Sri Lanka Orthodontic Society (SLOS)
The Sri Lankan Journal of Orthodontic (SLJO) is an open access, peer-reviewed journal. SLJO publishes papers of excellence on all aspects of orthodontics and thereby hope to stimulate, encourage and empower clinicians and researchers in orthodontics to publish high quality research in order to promote evidence based clinical orthodontic practice. Please read these instructions before submitting your paper and follow them strictly to ensure that the review and publication process is efficient and quick. The Editors reserve the right to return manuscripts that are not in accordance with these instructions.
Papers are accepted on the understanding that they have not been and will not be published elsewhere, and they are subject to editorial revision.
When preparing the manuscript, authors are strongly recommended to refer to the minimum reporting guidelines for health research, in order to ensue complete and transparent reporting of biomedical research. Given below are some of the checklists used for reporting different study designs:
The SLJO supports the registration of clinical trials in a clinical trials registry such as ClinicalTrialsRegister or ClinicalTrials. A list of national and international registries can be found on Wikipedia. The registration number should be provided in the manuscript methods section.
All articles published in the Sri Lankan Orthodontic Journal will go through an independent review process. It will be a double-blind peer review process in which neither the authors’ nor the reviewers’ identity is revealed.
As both Randomized controlled trials and Systematic reviews should have Trial registration before the research is started and this registration number is included in the Abstract, it is impossible to carry out a double-blind (anonymous author) review. Therefore, for both Randomized controlled trials and Systematic reviews that are sent for review will undergo a single-blind review process.
Authors may request exclusion of individuals as peer reviewers, but they should explain the reasons for exclusion in their cover letter on submission of the manuscript.
All manuscripts submitted to the SLJO will be treated confidential by the Editorial Board and reviewers. Following the initial review, if the Editorial Board is of the opinion that a better review could be undertaken by an expert in the relevant field locally or internationally, it will be forwarded to such a person to be reviewed independently or jointly with the first reviewer.
Submission of a paper implies that it reports unpublished work and that it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Plagiarism, including duplicate publication of the author’s own work, in whole or in part without proper citation is not tolerated by the journal.
Manuscripts should be submitted to the editors via the journal's online submission portal where the authors will be taken through the process step by step.
The total size of files uploaded cannot exceed 100MB. See below for submission instructions.
All correspondence relating to publication in the journal should be addressed to the Editor at sljo.editorialoffice@gmail.com
Original articles: Results from routine clinical examinations or laboratory investigations will not be considered under this category. Subjects may vary from clinical trials to basic science research. They should not exceed 3000 words and 30 references. A reasonable number of tables and illustrations will be accepted.
Reviews: Reviews are detailed surveys of published research pertinent to Orthodontics and dento-facial orthopaedics . They should be critical in nature and should not normally exceed 3000 words and 30 references.
Leading articles: One article per issue. It may be solicited by the Editor. Authors are welcome to submit leading articles on current topics of interest. They should be 1500 words in length. References should be 20 or less. Tables and illustrations are usually not included in leading articles.
Case Reports: Modifications to accepted treatment procedures, new management methods etc. may be included in this category. It should not contain more than 750 words and 5 references.
Letters to Editor: Subjects unlimited, but may include short critique of published papers in the SLJO.
Commentaries: Short review reports about original articles of particular merit.. 500–1200 words and can include one figure (image, schematic diagram or table). References should be kept to a minimum.
Discussion of papers: Questions or criticisms concerning recently published papers.
Manuscripts could be in British or American English provided this is consistent throughout the manuscript . The text should be organised logically, read well and be concise. Please remember that authors are responsible for an article’s content, including the quality of the language. Manuscripts not submitted in proper format or in poor English may be returned without review.
Your submission should consist of 2 separate files. Any other files, e.g. figures, tables, supplementary material, are in addition to the main 2 files.
The first file (Title page) should include the names of all authors and their affiliations; use superscript numbers for affiliation designators. Country names should be included for all affiliations.
The title page should also include authors' full postal address and email address. A short running title is required when the full title of the paper exceeds 45 letters. The second file (Main file) must be completely anonymous for all Original articles (except for Randomised Controlled trials and Systematic reviews, which are single-blinded). Therefore, all original articles should not contain any potentially author identifying information like authors' names or affiliations so that the identity of the authors is not disclosed to the referees.
