Editor’s Note on Prescreening of Manuscripts
All articles published in General Dentistry are submitted through an online portal (ScholarOne) and undergo a blind peer-review process prior to acceptance. While that process will not change, I want to explain why we are initiating a prescreening review process for submissions to General Dentistry.
ScholarOne allows top researchers and clinicians around the world to submit manuscripts to General Dentistry, enabling us to publish high-quality experimental studies and clinical reports that are relevant to general dentists. However, the ease of online submission has led to an unprecedented increase in the number of manuscripts submitted to General Dentistry each year. The volume of submissions we receive threatens to overwhelm the peer-review system, which relies on volunteer reviewers.
We are grateful to the authors who submit their work to General Dentistry, but we frequently receive manuscripts that are clearly inappropriate for publication in General Dentistry. Sending them through the lengthy peer-review process is a disservice to both the authors of such manuscripts and the peer reviewers. In addition, inclusion of these manuscripts in the peer-review system slows the decision process for the vast majority of submissions that are suitable for consideration.
Effective immediately, in an effort to alleviate the strain on the peer-review process, the editorial team will perform a brief review of submitted manuscripts to ensure that they are appropriate for inclusion in the broader peer-review process. When manuscripts undergo this prescreening process, the authors will remain anonymous to the Editor and Associate Editor. Manuscripts will be rejected without further peer review if they:
- Contain plagiarized content.
- Are irrelevant to General Dentistry’s target audience.
- Do not follow submission guidelines, which are described in detail on the Information for Authors page of the website.
- Demonstrate language problems that pose a significant barrier to understanding.
- Present a significant conflict of interest.
- Are meta-analyses.
Please note that prescreening decisions are based on the publishing needs of the journal and the interests of its audience and do not reflect the quality of the research or manuscript.
As always, our paramount goal is to maintain the quality and integrity of General Dentistry and uphold its reputation as a go-to source of information for general dentists. We believe that this prescreening approach will strengthen our peer-review system for the benefit of submitting authors. We extend our deepest gratitude to all of our authors and peer reviewers for their valuable contributions to General Dentistry.
Timothy F. Kosinski, DDS, MAGD
Editor