Publication Ethics

A. Authorship and Author Contributions

The policy of Oral Sciences Reports is that only ONE corresponding author is accepted. Where there is any uncertainty regarding authorship, the editor of the journal reserves the right to contact the corresponding author of the study for further information. Authors must acknowledge that the manuscript has been read and approved by all authors and that all authors agree to the submission of the manuscript to the journal. Authors are required to identify the contributions for which they are responsible. Author will be asked to provide CRediT Contributions as well as their degree of contribution at the time of the original submission. CRediT Contribution is a high-level classification of the diverse roles performed in the work leading to a published research output in the sciences. Its purpose to provide transparency in contributions to scholarly published work, to enable improved systems of attribution, credit, and accountability.

Authors are expected to carefully consider the list and order of authors before submitting their manuscript and provide the definitive list of authors at the time of the original submission. Any addition, deletion, or rearrangement of author names in the authorship list should be made only before the manuscript has been accepted and only if approved by the editor of the journal. To request such a change, the editor must receive the following from the corresponding author:

(a) The reason for the change in the author list
(b) Written confirmation (e-mail, letter) from all authors that they agree with the addition, removal, or rearrangement.

In case of addition or removal of authors, these must be confirmed from the author being added or removed. Please be informed that changes of the authorship cannot be made in any circumstances after the manuscript has been accepted.

B. Duties of Editors

1. The editors are responsible for assessing the quality of papers submitted to publication.

2. The editors must not reveal the identity of the author(s) and the reviewers to others during the assessment processes.

3. The editors must arrive at a decision about which paper to be published based on its intellectual contents that are in accordance with the policies of the journal.

4. The editors must not publish any paper that has been previously published elsewhere.

5. The editors must not reject any paper simply because they have doubts or uncertainties about any part of the submitted paper. They must find concrete evidence to resolve doubts or uncertainties.

6. The editors must not defend or act in their interest or the interest of the author(s), reviewers, and administrative board.

7. The editors must make sure no plagiarism is committed, using reliable plagiarism detection programs/tools.

8. In case plagiarism is discovered, the editors must stop assessing the submitted paper and contact the corresponding author immediately seeking an explanation for any part of the paper deemed plagiarized before deciding whether the paper is “accepted” or “rejected.”

C. Duties of the Reviewers

1. The reviewers must keep all the information of the submitted paper confidential and must not reveal any part of the submitted paper to anyone other than those involved in the reviewing processes.

2. After receiving a paper, reviewers may discover that they have a vested interest in the submitted paper in that they are co-authors, and know the author(s) personally. In such cases, they should inform the editors of this occurrence and should disqualify themselves from being reviewers.

3. Reviewers should evaluate submitted papers in disciplines in which they specialize, taking into account the intellectual contents of the paper, its data analysis, and the substantive contents of the research article. They must refrain from using their own groundless, personal judgment to evaluate submitted papers.

4. In the evaluation processes, the reviewers must point out significant studies that are significantly related to the submitted paper but the author fails to include or mention in his or her submitted paper. The reviewers are encouraged to inform the editors of any similarities between the submitted paper and other papers/studies.

D. Ethical Considerations

All studies using human or animal subjects should include an explicit statement in the Material and Methods section identifying the review and ethics committee’s approval for each study. Experimentation involving human subjects will only be published if such research has been conducted in full accordance with the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (version 2008) and the additional requirements or with ethical principles of the country where the research has been carried out. Manuscripts must be accompanied by a statement that the experiments were undertaken with the understanding and written consent of each subject and according to the above-mentioned principles.

Experimentation involving animal subjects should be carried out in accordance with the guidelines laid down by the National Institute of Health (NIH) in the USA or with the European Communities Council Directive of 24 November 1986 (86/609/EEC) and in accordance with local laws and regulations. Editors reserve the right to reject papers if there is doubt as to whether appropriate procedures have been used.

E. Ethical Considerations for Clinical Trials

All clinical trials must register in any of the following public clinical trials registries:

• Thai Clinical Trials Registry (TCTR)
• NIH Clinical Trials Database
• EU Clinical Trials Register
• ISRCTN Registry

The clinical trial registration number and name of the trial register should be included in Materials and Methods of the manuscript. For epidemiological observational trials, authors of epidemiological human observations studies are required to review and submit a 'strengthening the reporting of observational studies in Epidemiology' (STROBE) checklist and statement. Compliance with this must be detailed in Materials and Methods.

F. Ethical Considerations for Systematic Review

The abstract and main body of the systematic review should be reported using the PRISMA for Abstract and PRISMA guidelines respectively. Authors submitting a systematic review should register the protocol in one of the readily-accessible sources/databases at the time of project inception and not retrospectively (e.g. PROSPERO database, OSF registries). The protocol registration number, name of the database or journal reference should be provided at the submission stage in Materials and Methods. A PRISMA checklist and flow diagram (as a Figure) should also be included in the submission material.

G. Conflict of Interest

Conflicts of interest in scientific research can arise when financial or personal interests influence the research findings or their interpretation. To ensure the integrity of the research published in the Oral Sciences Reports, authors must follow these policies regarding conflicts of interest:

1. Authors must disclose any financial or personal relationships that may have influenced the research, including but not limited to employment, consulting, honoraria, stock ownership, or patents.
2. Authors must disclose any funding sources that have supported the research and their role in the design, conduct, and reporting of the research.
3. Authors must disclose any relationships with entities that have a vested interest in the research, such as pharmaceutical or medical device companies.
4. The editorial board of Oral Sciences Reports will review disclosures of conflicts of interest and may ask authors to clarify or provide additional information as necessary.
5. Oral Sciences Reports reserves the right to reject any article that contains conflicts of interest that are not properly disclosed or managed.
6. If a potential conflict of interest is identified after publication, Oral Sciences Reports may issue a correction or retraction, depending on the severity and impact of the conflict.

These policies will ensure that authors submitting articles to Oral Sciences Reports adhere to ethical standards related to conflicts of interest in scientific research and contribute to the promotion of research integrity. The authors may also consult the recommendations for the Disclosure of Financial and Non-Financial Relationships and Activities, and Conflicts of Interest.

H. Submission Declaration and Verification

Submission of an article implies that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract, a published lecture or academic thesis), that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere, that its publication is approved by all authors and tacitly or explicitly by the responsible authorities where the work was carried out, and that, if accepted, it will not be published elsewhere in the same form, in English or in any other language, including electronically without the written consent of the copyright-holder. The conference proceedings are allowed to be part of the article if the contents do not exceed 70% of the article. The author of a submitted manuscript must also declare the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the acknowledgments section of the manuscript and the methods section if applicable.

I. Copyright

As an author, you have certain rights to reuse your work. Subscribers may reproduce tables of contents or prepare lists of articles including abstracts for internal circulation within their institutions. Permission of the Publisher is required for resale or distribution outside the institution and for all other derivative works, including compilations and translations. If excerpts from other copyrighted works are included, the author(s) must credit the source(s) in the article. The authors may also consult the recommendations of Elsevier Policies for Copyright.