Dr Inayatullah Padhiar - Editor-In-Chief
As the year 2014 draws to a close, we enter the New Year with a fresh resolve and renewed enthusiasm. We would like to thank all the contributors and respected reviewers for their valuable contributions.We take pride in the fact that we are perhaps the only Dental Journal in Pakistan with 30 years of publication history that follows a peer review system and strict adherence to plagiarism checking. It is the result of these efforts that our journal has been indexed in the EBSCO database. The purpose of this communication is also to draw the attention of our prospective authors to future global oral health needsin general and that of our community in particular.We have had a plethora of papers published on oral health status over the past few years. Topics ranging from caries status, periodontal status, orthodontic needs, pan chaliagutka use, to smoking and its effects on oral health have been well documented. Similarly, KAP studies addressing various gaps in knowledge and quality of dental care have also been well represented on our journal space. Also, in-vitro studies on various physical and chemical properties of conventional composite have also been printed quiet frequently. Similarly, hospital data on patient demographics and reasons for attending the OPD are also over-reported. The editorial board has therefore, decided to discourage studies in above mentioned areas unless there is a novelty in research design.For instance, caries demographics, instead of reporting caries incidence, prospective authors can perhapsattempt to relate it to certain dietary or social habit as done in a recent article 1. We would like to see more articles on conditions like erosion as it still remains under reported.Oral cancer is the second most common neoplasm affecting the male population of our region, more studies focusing its etiology or some un-discovered factors will be welcomed. Systematic reviews and Meta- Analysis should now be reported on vast amount of prevalence data to identify gaps in our knowledge.On behalf of the editorial board, I wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2015.
References
1. Lempert S,M, Christensen L, B, Froberg K, Raymond K, Heitmann B, L, Association between Dairy Intake and Caries among Children and Adolescents. Results from the Danish EYHS Follow-Up Study. Caries Res 2015;49:251-258