Editorial Policies

1. Authors’ responsibility
We ask all authors to confirm that 1) they have not previously published or have not submitted the same manuscript
elsewhere, 2) they took a significant part in the work and approved the final version of the manuscript, 3) they havecomplied with ethical standards, 4) they agree to grant International Journal of Oral Care a licence to publish theaccepted article when the manuscript is accepted, 5) they have obtained all necessary permissions to publish any
figures or tables in the manuscript, and assure that the authors will pay for any necessary charges, and 6) they haveinformed all of the persons named in the acknowledgements of papers of their inclusion in this section.

2. Conflict of interest
Conflict of Interest exists when an author, the author’s institution, reviewer, or editor has financial or personal
relationships with other persons or organizations that inappropriately influence his or her actions. The existence ofsuch relationships does not necessarily represent true conflict of interest. The potential for conflict of interest canexist whether or not an individual believes that the relationship affects their judgment. Financial relationships are themost easily identifiable conflicts of interest and the most likely to undermine the credibility of the journal, the authors,and of science itself.
International Journal of Oral Care policy requires that all authors of all manuscripts sign a statement in respect ofthe paper for submission revealing all sources of revenue paid (or promised to be paid) directly to them or their
institution on their behalf over the 36 months prior to submission of the work. This includes: 1) Any financial interestin or arrangement with a company whose product was used in a study or is referred to in an article, 2) Any financial
interest in or arrangement with a competing company, 3) Any other financial connections, direct or indirect, or othersituations that might raise the question of bias in the work reported or the conclusions, implications or opinions statedincluding pertinent commercial, governmental, private or other sources of funding for the individual authors or forthe affiliated departments or organizations, personal relationships, or direct academic competition. Statements related
to study design, such as providers of the drugs used in the study should be indicated in the Methods section of thearticle, and other financial interests which are not directly related to carrying out the study should be stated in theAcknowledgements.
Authors must read and sign the “Authors’ Responsibility and Conflict of Interest Form”, and email it to the Journal’s
editorial office by their final submission.

13. Confidentiality
Editors, authors and reviewers are required to keep confidential all details of the editorial and peer review process on
submitted manuscripts. The peer review process is confidential and conducted anonymously; identities of reviewers
are not released. Reviewers must maintain confidentiality of manuscripts. Regardless of whether a submitted
manuscript is eventually published, correspondence with the journal, reviewers' reports and other confidential
material must not be published, disclosed or otherwise publicized without prior written consent. Reviewers should
be aware that it is our policy to keep their names confidential and that we do our utmost to ensure this confidentiality.
We cannot, however, guarantee to maintain this confidentiality in the face of a successful legal action to disclose
identity.

4. Plagiarism and duplicate publications
Scientific misconduct
International Journal of Oral Care investigates all potential cases of misconduct thoroughly on a case-by-case basis.
Submitted manuscripts may be screened with iThenticate software to detect plagiarism. If misconduct such as data
manipulation, dual submission or plagiarism is detected in a submitted paper, the editors hold the right to reject it
immediately. In case misconduct is found after publication, the papers may be retracted by the Editor-in-Chief, beinglabelled as "retracted".
Journal's policy on duplicate publication
Submitted material must be original and not published or concurrently submitted for publication elsewhere. If partof a study that an author wishes to submit to International Journal of Oral Care has appeared or will appear elsewhere,
the author must specify the details in the cover letter at submission.
Regarding the studies published in a language other than English, we may accept submission of the manuscripts in
English for a peer-review. When authors plan to reuse figures published elsewhere or copyrighted, they must provide
a documentation that the publisher or copyright holder has given permission for the reuse.
In case of any doubt, authors are encouraged to contact the editorial office.

5. Image integrity and standards
Digital images submitted for review should be minimally processed. A certain degree of image processing isacceptable for publication. Editors may use software to detect any manipulation, or request the unprocessed data files
for evaluation.
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6. Conference proceedings
Conference proceedings
We welcome submissions containing materials that have been published in a conference proceedings paper. However,the submitted manuscript should include a substantial extension of results, analysis and conclusions over theconference proceedings paper. Authors are required to provide details of the conference proceedings paper in a cover
letter at their initial submission. Authors must obtain all necessary permissions to reuse previously published materialand attribute properly.

7. Peer review
Submitted manuscripts are firstly read by the editors. Some papers may be declined at this stage. The others are sentfor peer-review to two reviewers. The editors decide whether to accept or reject based on the reviewers’
recommendations.

8. Reporting standards and availability of data, materials and protocols
Authors are required to make materials, data and associated protocols promptly available to readers. Any restrictions
on the availability of materials or information must be disclosed to the editors at the time of submission. Any
restrictions must also be disclosed in the submitted manuscript. After publication, readers who encounter refusal by
the authors to comply with these policies should contact the editors of the Journal.
Availability of data and materials
International Journal of Oral Care encourages authors to make all data and software code leading to their conclusions
available to readers. We suggest that data be presented in their main manuscript or supplementary material, ordeposited in a public repository whenever possible.
Clinical trials
Prospective clinical trials would be registered before the start of patient enrollment in clinicaltrials.gov or a similar
public repository. Suitable publicly available registries are those listed on the ICMJE website as well as any of theprimary registries that participate in the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. The trial registration
number must be stated in the paper.

