Dental Education Software

Review procedure

Authors should submit two full working copies of the software along with the Software Submission Form. Software in any common format is acceptable. Software may be previously unpublished or already under distribution. Authors not wishing to publish their software in full should submit both full and demonstration versions. In this case, the complete version will be refereed but the demonstration version will be published in the Journal.

Where the software is available only through the WWW, referees must have access to the full working version of the program at a specified URL. If accepted for publication, full or demonstration versions of the software will be archived by the publishers to ensure access by readers to the software ‘as reviewed’.

Submissions will be refereed by at least two independent reviewers. Software may be deemed publishable, unpublishable, or publishable with recommended changes or additions. In the latter case, authors will have an opportunity to alter their program, although the editor acknowledges this may be impracticable and hence publish the program unaltered. Referees' comments may be published alongside the software.

Licensing

All submissions should carry a clear, signed statement of the conditions under which the software is being made available for publication in the journal. The following are example conditions:

• Freeware: may be used freely for dental education.
• Conditional licence: may be used freely for dental education of undergraduates only with the permission of the authors - all other users require an appropriate licence.
• Shareware: may be used for evaluation purposes for a limited period by teaching staff in dental schools - use as an educational tool requires an appropriate licence.

Submissions offering licensing similar to the first two examples are particularly welcome.

Software Submission Form

The following information should accompany the submission as one signed hard copy and one on diskette or by electronic transfer:

Name and version of program:

Authors and institutions:

Contact author details: (address, phone, fax and email)

Short Description: (max. 200 characters)

Abstract: (100 words)

Keywords: up to 10 keywords should be supplied

Conditions of use/licensing information: (refer to attached documents as necessary and sign this statement)

Hardware required to run the program:

Software required to run the program:

Previous evaluations: (has the program already been tested and/or in practical use? If yes, give brief details)

Commercial availability: (If yes, give name and address of distributor, price and conditions)

The submission consists of: (Choose from full version, demo version, user manual, presentation about the program, screen shots etc. State type and number of media.)

The following parts of this submission should be returned to the contact author:

The disks submitted were checked for viruses using the following anti-virus software (name and version) on the following date:

The installation routine for this program makes the following changes to system files:

Signature(s) and date.

 
Manuscripts

Manuscripts falling into the following categories will be considered for publication:

1. Original research reports: maximum length 6 printed pages, approximately 20 typescript pages, including illustrations and tables.
2. Review articles: maximum length 10 printed pages, approximately 33 typescript pages, including illustrations and tables.
3. Short communication for rapid publication: maximum length 2 printed pages, approximately 7 typescript pages, including illustrations.
4. Letters providing informed comment and constructive criticism of material previously published in the Journal.

Manuscripts are accepted in the following digital forms:

• Word-processed document: Microsoft Word, RTF, Windows Write or ASCII with accompanying bitmap images.
• Presentation: Microsoft PowerPoint, HTML or a series of bitmap images.
• Multimedia presentation: any programming language or authoring tool with a freely distributable PC runtime player.

Format

Written manuscripts should be prepared with as little formatting as possible. In particular, paragraph styles, paragraph spacing and multiple indents should not be used. Any formatting will be removed during preparation for publication and an additional version in plain ASCII text will aid this process. The following style should be used:

• single line spacing;
• left justification;
• blank line between paragraphs (first line of each paragraph should not be indented);
• one space only after all punctuation marks, including full stops;
• page numbers at the top right of all pages.

Title Page

The title page should provide the following information:

title of the article, that should be concise but informative;
first name, middle initial and last name, institutional affiliation and address of each author;
name, address, phone number, fax and e-mail of the author who will receive correspondence about the manuscript;
up to 10 keywords;
if the manuscript was presented before an organised group, the name of the organisation, location and date.

Abstract

The second page should carry the title and an abstract of no more than 250 words. There should be no abbreviations in the abstract. For original research reports, the abstract should be structured under the following headings: Objectives; Methods; Results; Conclusions. These subheadings should appear in the text of the abstract.

