COMMITTEE REPORTS Journal developments

Journal of the Irish Dental Association report

I took up the role of Honorary Editor of the Journal of the Irish Dental Association (JIDA) in January 2022, and have received enormous support from all the editorial board members, especially Fintan Hourihan, Liz Dodd and David McReynolds. David is now the new deputy editor following the completion of tenure by Dr Siobhan Davis. I also thank Paul O’Grady and Ann-Marie Hardiman from Think Media for making my transition into the role so smooth.

In my first meeting as editor of the Journal, the issue of the JIDA’s discontinuation from indexing by PubMed and its recent unsuccessful application to this platform was raised. PubMed’s new requirements for indexing call for a much higher number of published articles per year than we can currently deliver. The board members agreed that the Journal’s number one priority is to bring high-quality content that is relevant to the readers, while remaining attractive to researchers. The readers’ survey conducted in 2021 showed that our readers value clinical features, IDA news, and other Journal content as much as peer-reviewed articles. Therefore, we didn’t feel that increasing the number of peer-reviewed articles at the expense of other content in order to be eligible for indexing would be a desirable approach.

We decided to focus our efforts on continuing to bring readily applicable clinical content to readers, and have created the ‘Clinical tips’ section. We also launched a series on gerodontology, inviting academics to contribute with a number of different topics that are important in the treatment of older adults. This series is close to completion and we intend to follow with a new theme. The informal feedback we have received has been positive, but another readers’ survey will be planned to better tailor the content to our readership.

One of the things that I noted when I started reviewing the articles submitted to the Journal was how time consuming and complicated a task it was. Liaising with authors and reviewers, exchanging emails with the Journal Coordinator (Liz Dodd), keeping track of articles that were under revision, or had been rejected or accepted, was a major undertaking. Furthermore, from the authors’ perspective, I felt we needed a platform that would facilitate submissions and processing of all the material we receive. Therefore, the Journal subscribed to Scholastica, which is a peer review management and article production software. This new system was launched in August and it has resulted in a more efficient and easier peerreview process. I thank Liz Dodd for all her hard work in liaising with Scholastica and organising all the training to get this initiative up and running.

Following the successful start of this new submission system, discussions followed regarding the importance of making our content discoverable online. After the discontinuation of the Journal’s indexing by Pubmed, we know that academics would have been discouraged from publishing in the JIDA as their articles were hard to find online and less likely to be cited. An alternative encountered was to assign each individual paper with a digital object identifier (DOI). DOIs are assigned to academic and scientific papers that are published online. They make these articles easier to retrieve, and consequently to cite. The JIDA has registered with Crossref, which is responsible for assigning DOIs, and Scholastica is now our new online publishing platform. Letters have been sent to the deans of the three Irish dental schools to inform them of this important milestone, and to invite new submissions.

Think Media attracts and manages all advertisement in the Journal, and this continues to be a very successful model, maintaining the Journal cost free to the Association and its members. It is hoped that the centenary celebrations will drive increased attention from the industry and result in more advertising income.

In January, the board members met face to face for the first time since Covid. I met with most of them in person for the first time, and new board members were welcomed: Dr Judith Phelan, Dr Meriem Abbas, Dr Catherine Vaughan and Dr Clair Nolan. The meeting went well, in a very collegial and energetic atmosphere. We are sure that 2023 will be a great year for the Journal and we are looking forward to joining the IDA on its 100th anniversary celebrations, bringing exciting features to our readers.

Finally, I would like to thank the board members who have completed their term of office in 2022, for their valuable contribution over the last few years, including Dr Mairead Harding, Dr Richard Lee Kin, Dr Mark McLaughlin and Dr Brian Dunne.