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9. Corrections, retractions and matters arising
Corrections and retractions
International Journal of Oral Care issues corrections, retraction statements and other post-publication updates. The
following are categories of corrections and post-publication updates.
Author Correction: An Author Correction may be published to correct an important error made by the authors that
affects the scientific integrity of the published article, the publication record, or the reputation of the authors or thejournal.
Publisher Correction: A Publisher Correction may be published to correct an important error made by the Journal thataffects the scientific integrity of the published article, the publication record, or the reputation of the authors or of thejournal.
Retraction: An article may be retracted when the integrity of the published work is substantially undermined owing
to errors in the conduct, analysis and/or reporting of the study. Violation of publication or research ethics may also
result in retraction.
Removal of published content: In exceptional circumstances, we reserve the right to remove an article from online
platforms. Such action may be taken when (i) We have been advised that content is defamatory, infringes a third
party’s intellectual property right, right to privacy, or other legal right, or is otherwise unlawful; (ii) a court or
government order has been issued, or is likely to be issued, requiring removal of such content; (iii) content, if acted
upon, would pose an immediate and serious risk to health.
Addressing post-publication issues: Authors are always given an opportunity to respond to the concerns raised. We
may request original unprocessed data, and consult with experts in the course of investigation.

10. Ethics
Studies involving animals and human research participants
For primary research manuscripts reporting experiments on live vertebrates and/or higher invertebrates,
corresponding authors must confirm that all experiments were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines andregulations. Manuscripts must include a statement identifying the institutional and/or licensing committee approving
the experiments, including any relevant details. Sex and other characteristics of animals that may influence resultsmust be described. Details of housing and husbandry must be included where they are likely to influence experimentalresults.
Research involving human research participants must have been performed in accordance with the Declaration ofHelsinki. Authors must identify the ethics committee approving the research, including the name and reference
number of the committee in submitted manuscripts. Manuscripts must also include a statement affirming that
informed consent was obtained from all participants.
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Studies involving vulnerable groups
For manuscripts reporting studies involving vulnerable groups, extra care is taken by the editors as there is thepotential for coercion or consent may not have been fully informed. The manuscript may be referred to an internal
editorial oversight group for further scrutiny. Consent must be obtained for all forms of personally identifiable data
including biomedical, clinical, and biometric data. Documentary evidence of consent must be supplied if requested.
Phase II and III trials
Authors reporting phase II and phase III randomized controlled trials should refer to the CONSORT Statement forrecommendations to facilitate the complete and transparent reporting of trial findings. Reports that do not conformto the CONSORT guidelines may need to be revised before formal review.
Clinical trial registration
All interventional trials must be registered before enrollment of the first participant. Trial registration records must
be available in any publicly accessible database. The trial number must be clearly indicated in the abstract andmethods section of the manuscript.
Human biospecimens
For describing human biospecimens, we recommend referring to the BRISQ reporting guidelines (Biospecimen
Reporting for Improved Study Quality) and ensuring at least Tier 1 characteristics are provided.
Publishing images from human research participants
When publishing identifiable images from human research participants, authors include a statement in the publishedpaper affirming that they have obtained informed consent for publication of the images. All reasonable measures
must be applied to protect patient anonymity. Black bars over the eyes are not acceptable means ofanonymization. In certain cases, we may insist upon obtaining evidence of informed consent from authors. Images
without appropriate consent will be removed from publication.

11. Press and embargo policies
Communication with the media
We discourage authors from direct solicitation of media coverage of material they have submitted to International
Journal of Oral Care. Accepted contents can be discussed with the media once the publication date has been
confirmed.
Communication between scientists
We support open communications between researchers whether on a recognized community preprint server or5

preprint commenting platforms at research meetings or online collaborative sites. Neither conference presentations
nor posting on recognized preprint servers constitute prior publication.
Researchers may respond to requests from the media in response to a preprint or conference presentation, byproviding explanation or clarification of the work, or information about its context. In these circumstances, media
coverage will not hinder editorial handling of the submission. We also advise that researchers approached by reporters
in response to a preprint make it clear that the paper has not yet undergone peer review, that the findings areprovisional and that the conclusions may change. Authors are expected to keep the details of the peer review andeditorial process confidential.
We believe it important that the peer-reviewed and published version of a paper should be available when the work
is discussed in the public media, allowing the press to provide informed comment based on this version. For thatreason, we strongly discourage the direct soliciting of media coverage to appear ahead of publication of the final
version of a paper.

12. Copyright
For all the accepted articles, copyright is retained by International Journal of Oral Care.

Contact:
Editorial Office, International Journal of Oral Care
Email: ISOC.journal@gmail.com

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