Guidelines for Authors www.karger.com/cre_guidelines Aims and Scope Submission Conditions Types of Papers Preparation of Manuscripts Color Illustrations References Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Author's ChoiceTM Page Charges Proofs Reprints Aims and Scope 'Caries Research' is an international journal, the aim of which is to promote research in dental caries and related fields through publication of original research and critical evaluation of research findings. The journal will publish papers on the aetiology, pathogenesis, prevention and clinical control or management of dental caries. Papers on health outcomes related to dental caries are also of interest, as are papers on other disorders of dental hard tissues, such as dental erosion. Aspects of caries beyond the stage where the pulp ceases to be vital are outside the scope of the journal. The journal reviews papers dealing with natural products and other bacterial inhibitors against specific criteria, details of which are available from the Editor. Submission Manuscripts written in English should be submitted at Online Manuscript Submission Should you experience problems with your submission, please contact: Dr. R.P. Shellis r.p.shellis@bris.ac.uk Tel. +44 (0)117 928 4328 Fax +44 (0)117 928 4778 Copies of any ‘in press’ papers cited in the manuscript must accompany the submission. Manuscripts reporting on clinical trials must be accompanied by the CONSORT checklist (see below). Conditions All manuscripts are subject to editorial review. Manuscripts are received with the explicit understanding that the data they contain have not previously been published (in any language) and that they are not under simultaneous consideration by any other publication. Submission of an article for publication implies the transfer of the copyright from the author to the publisher upon acceptance. Accepted papers become the property of 'Caries Research' and may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part, without the written consent of the publisher. It is the author's responsibility to obtain permission to reproduce illustrations, tables, etc., from other publications. Types of Papers Original papers or Short Communications are reports of original work (including systematic reviews and meta-analyses). Both have the structure outlined below but for Short Communications the abstract should be less than 100 words and the manuscript should not exceed 3 printed pages, equivalent to about 9 manuscript pages (including tables, illustrations and references). Reviews can have a freer format but should nevertheless commence with a Title page, an Abstract and an Introduction defining the scope. Current topics are concise articles that present critical discussion of a topic of current interest, or a fresh look at a problem, and should aim to stimulate discussion. Letters to the Editor, commenting on recent papers in the journal, are published occasionally, together with a response from the authors of the paper concerned. Preparation of Manuscripts Text should be one-and-a-half-spaced, with wide margins. All pages should be numbered, starting from the title page. A conventional font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, should be used, with a font size of 11 or 12. Avoid using italics except for Linnaean names of organisms and names of genes. Manuscripts should be prepared as a text file plus separate files for illustrations. The text file should contain the following sequence of sections: Title page; Declaration of interests; Abstract; Introduction; Materials and Methods; Results; Discussion; Acknowledgements; References; Legends; Tables. Each section should start on a new page, except for the body of the paper (Introduction to Acknowledgements), which should be continuous. Title page: The first page of each manuscript should show, in order: the title, which should be informative but concise; the authors' names and initials, without degrees or professional status, followed by their institutes; a short title, maximum length 60 characters and spaces, for use as a running head; a list of 3-10 key words, for indexing purposes; the name of the corresponding author and full contact details (postal address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address). Declaration of Interests: Potential conflicts of interest should be identified for each author or, if there are no such conflicts, this should be stated explicitly. Conflict of interest exists where an author has a personal or financial relationship that might introduce bias or affect their judgement. Examples of situations where conflicts of interest might arise are restrictive conditions in the funding of the research, or payment to an investigator from organisations with an interest in the study (including employment, consultancies, honoraria, ownership of shares). The fact that a study is conducted on behalf of a commercial body using funds supplied to the investigators' institution by the sponsor does not in itself involve a conflict of interest. Investigators should disclose potential conflicts to study participants and should state whether they have done so. The possible existence of a conflict of interest does not preclude consideration of a manuscript for publication, but the Editor might consider it appropriate to publish the disclosed information along with the paper. Abstract: The abstract should summarise the contents of the paper in a single paragraph of no more than 250 words (to ensure that the abstract is published in full by on-line services such as PubMed). No attempt should be made to give numerical results in detail. References are not allowed in the abstract. Introduction: This section should provide a concise summary of the background to the relevant