The order should be the main title, Summary with keywords (not more than 250 words, except for Randomized controlled trials and Systematic reviews, which have a 330-word limit) followed by an Introduction, Materials (or Subjects) and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conflict of interest statement, any Acknowledgements, Funding, References and Figure Legends. All source files or other files required for processing of the manuscript should be submitted in the format of Word doc files.
Please note concise, well-structured and coherent manuscripts are preferred.
All manuscripts should have high-resolution good quality versions of figures and illustrations.
All graphs, drawings, and photographs are considered figures and should be numbered in the order of appearance in Arabic numerals. Each figure should have a brief and specific legend, and all legends should be typed together on a separate sheet of paper.
Images can be submitted as JPEG files and do not ZIP the file. Colour illustrations may be submitted in instances where their use may contribute significantly to the scientific value of the article. Confirmation of colour requirements as to which figures should be published in colour needs to be mentioned.
Line drawings should have clear and sharp lines that are a minimum of 1 point in thickness. Shading used online drawings should be clear and distinctive; shades of grey will not reproduce well, and small patches of white on an otherwise black background are likely to be lost on reproduction.
Symbols used in figures should be limited to standard open and closed symbols (circles, squares, triangles and diamonds). Symbols cannot be generated in the legend and should be described rather than indicated by a symbol. Figures and legends should be intelligible without reading the text of the manuscript.
Photographs of people must be accompanied by a written consent. Failure to do so will result in the blacking out of the eyes to avoid recognition. Patients’ images should be properly cropped.
If figures are used from another publication, permission from original author/publisher when using previously published images / tables or any other should be taken properly.
The tables should be numbered in the order of appearance in Arabic numerals. Each table should have a brief explanatory title and should be typed on a separate sheet, with due regard to the proportion of the printed column/page.
All figures and tables should be cited consecutively in the text. Both figures and tables should be uploaded as separate high-resolution image files without their captions (captions should be included as a list after references in the main file). Minimum resolutions are 300 d.p.i. for colour or tone images, and 600 d.p.i. for line drawings. The preferred format is TIFF, but EPS and JPEG formats can also be used. Colour figures should be supplied in CMYK not RGB colours. Font-related problems can be avoided by using standard fonts such as Times Roman and Helvetica. Wherever possible, figures should be submitted in their desired final size, to fit the width of a single column of text (76 mm) or a double column of text (160 mm), and to a maximum height of 160 mm, thereby allowing space for the figure caption. Any lettering should be approximately 2 mm in height and should be in proportion to the overall dimensions of the figure.
All submissions should include Ethics approval information from an appropriate Ethical Committee: name and number in the main file. Where applicable, a copy of the ethical clearance certificate should be attached. For all original articles that information should be marked as xx or blacked out. For Randomized controlled trials and Systematic reviews please include full details and they should have a Trial Registration number included in the Abstract.
With regards to experiments related to humans and animals, attention is drawn to the Declaration of Helsinki and the Guiding Principles in the Care and Use of Animals (DHEW Publication, NIH, 80-23). In human experimentation, informed consent from individuals should be obtained and this should preferably be stated.
Patients consent (if applicable) should be included in original with the signature of the patient, when the patient is a minor parent or guardian should sign the consent form.
The editor reserves the right not to accept papers unless adherence to the principles embodied in these documents is apparent.
Articles should have a completed ‘Funding’ statement where applicable from all authors. All sources of funding should be declared in the covering letter under the heading “Funding”. Authors must describe the role of the study sponsor(s) if any, in the study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data and in the writing of the report. If the funder(s) had no such involvement, this should also be stated.
Details of all funding sources for the work in question should also be given in a separate section entitled 'Funding'. This should appear before the 'References' section.
The following rules should be followed:
The sentence should begin: ‘This work was supported by …’
The full official funding agency name should be given. Grant numbers should be given in brackets as follows: ‘[grant number xxxx]’. Multiple grant numbers should be separated by a comma as follows: ‘[grant numbers xxxx, yyyy]’
Agencies should be separated by a semi-colon (plus ‘and’ before the last funding agency)
Where individuals need to be specified for certain sources of funding the following text should be added after the relevant agency or grant number. E.g. 'to [author initials]'.