Text

Authors are urged to write as concisely as possible. Spelling should be consistent within any one submission. Either the Oxford English Dictionary or Websters should be followed for each manuscript.

The body of the manuscript should be sectioned with appropriate headings and subheadings. These should be left aligned and should not be numbered. Major headings should be differentiated from subheadings through an increase in font size. Major headings should be no more than 40 characters in length and subheadings no more than 30, both in lower case.

Original research reports should be arranged using the following headings and order: Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Acknowledgements, References, Tables and Legends to Illustrations

Italic type should be used for emphasis. Double quotation marks should be used for all quoted material; single quotation marks should not be used to highlight words or phrases in the text.

Lists of short items (less than one sentence in length) should be in bullet point form and fully punctuated with semi-colon separators and a final full stop. Longer items (full sentences or paragraphs) may be in bullet point or numbered form.

Footnotes should not be used; references should be end-noted (see below).

Abbreviations and acronyms

Terms and names to be referred to in the form of abbreviations or acronyms must be given in full when first mentioned.

Figures

Tables, graphs and other illustrations should all be referred to as Figure 1, Figure 2, etc. In general graphical representation of data using, for example, pie or bar charts is preferred to the use of tables. The use of colour is encouraged.

Captions, numbered to correspond with their numbering in the text, should be given on a separate page at the end of the text. These should permit the reader to understand the figure without reference to the text.

If illustrations, tables, or other excerpts are included from copyrighted works the author is responsible for obtaining written permission from the copyright holder prior to submitting the final version of the paper. Full credit must be given to such sources.

References

Each item cited in the text should have a separate reference number, given in superscript in the body text and numbered in consecutive order as they are mentioned in the text. The reference list should appear at the end of the article in numerical sequence. All authors should be listed unless there are more than four, when only the first three should be given followed by et al.

Material that is available only in electronic form may be referenced by means of the appropriate URL. Do not reference unpublished material that is not readily accessible to readers. Details of addresses should be recorded with complete accuracy. In particular, all use of capital and lower case letters must be respected and all punctuation must be recorded exactly as given. As electronic documents may easily be updated at any time, a record of the date the site was visited should be included.

Example for journal articles:

Gunn CR, Future directions for CAL evaluation, Association for Learning Technology Journal. 1992; 5: 40-47

Example for books:

Keisler SB and Sproull LS (eds), Computing and Change on Campus. Cambridge University Press (1987).

Example for World Wide Web (WWW) site

Burka, Lauren P. "A Hypertext History of Multi-User Dimensions." MUD History. 1993.
<http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/1pb/mud-history.html> (5 Dec. 1994).

 
Submission

Submission may be made as follows:

• 1.44 MB diskette(s);
• CD-ROM;
• email attachment by prior arrangement;
• ftp transfer – contact the editor for further details;
• download from a specified URL – by arrangement with the editor.

If the submission does not include an installation routine, files may be split across diskettes using common archive software tools such as WinZip, Colorado backup or Microsoft DOS backup. Always state which versions of which tools have been used.

Disks should be formatted correctly and only relevant files should be included.

When sending disks by post, ensure that they are packed correctly; use special disk envelopes wherever possible and keep an identical copy of your disk in case the disk is damaged in transit.

A covering letter signed by each author should accompany submissions, or be sent under separate cover, stating that the material has been viewed and agreed by all authors. The letter should affirm that the material has been submitted solely to the Journal of Educational Technology in Dentistry and that it is not concurrently under consideration for publication in another journal.

The address for submissions is:

 
Software Submission Checklist

• Check that NO copyrighted material, particularly images, is reproduced without permission
• Completed submission form
• Signed statement of licensing permission
• Statement as to whether materials submitted should be returned
• 2 copies of the full program
• 2 copies of the demo program if relevant
• Installation notes
• Self-addressed postcard if acknowledgement of receipt is required
• Signed covering letter