field of research, introduce the specific problem addressed by the study and state the hypotheses to be tested. Materials and Methods (or Subjects and Methods): All relevant attributes of the material (e.g. tissue, patients or population sample) forming the subject of the research should be provided. Experimental, analytical and statistical methods should be described concisely but in enough detail that others can repeat the work. The name and brief address of the manufacturer or supplier of major equipment should be given. Statistical methods should be described with enough detail to enable a knowledgeable reader with access to the original data to verify the reported results. When possible, findings should be quantified and appropriate measures of error or uncertainty (such as confidence intervals) given. Sole reliance on statistical hypothesis testing, such as the use of P values, should be avoided. Details about eligibility criteria for subjects, randomization and the number of observations should be included. The computer software and the statistical methods used should be specified. See Altman et al.: Statistical guidelines for contributors to medical journals [Br Med J 1983;286:1489-93] for further information. In any paper involving microradiography, the following information must be included: the radiation source and filters used; the kV used (this determines the wavelength of radiation and hence the validity of using Angmar’s equation). Papers on experimental enamel caries should show that the lesions retain a relatively well-preserved surface layer, i.e. are not surface-softened lesions. Proof of surface integrity can be provided either as illustrations in the paper or as supplementary material for the reviewers. Transverse microradiography, polarized-light microscopy of section immersed in water or backscattered scanning electron microscopy of a polished cross-sections can be used to provide the necessary proof. To allow the nature of experimental changes to be assessed, microradiographs or micrographs should be provided to show part of the experimental lesion and the adjacent control (e.g. Figure 2 of Zaura et al.: Caries Res 2007;41:489–492). Again, these images can be provided as part of the paper or as supplementary material for review purposes. Manuscripts reporting studies on human subjects should include evidence that the research was ethically conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (World Medical Association). In particular, there must be a statement in Materials and Methods that the consent of an appropriate ethical committee was obtained prior to the start of the study, and that subjects were volunteers who had given informed, written consent. Clinical trials should be reported according to the standardised protocol of the CONSORT Statement. The CONSORT checklist must be submitted together with papers reporting clinical trials. In studies on laboratory animals, the experimental procedures should conform to the principles laid down in the European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experimental and other Scientific Purposes and/or the National Research Council Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Unless the purpose of a paper is to compare specific systems or products, commercial names of clinical and scientific equipment or techniques should only be cited, as appropriate, in the 'Materials and Methods' or 'Acknowledgements' sections. Elsewhere in the manuscript generic terms should be used. Results: Results should be presented without interpretation. The same data should not be presented in both tables and figures. The text should not repeat numerical data provided in tables or figures but should indicate the most important results and describe relevant trends and patterns. Discussion: This section has the functions of describing any limitations of material or methods, of interpreting the data and of drawing inferences about the contribution of the study to the wider field of research. There should be no repetition of preceding sections, e.g. reiteration of results or the aim of the research. The discussion should end with a few sentences summarising the conclusions of the study. However, there should not be a separate 'Conclusions' section. Acknowledgements: Acknowledge the contribution of colleagues (for technical assistance, statistical advice, critical comment etc.) and also acknowledge the source of funding for the project. The position(s) of author(s) employed by commercial firms should be included. Legends: The table headings should be listed first, followed by the legends for the illustrations. Tables: Tables should be numbered in Arabic numerals. Each table should be placed on a separate page. Tables should not be constructed using tabs but by utilising the table facilities of the word-processing software. Illustrations: Illustrations should be numbered in Arabic numerals in the sequence of citation. Figure numbers must be clearly indicated on the figures themselves, outside the image area. Black and white half-tone illustrations must have a final resolution of 300 dpi after scaling, line drawings one of 800-1200 dpi. Figures with a screen background should not be submitted. When possible, group several illustrations in one block for reproduction (max. size 180 x 223 mm). Color Illustrations Online edition: Color illustrations are reproduced free of charge. In the print version, the illustrations are reproduced in black and white. Please avoid referring to the colors in the text and figure legends. Print edition: Up to 6 color illustrations per page can be integrated within the text at CHF 760.00 per page. References Reference to other publications should give due acknowledgement to previous work; provide the reader