of all authors (no degrees) and their affiliations for correspondence, including the e-mail address of the corresponding author. The first letter of each name and main word should be capitalized. The title, author's name, and affiliation should be centered on the width of the typing area.
2-2: Manuscript Title
The title of up to 15 words should not contain the name of locations, countries, or cities of the research as well as abbreviations. Avoid complicated and technical expressions and do not use vague expressions.
2-3: Abstract
An abstract of no more than 200 words should clearly state the aims, methods, results, and any conclusions drawn from the study. Section separation must be performed in the abstract (aim, method, result and conclusion).
2-4: Keywords
Provide (more than 5) keywords that can be used for indexing purposes. Keywords should not repeat the words of the manuscript title or contain abbreviations and shall be written in alphabetical order and separated by semicolons. Abbreviations should be defined at first mention and used consistently thereafter throughout the text.
2-5: Introduction
Summarize the purpose of the study, giving only pertinent references. Do not review existing literature extensively. State clearly the working hypothesis. This part generally should include the introductory paragraph highlighting the rationality of research. The body of introduction have to describe the main points of research that end with the research gap. The last paragraph should include the aim of the study.
2-6: Materials and Methods
Material and methods should be presented in sufficient detail including evidences (references) to allow confirmation of the observations. The authors also have to clarify the statistical methods used at the end of materials and methods section.
2-7: Results
Present the results in a logical sequence in the text, tables and figures. Do not repeat the same data in both tables and figures. Do not repeat in the text all data in the tables and illustrations.
2-8: Discussion
- Summarize the findings without repeating in detail the data given in the Result section. Present your conclusions within the Discussion.
- Relate your observations to other relevant studies and point out the implications of the findings and their limitations.
2-9: Conclusion
This section should highlight the major, firm discoveries and state the added value of the main finding, without literature references. It should be written in different style from the results.
2-10: Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed in a separate section before the reference list. The names of funding organizations should be written in full. Financial support affiliation of the study, if exists, must be mentioned in this section. Thereby, the Grant number of financial support must be included.
2-11: Conflict of Interest
A conflict of interest statement must be placed in the manuscript as below: "The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this manuscript".
2-12: References
References must follow the Harvard style. The reference list must be typed single-spaced at the end of the article in numeric sequence.
- The citation of the reference should be pointed in the body of the test, as to proceed:
Aside from prevalence reports very few studies have evaluated the response to therapy according to the individual genotype (Blomlof et al, 1996; Hyde, 1986). This finding is in accordance with previous data (Walton & Rotstein, 1996), which showed…
- The titles of journals should be abbreviated according to the style used in the Index to Dental Literature. The style and punctuation of reference follow the format illustrated below:
- Blomlof JP, Blomlof LB, Lindskog SF. Smear removal and collagen exposure after non-surgical root planning followed by etching with an EDTA gel preparation. J Periodontol. 1996; 67:841-5.
- Ingle JI. Endodontics. 5TH ed. Philadelphia: Lea and Febiger. 2002, p: 27.
- Walton RE, Rotstein I. Bleaching discolored teeth: internal and external. In: Walton RE. Editor. Principles and Practice of Endodontics. Philadelphia: WB Saunders; 1996. V.2. p.385-400.
- Hyde DG. Physical properties of root canal sealers containing calcium hydroxide. [Master’s thesis]. Michigan: University of Michigan; 1986. 80p.
2-13: Tables
- Do not submit tables and graphs as photographs (submit tables as editable text and not as images). ---- Tables should be set within the text. Use the table function, not spreadsheets, to make tables.
- Tables should be set within the text and should have a clear and rational structure along with consecutive numerical order. All tables should be numbered (1, 2, 3, etc.). Give enough information in subtitles so that each table is understandable without reference to the text (in Text wrapping, choose ‘Around’ then positioning; unclick the check box move with text).
- For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the table. Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference at the end of the table caption. Tables should be with the captions placed above in limited numbers. Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.
4-14: Figures
Figures/ illustrations should be in high-quality artwork, within 200-300 dpi. Ensure that figures are clear, labeled, and of a size that can be reproduced legibly in the journal. Figures should be set within the text; the image must not float when it should be in line with the text. The following remarks should be applied to the figures:
- Author(s) must obtain permission to reuse Figures, illustrations, and Tables from published papers, and must include the related reference.
- Each figure should have a concise caption describing accurately what the figure depicts. Include the captions in the text of the manuscript.
- Figure captions begin with the term Figures. Figures should be with the captions placed below in limited numbers.
- No punctuation is to be placed at the end of the caption.
- Identify all elements found in the figure in the figure caption; and use boxes, circles, etc., as coordinate points in graphs.
- Identify previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a reference citation at the end of the figure caption.
Review articles
That is a type of professional paper that requires a high level of in-depth analysis and a well-structured presentation of arguments. It is a critical, constructive evaluation of literature in a particular field through summary, classification, analysis, and comparison. The analysis, evaluation, and comparison require the use of theories, ideas, and research, relevant to the subject area of the article. In case a review article does not introduce new information, it should instead present a response to other writers’ works.
Authors of review articles have to use database searches to describe the research. The primary goal is to summarize everything and present a clear understanding of the topic. For this type of research, Jeasd expects a minimum of 60 references primarily to journal papers, 50% of these references belong to the last five years, depending on the length of the paper.
Copyright Notice
MDJ is an open-access journal where all contents are free of charge. Articles of this journal are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International Public License CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode) that licensees are unrestrictedly allowed to search, download, share, distribute, print, or link to the full texts of the articles, crawl them for indexing and reproduce any medium of the articles provided that they give the author(s) proper credits (citation). The authors hold the copyright for their published work on the MDJ website, while MDJ is responsible for appreciating citations for their work, which is released under CC-BY-4.0 enabling the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction of an article in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
Author Contribution Statement
The Author Contributions section should specify the exact contributions of each author in a narrative form. For instance:
Authors A.B. and C.D: proposed the research problem.
Author A.B.: developed the theory and performed the computations.
Author C.D.: verified the analytical methods and investigated [a specific aspect] and supervised the findings of this work.
Both authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript.