An example is given here: ‘This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [AA123456 to C.S., BB765432 to M.H.]; and the Alcohol & Education Research Council [hfygr667789].’
All manuscripts submitted to SLJO must contain a conflict of interest statement, which should be placed in the main file before references. Guidance on conflicts of interest.
A manuscript may have additional supporting material that cannot be included within the main manuscript. Any supplementary material must also be peer-reviewed, as it forms part of the publication record.
If previously published tables, illustrations or more than 200 words of text are to be included, then the copyright holder's permission must be obtained. Copies of any such permission letters should be included with the manuscript.
e.g.Title of content, Author, Original publication, year of original publication, by permission of [rights holder]
This image/content is not covered by the terms of the Creative Commons licence of this publication. For permission to reuse, please contact the rights holder.
The accuracy of references is the responsibility of the author.
In text: references should be identified in the text by Arabic numerals in rounded parentheses, e.g. (1) or (1, 2) or (1-4) and numbered in the order of appearance in the text. References should normally appear at the end of a sentence with the numbered parentheses followed by a full stop/period, e.g. (1). References of the type Smith (1989) should not be used in the text.
Reference list: All references should be compiled at the end of the article in the Vancouver style (i.e. author-number system) in numerical order of appearance in the text. Complete information should be given for each reference including the title of the article, full journal title, volume and page numbers. For references with more than 10 authors, the first author should be listed, followed by et al. [in italics, followed by full stop/period].
The citation of journals, books, multi-author books and articles published online should conform to the following examples:
Identifying information should not be published in any form unless information is essential for scientific purposes and the patient (parent/guardian if the patient is a minor) should have given written informed consent for publication.
Only directly relevant experimental data should be included in the full text of manuscripts. Supporting data should be submitted for review as supplementary material, in a separate file from the manuscript. Supplementary Material can be published in these formats: .txt, .html, .htm, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .mov, .mpg, .avi, .pdf, .xls, .doc, .rtf, .tif.
Please note that supplementary files are not edited or proofed out during the Production process and will be published online as they are received.
Data Availability Statement
Where ethically feasible, SLJO encourages authors to make all data and software code on which the conclusions of the paper rely available to readers. Authors are required to include a Data Availability Statement in their article.
If so, the Inclusion of a Data Availability Statement is a requirement. They provide a standardised format for readers to understand the availability of data underlying the research results described in the article. The statement may refer to original data generated in the course of the study or to third-party data analysed in the article. The statement should describe and provide means of access, where possible, by linking to the data or providing the required unique identifier.
SLJO supports the Force 11 Data Citation Principles and requires that all publicly available datasets be fully referenced in the reference list with an accession number or unique identifier such as a digital object identifier (DOI). Data citations should include the minimum information recommended by DataCite: [dataset]* Authors, Year, Title, Publisher (repository or archive name), Identifier
Authors will receive a PDF file of the complete paper by email. In the interest of speed, corrections must be returned within 48 hours. No major changes are permissible at this stage, and alterations should be restricted to correction of typographical errors. Please check the text and figures very carefully.
It is a condition of publication in the Journal that authors grant an exclusive licence to publish to the Sri Lankan Orthodontic Society. This ensures that requests from third parties to reproduce articles are handled efficiently and consistently and will also allow the article to be as widely disseminated as possible. As part of the licence agreement, Authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the Journal is acknowledged as the original place of publication, and the Sri Lanka Orthodontic Society is notified in advance and in writing.
Authors are reminded that it is their responsibility to comply with copyright laws. It is essential to ensure that no parts of the text or the illustrations have or are due to appear in other journals, without prior permission from the copyright holder.
Upon receipt of accepted manuscripts the authors will be invited to complete an online copyright licence to publish form.
Please note that by submitting an article for publication you confirm that you are the corresponding/submitting author and that SLJO may retain your email address for the purpose of communicating with you about the article. You agree to notify SLJO immediately if your details change. If your article is accepted for publication SLJO will contact you using the email address you have used in the registration process.
Please note that SLJO does not retain copies of rejected articles.