with accurate and up-to-date guidance on the field of research under discussion; and provide evidence to support lines of argument. Authors should select references carefully to fulfil these aims without attempting to be comprehensive. Cited work should already be published or officially accepted for publication. Material submitted for publication but not yet accepted should be cited as 'unpublished results', while unpublished observations communicated to the authors by another should be cited as 'personal communication', with credit in both cases being given to the source of the information. Neither unpublished nor personally communicated material should be included in the list of references. Abstracts more than 2 years old and theses should not be cited without a good reason, which should be explained in the covering letter accompanying the paper. References should be cited by naming the author(s) and year. Where references are cited in parenthesis, both names and date are enclosed in square brackets. Where the author is the subject or object of the sentence, only the year is enclosed in brackets.    One author: [Frostell, 1984] or Frostell [1984].    Two authors: [Dawes and ten Cate, 1990] or Dawes and ten Cate [1990].    More than two authors: [Trahan et al., 1985] or Trahan et al. [1985]. Several references cited in parenthesis should be in date order and separated by semi-colons: [Frostell, 1984; Trahan et al., 1985; Dawes and ten Cate, 1990]. Material published on the World Wide Web should be cited like a reference to a print publication, and the URL included in the reference list (not in the text), together with the year when it was accessed. The reference list should include all the publications cited in the text, and only those publications. References, formatted as in the examples below, should be arranged in strict alphabetical order. All authors should be listed. For papers by the same authors, references should be listed according to year. Papers published by the same authors in the same year should be distinguished by the letters a, b, c, ... immediately following the year, in both the text citation and the reference list. For abbreviation of journal names, use the Index Medicus system. For journals, provide only the year, volume number and inclusive page numbers. Examples (a) Papers published in periodicals: Lussi A, Longbottom C, Gygax M, Braig F: Influence of professional cleaning and drying of occlusal surfaces on laser fluorescence in vivo. Caries Res 2005;39:284-286. (b) Papers published only with DOI numbers: Theoharides TC, Boucher W, Spear K: Serum interleukin-6 reflects disease severity and osteoporosis in mastocytosis patients. Int Arch Allergy Immunol DOI: 10.1159/000063858. (c) Monographs: Matthews DE, Farewell VT: Using and Understanding Medical Statistics. Basel, Karger, 1985. (d) Edited books: DuBois RN: Cyclooxygenase-2 and colorectal cancer; in Dannenberg AJ, DuBois RN (eds): COX-2. Prog Exp Tum Res. Basel, Karger, 2003, vol 37, pp 124-137. (e) Patents: Diggens AA, Ross JW: Determining ionic species electrochemically. UK Patent Application GB 2 064 131 A, 1980. (f) World Wide Web: Chaplin M: Water structure and behavior. www.lsbu.ac.uk/water, 2004. Digital Object Identifier (DOI) S. Karger Publishers supports DOIs as unique identifiers for articles. A DOI number will be printed on the title page of each article. DOIs can be useful in the future for identifying and citing articles published online without volume or issue information. More information can be found at www.doi.org Author's ChoiceTM With this option the author can choose to make his article freely available online against a one-time fee of CHF 2,750.00. This fee is independent of any standard charges for supplementary pages, color images etc. which may apply. More information can be found at www.karger.com/authors_choice. Does your funding agency/institute require you to deposit your article in an institutional archive (e.g. PubMedCentral)? You will be pleased to hear that Karger journals are fully geared up for this requirement. All you have to do is opt for open access publication of your article through Karger's Author's ChoiceTM. Karger will also take care of the immediate deposit in the PubMedCentral archive and what's more, not of the manuscript, but of the final, published article. The article will also be available with open access right away, and not just after 12 months. The cost of Author's ChoiceTM is a permissible cost in your grant, so please take care to budget for it. Page Charges There are no page charges for papers of seven or fewer printed pages (including tables, illustrations and references). A charge of CHF 650.00 will be levied for each page in excess of the allotted seven printed pages. The allotted size of a paper is equal to approximately 21 typescript pages (including tables, illustrations and references). Proofs Unless indicated otherwise, proofs are sent to the first-named author and should be returned with the least possible delay. Alterations made in proofs, other than the correction of printer's errors, are charged to the author. No page proofs are supplied to the author. Reprints Order forms and a price list are sent with the proofs. Orders submitted after this issue is printed are subject to considerably higher prices.   Journal Home Journal Content Guidelines Editorial Board Aims and Scope Subscriptions Online Submission: Manuscript Submission Manuscript Check Peer Review: Reviewer Login Editor Login Search in this journal For non-native English speakers and international authors who would like assistance with their writing before submission, we suggest American Journal Experts for their scientific editing service.  © 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel